camping trip with my brothers and dad

last friday night, i went on a camping trip with my 3 brothers, my brother-in-law, and my dad at cheraw state park. let me start by saying i have not been camping in at least 16 years, so i was not really looking forward to it (i have never really liked camping - i am allergic to nature). to make matters worse, we had reserved a space in the "primitive" camping area, which means no showers, no bathrooms. oh boy...



of course, we had to pick the coldest night of the year. i think it dropped down to the upper 20's that night, but we slept comfortably enough in the 8 man tent my brother, scott, brought. when i first got there with my dad, it was already around 8:00pm, so we all just sat around the campfire, talking inappropriately, roasting marshmallows, and making s'mores (mmmm...). we turned in around 12:30am and woke the next morning around 7:30am. throughout the day, we did awesome things, like play a game of football, play texas hold 'em, and play risk (the world domination board game).



we rounded off the afternoon with a 2.5 mile hike through the trails and around the lake. there was one part that was absolutely beautiful. there was a dam that created a waterfall that led down into a stream. a bridge allowed us to walk over the waterfall. with all of the leaves changing colors, and the lack of modern-day city noise/traffic, it was a little piece of heaven.



all in all, i gotta say, i had a pretty sweet time. spending time with my brothers and dad, talking rudely, eating loads of food (we had enough food to stay out there for two weeks), and freezing our butts off made for a truly great camping trip. my dad, my brother ben, and i headed back home that evening, while the other 3 stayed out there one more night (forget that!). i think we are going to try to start an annual tradition of this (isn't that what you do when you get old? start annual traditions?).