Our Camping Trip...

Grant & I both LOVE the outdoors. We've been in Austin for six months now and have somehow managed to go without camping that entire time. In AUSTIN...where everyone seems to be outdoors. So last weekend, we decided enough was enough. Time to rough it at Pacebend Park, a camping site on Lake Travis with Grant's brother and girlfriend.

Being an Eagle Scout, only tent-camping will do for Grant. We got his two-person tent, a couple of sleeping bags, and called it heaven. (For the most part...)

The lake area was BEAUTIFUL and the dogs both loved being able to swim and play to their little heart's delight.

There was a burn-ban so we were only allowed to use a charcoal grill. Of course I made good use of that for 'smores. You just CAN'T camp and not eat 'smores to the point of feeling slightly sick and very fat. It's tradition.

The downside to camping during the fall is that the sun goes down around 6:00pm. By that time, we had eaten dinner, were finishing up our 'smores, and trying to rise above the temptation to crawl into our sleeping bags at 6:05pm. We played cards on the picnic table until 8:15pm. All the while, having a fox visit our campsite and hearing coyotes howl in the not-too-far distance. We finally gave up at 8:15 and crawled into our tents for the longest night of non-sleep ever.

Grant told me that, scientifically, your body stays warmer in a sleeping bag if you wear a minimal amount of clothes. I told him I wasn't interested in his theory and that I'd be staying in my three shirts, sweatpants, and slippers. He assured me that this was not a theory--but SCIENCE. Well, science was not on his side when he dreamily rolled out of his sleeping bag in the middle of the night and his bare chest met with the 40-degree floor. My sweatshirt and one little dog sleeping inside the bottom of my sleeping bag trumped science that night.