Girl Scouts Camping
Camp Review
We camped on one of the Girl Scout’s grandparents’ property. Anna shared a large tent with the rest of the scouts, Kaylee slept in my backpacking tent, and I slept in my car close by.
The girls set up their tent in a yard that used to be a tennis court, so the ground was nice and flat.
We had access to a clean flush toilet, which was very nice.
The views of this property were amazing as it overlooks all of San Jose. We saw multiple fireworks shows and saw a gorgeous sunset.
The girls had a great time playing with their friends.
What I Learned
Kaylee used the Thermarest that Louie had used a few times but found it to leak air. This was my first time using this pad and I think I figured out what went wrong. The Thermarest has a feature where you can turn a bleed valve to adjust the pressure of the sleeping pad by bleeding out a tiny bit of air. If Louie had not read the instruction manual, they might have not known about this feature and may not have secured the bleed valve correctly. This would have led to the pad deflating slowly and surely throughout the night.
This was Kaylee’s first time sleeping in a tent all by herself and she had a great time. I wonder if she’ll want her own tent when we go backpacking later this year.
Friends
We stayed at this property with three other girl scouts and three other parents. I had a great time catching up and getting to know the other parents, while the girls just had a fantastic time playing things from laser tag, making a skit/movie, swimming, cooking, doing the dishes, eating, etc.
What Happened?
We arrived after kayaking earlier in the morning and as soon as we arrived, we got busy setting up the tent, and then cooking dinner, which I was responsible for. To keep the camping experience as authentic as we could, we cooked on propane stoves in the backyard. I cooked pasta for the girls and they did a great job helping with various jobs. A pair of girls made the garlic bread, another pair made the salad, one of the scout dads boiled the pasta, and I got to making the sauce. After dinner, we went to a different part of the house to gather around the fire pit where I helped two scouts make a fire. We roasted marshmallows, cooked sausages, and made campfire popcorn. Afterwards, the girls played laser tag. After all that, we all brushed our teeth, got to our respective tents, and went to bed.
In the morning, I awoke to chirping from birds and laughing from the girl’s tent, where they were engaged in card games. After waking up, the girls made pancakes and eggs with freshly picked fruit. They then painted and made a movie in a play shed. I then barbecued some burgers while the girls got ready to swim, as there was a lifeguard coming for two hours. They had a fantastic time playing in the pool while the adults ate, snacked, and enjoyed sharing stories about work, vacations, and the rest of life. Too soon, it was 3 PM and we cleaned up as best as to leave the place slightly better than we had found it.
The 23.5-hour camping trip was so much better than I had expected, especially for the girls, who were free to do whatever they wanted (within reason) with a group of friends they had gotten to know over the last few years. As for me, I was a snob who was a bit appalled at camping at someone’s house, but this experience totally changed my view. What I learn over and over is that it’s about the people and these were some fantastic people to spend time with.