The Great Outdoors

Beautiful weather, a great campsite, a very handy and fun traveling companion and plenty of s'mores all made for a perfect camping trip. Last week we pack up and headed to D.L. Bliss State Park in Tahoe. Neither of us had ever heard of it, but when Sunset Magazine rated it as the fourth best campsite in California, we thought it deserved a try. It definitely didn't disappoint. Our only complaint about the park, and the entire trip really, is that we just weren't there long enough!It's been a looooooong time since I've been camping. I grumbled a bit (or maybe more than a bit) about how much work it is to get ready for a 'simple' trip like this. There was definitely a part of me that wanted to just pack a suitcase and check in at the Marriott instead of doing all of the prep work and extra packing that camping requires. But, in the end, it wasn't so bad, and all of our preparations were worth it.
The first night there we had DElicious foil dinners.

(No I did not gain 30 pounds, I'm just wearing Nate's jacket because it was a bit chilly.)

I've been known to make and assemble a s'more in the kitchen by 'roasting' a marshmallow on the gas flame of our stove top (they are one of my favorite foods, after all), but it's doesn't compare to one made by the campfire. If you're ever camping with Nate have him roast you a marshmallow. He's good.

(I guess we switched things up. Nate's doing the cooking and I'm attempting the photography!)

Sea kayaking was quite an adventure...a four hour adventure.
We launched at Baldwin Beach and journeyed over to Emerald Bay. Nate has wanted to explore Fannette Island in the Bay so that's where we headed to. There was a high wind advisory for later that afternoon and we sure had a few windy moments as we paddled and paddled and paddled some more. But, eventually we made it, climbed up the rocky stairs and had a beautiful view of the lake. So worth it.
Oh, and kayaking back, although still not easy, was so much better because the wind was actually helping us along this time.

The two of us did some other hiking, but we loved our campsite and wanted to hang out there a lot of the time too.

(Pretty much the best campsite...at least we think so after driving through the whole campground!)

Nate had already tried it out, but this was my first time using our new tent. (Thank you REI used gear sale!) It didn't disappoint, that's for sure. In fact, our tent combined with an air mattress (and probably just being more relaxed), made for better sleeping than I get at home sometimes!

We ventured into South Lake Tahoe for an afternoon and checked out the shops at Heavenly Village. Fun, but I was enjoying being a camper far too much to be too interested in being a shopper. And, our last stop before leaving Tahoe was the super cute ice cream parlor at Camp Richardson.
The whole area of Camp Richardson was bursting with families having lots of fun and the ice cream shop was no exception. I've never seen a 'single' scoop quite that large before. It was more like 4 scoops -- and so tasty!

Sunset Magazine is right. This is a great place to camp and hopefully the beginning of a family tradition that takes us back again.