When my husband and I met we had each been married and divorced and each of us had children. I had two, he had one. It was a rare occasion for us to have a dinner out alone, or a weekend to ourselves. Once we were married and had children together, it became even more difficult. Thanks to our 14 year old daughters Godparents, we actually had an overnight at a hotel in Seattle. Dinner, drinks, a nice night with just the two of us. That was 15 years ago and was our one and only get away without the kids. You read that right, 15 years. It doesn't help that hubby was Navy and stationed thousands of miles away from home - neither of us had any family around. Hence, 15 years.
Tomorrow, our last two 'babies' are headed to a one week sleep away summer camp! We have them all packed and ready to go and our RV is already ensconced at our favourite local park. The hubby has started a huge project at work and could not get the time off so I figured there was no point in me wasting MY holiday time, so we will both be working all week. But at the end of the day we will be happily sitting by a bonfire, eating a grilled dinner, and enjoying some long awaited 'us' time.
I sure hope it isn't another 15 years before we get a vacation together alone.
Happy Camping!
Jaye
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Rating Systems and first rated park - Kitsap Memorial State Park
I have been trying to think of a way to design a rating system that will be fairly objective. What MY family may find useful at a site may not be what YOUR family needs. So I am going to simply list what is available at each site along with the unique quirks (each place has them!) both good and bad. I thought it would be kitschy to use a one to five 'rv' rating! I am not a tech person, but I will try to find a way to get a graphic where I can colour in RV's to match the rating. We'll see! In the meantime, I will rate Kitsap Memorial State Park. We spent two full weekends along with the better part of the week in between (we worked during the day remember, so we didn't spend full days there during the week!).
All rv sites have: water and electricity, individual septic (except sites one through three), a fire ring complete with an attached grill, and a picnic table. Each site also has a nice little grassy area, and the rv's sit on a nice pea gravel lot - so there isn't a lot of dirt and dust that is tracked in. There is a very large grassy field for playing on that also has horseshoe pits and a really nice playground for the kiddo's. If you don't have an RV, there are yurts, and of course tent camping sites. The beach access is easy, and is also wheelchair accessible. Keep updated on the fishing regulations for the time of year you are there and you will be able to enjoy some great fishing, or simply sit on the beach and enjoy all that the beach has to offer. We were there for the Fourth of July and took our chairs down to the beach and were able to have the MOST gorgeous fireworks show - FREE! :)
HOWEVER.....in spite of all the 'good' of this park, the sites are very close to each other. They also are not set up very smartly - your neighbors water and sewer hook up will be in your grassy yard area - the water hook up can actually be touched when you are sitting at your picnic table - so there isn't a lot of privacy!
Also, the water pressure is pretty bad. When showering each morning we had to put up with our water often times going from full pressure to almost non existent. First world problems right?
So....weighing all the good, and subtracting points for the not so convenient (and I REALLY dislike how up close and personal the sites are with one another!) I gave this park a 3 RV rating (out of five).
Check it out for yourself and let me know your thoughts!
Happy Camping!
Jaye
All rv sites have: water and electricity, individual septic (except sites one through three), a fire ring complete with an attached grill, and a picnic table. Each site also has a nice little grassy area, and the rv's sit on a nice pea gravel lot - so there isn't a lot of dirt and dust that is tracked in. There is a very large grassy field for playing on that also has horseshoe pits and a really nice playground for the kiddo's. If you don't have an RV, there are yurts, and of course tent camping sites. The beach access is easy, and is also wheelchair accessible. Keep updated on the fishing regulations for the time of year you are there and you will be able to enjoy some great fishing, or simply sit on the beach and enjoy all that the beach has to offer. We were there for the Fourth of July and took our chairs down to the beach and were able to have the MOST gorgeous fireworks show - FREE! :)
HOWEVER.....in spite of all the 'good' of this park, the sites are very close to each other. They also are not set up very smartly - your neighbors water and sewer hook up will be in your grassy yard area - the water hook up can actually be touched when you are sitting at your picnic table - so there isn't a lot of privacy!
Also, the water pressure is pretty bad. When showering each morning we had to put up with our water often times going from full pressure to almost non existent. First world problems right?
So....weighing all the good, and subtracting points for the not so convenient (and I REALLY dislike how up close and personal the sites are with one another!) I gave this park a 3 RV rating (out of five).
Check it out for yourself and let me know your thoughts!
Happy Camping!
Jaye
Monday, July 8, 2013
Seven Degrees of Firewood....
We have found that a local park is the ideal solution to two busy work schedules. We spent yet more time at Kitsap Memorial State Park (review to come!) as it is fairly close to both of our jobs. Because we are in an RV we have all the amenities of home (shower, kitchen, etc) so that we are able to go from camping to work with ease. Hubby has a job that is fairly stressful and sometimes he gets assigned to a project that entails long days (think 12 hour days, 7 days a week, for months at a time!). I have watched this man come 'home' from a 12 hour day and as he gets close to the campsite, I can see him visibly unwind. Yup, camping can do that to a person!
Anyway, I digress. Finding a local park is a great way for a family to get a lot more time in their RV. When 'heading for home' means a 20 minute drive, you can get a lot more time into a weekend than when you head further afield. Closer to home also means you can camp for more than a weekend. We are blessed that our two youngest (the last 2 at home....we have 5 remember!) are old enough, and responsible enough, that we can leave them at the rv while we work during the day. They have bikes, skateboards and movies (a fun feature of an rv!) to keep them busy.
Because we live locally, we are able to bring firewood from our own property for campfires (in WA state you cannot bring firewood into a park from more than 50 miles away, this is to prevent any cross contamination from any fungi, bugs, or other such nastiness). As we own 2 1/2 acres right against state forest land, we have a LOT of trees, several of which need to come down every fall or spring dependent upon the weather. This translates into a lot of firewood, which we use in bonfires on our property on chilly autumn evenings (and at our annual New Years Eve Burning of the Tree party!). For this trip we had brought a lot more firewood than we ended up using, leaving us with a nice firewood pile left over on the day we were ready to leave. We have found that in the RV/camping world, there is a whole sense of 'community' much like bikers hold their left hands out and down when they pass another biker. So as we were ready to leave, the hubs went from camp to camp asking if anyone was camping longer and needed firewood - if so, come and get our pile. Two lovely Scotsmen took him up on his offer and came with a dolly and gathered up our pile. It was a win for us as we didn't have to take the pile home, and a win for them as they didn't have to buy wood (remember the more than 50 mile rule. I think Scotland is a tad more than 50 miles....just sayin...).
As we were almost ready to leave I felt a hand on one shoulder. I turned around and one of the gentlemen had one arm on my shoulder and with his other hand passed me a bottle of sparkling Pinot (who knew such a thing existed?).
So there you have it, wood for wine. Seven degrees? Maybe not.....but in the end it all worked out.....they got free firewood, and I got a bottle of wine. Hubs was the only one who really lost out as he was the one who chopped down the tree, cut it up, stacked it, eventually loaded it up on his truck, unloaded it at the campsite, made the campfires, and walked around the campsite asking if anyone needed firewood. Well ok, seven steps from tree to free firewood.
Whatever, I still ended up with free wine.
Happy Camping....
Jaye
Anyway, I digress. Finding a local park is a great way for a family to get a lot more time in their RV. When 'heading for home' means a 20 minute drive, you can get a lot more time into a weekend than when you head further afield. Closer to home also means you can camp for more than a weekend. We are blessed that our two youngest (the last 2 at home....we have 5 remember!) are old enough, and responsible enough, that we can leave them at the rv while we work during the day. They have bikes, skateboards and movies (a fun feature of an rv!) to keep them busy.
Because we live locally, we are able to bring firewood from our own property for campfires (in WA state you cannot bring firewood into a park from more than 50 miles away, this is to prevent any cross contamination from any fungi, bugs, or other such nastiness). As we own 2 1/2 acres right against state forest land, we have a LOT of trees, several of which need to come down every fall or spring dependent upon the weather. This translates into a lot of firewood, which we use in bonfires on our property on chilly autumn evenings (and at our annual New Years Eve Burning of the Tree party!). For this trip we had brought a lot more firewood than we ended up using, leaving us with a nice firewood pile left over on the day we were ready to leave. We have found that in the RV/camping world, there is a whole sense of 'community' much like bikers hold their left hands out and down when they pass another biker. So as we were ready to leave, the hubs went from camp to camp asking if anyone was camping longer and needed firewood - if so, come and get our pile. Two lovely Scotsmen took him up on his offer and came with a dolly and gathered up our pile. It was a win for us as we didn't have to take the pile home, and a win for them as they didn't have to buy wood (remember the more than 50 mile rule. I think Scotland is a tad more than 50 miles....just sayin...).
As we were almost ready to leave I felt a hand on one shoulder. I turned around and one of the gentlemen had one arm on my shoulder and with his other hand passed me a bottle of sparkling Pinot (who knew such a thing existed?).
So there you have it, wood for wine. Seven degrees? Maybe not.....but in the end it all worked out.....they got free firewood, and I got a bottle of wine. Hubs was the only one who really lost out as he was the one who chopped down the tree, cut it up, stacked it, eventually loaded it up on his truck, unloaded it at the campsite, made the campfires, and walked around the campsite asking if anyone needed firewood. Well ok, seven steps from tree to free firewood.
Whatever, I still ended up with free wine.
Happy Camping....
Jaye
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