North Peninsula, August '08

Camping trip 2008! Jody scouted out many a place for us to spend a weekend out of the city, and apparently everyone else had the same ideas...so we opted to spend 2 nights at their camp friend Murph's property in the North Peninsula, about 2-hours north of Seattle. Eight of us ended up making the trip; Jody, Anton, Anna, Alex, Kostas, Andy, Margaret, and myself, a great group. We arrived at the campsite which had a stealthy firepit, kitchen area, and wall-less shelter that was floored with thick red gym mats - perfect!

The weather could not have been more perfect, we made a trek up to Costco prior to departure and stocked up on all of the goods to make foil dinners (Anna, Jody, and Margaret's specialty from the camp years)...We unloaded our cargo, sleeping bags, and food and chatted around the fire, telling stories until the wee hours. The next day we set off on a canoe expedition, packing trail mix, fruit, water, and sandwich supplies to keep us going. The sun was scorching, and the paddled grueling - roughly 4 hours on the water, but it was well worth it to hang out with friends, playing various games across boats; 7 Degrees of Separation, sing-a-longs, and connect-the-songs...

We weren't entirely roughing it, we did drive into town for some drive-through coffee at a local barista, but we figured after our day of paddling, we deserved it. O a side note, I ended up red as a lobster, my entire back was so burned that I couldn't sleep on my back for a week after the trip, but overall it was a great bonding experience and an opportunity to venture outside the sweaty reaches of Seattle for a day or two. Definitely going to do this again next year!