Camping?

Joe and I went camping! I know, we really aren't campers, and I got a lot of responses like "But you don't camp..." when I said we were going camping (September 26 & 27).

We drove up after work on Friday, unfortunately we got up there after dark. Luckily our friends Bob and Jason helped us set up our tent (Bob and his family have our same tent!) Once we were set up and moved all of our stuff into the tent, we all sat around the camp fire to get the camping started. Of course we had smores, which are always fun.

Saturday morning we all got up and had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Luckily the Lunt's and MacPherson's have camping stoves, so that cooking was easier.

Bob, Diana, & Chad
The MacPherson's tent and ours behind itThe Lunt's trifecta tent

The Poole's tent

After breakfast we decided it would be fun to go the the Amicalola Falls State Park (http://www.gastateparks.org/info/amicalola/) and check out the water fall, apparently it's the tallest East of the Mississippi River! Of course, we had to get there first, and Google Maps has a hard time with Georgia roads. We all got a little lost, but then Chad Poole used his trusty iPhone and GPS'd us there. The state park was really nice. We walked along a path that took us to the ridiculous staircase up to the top of the falls, it was something over 400 steps to get there AND you had to walk back down the stairs to finish out the trail. It was worth the climb, even though I paid for it later in weird muscles I didn't know I had. The wilderness in Georgia is definitely different than in Utah (obviously), they each offer their own awesomeness. I'm glad we were able to see some of it.

After the state park visit, some of us needed to go into town, Dahlonega, and get some groceries and things. We drove through their totally cute downtown/main street area (http://www.dahlonega.org/index.php/visitors/visitors.html) there's something to be said for smallish towns.

When we got back to the campsite we had some awesome slaw dogs, Bob made some homemade slaw that was awesome, even Joe enjoyed it. Then Bill, Emily & Sally showed up to hang out for the evening (Emily was basically 9 months pregnant and didn't want to sleep on the ground). The kids played around in the creek along our campsite while the boys did manly things, like splitting wood. Really though, it was scary to watch, so I'm glad Joe didn't do it very long.
For dinner Saturday night, we all brought steak and potatoes! I have never done steak on an open fire grill. Both turned out awesome. Joe totally enjoyed the steak, my was a little under done (cause I'm a woos), but it all tasted good. After we did more smores, fire toasted marshmallows are so good.

Everything turned out well, even though sleeping wasn't that awesome. Next time we'll bring some sort of air mattress or padding. I can't sleep on the ground like I used to at girl's camp. I was also a little freaked out by all the spiders and bugs. All the creepy crawly things in Georgia seem way bigger than in Utah, even the daddy long legs. Perhaps we'll go camping a few times next year, and maybe when we return to Utah, we'll see if we have become adventurers.