CAMPING WITH FRIENDS

Camping has been on the friend summer bucket list pretty much every year for the past couple years and when this opportunity fell in my lap, saying yes was an easy decision!

My dear friend Maria invited me on a camping trip with our friends to a campsite near Big Bear. We divvied up the things we needed to bring and meals to make in a nice organized shared notes document. I highly recommend this route, we could see whenever someone made edits, and all could add things as we thought of them. Everyone had different availability for the weekend so we all sort of came and went as we could!

I had a Dodger game scheduled for Friday night with my cousin Dani, so I had to skip camping Friday night! The Dodgers lost.. but we still had so much fun! I got a Mango Cutwater and some pulled pork sliders for a whopping $30, which honestly was less than I was expecting to pay. I must say a Cutwater is the move, its cheaper than the tall can seltzers and has a higher ABV. Also, less liquid = not having to pee as often. Win-win in my opinion.

I had to drive out early on Saturday to make the most of the weekend. Even though I would only be camping for about 24 hours, I knew reconnecting with nature and disconnecting from my phone would be just what I needed. Life is short...right?

I got there around 9:30 in the morning and we got me settled into camp. I, luckily, was able to use Adrian and Paulina's tent because they were leaving Saturday evening. So that made set up easier, basically unpacked the car and plopped down a chair!

Maria and Chad made us croissant breakfast sandwiches while we waited for Katie to get in. We all caught up for a bit and then decided we should drive down to the lake.

We found a nice little cove to lay in and set up for a couple hours. It was definitely busy but we had a whole cove to ourselves. We brought a drink down and a big speaker to unwind and relax.

We did not venture into the lake further than a couple steps because there was a ton of rocks and I was definitely not willing to kill my feet to get in.

Lots of yapping and chit chatting was done as we all caught up on life lately. Getting older is scheduling out time whenever we can to catch up with everyone...and as far in advance as we can lol. This made the 24 hours what mattered so much.

Still can't believe we're in our late twenties.

When we got back from the lake we decided to play some card games and get the drinking and shots...flowing. Somehow I lost the first round every time we played this spoon game that I forget the name of. Left me with plenty of time to snack and watch everyone else play, so I was not mad about it.

For dinner Matt and Christine made a delicious Korean Tofu Soup that we topped with kimchi and it was so good! After we ate we cleaned up camp a bit and got ready for a fire and night time. That meant getting lanterns out and putting all the food in one place so we can put it into the bear locker when we were ready for bed.

The night ended around the fire with s'mores, of course. There was nothing like looking into the sky and seeing all the stars.

I pulled out my little star app, SkyView Lite, and was so glad to see it worked without cell service. It's so silly and probably not that crazy but every time I whip this app out I always see the Leo stars (my sign). We can probably chalk that up to the side of the earth I am on and how those stars are always there but whatever, I don't need to know that.

We actually went to bed pretty early, a little before 11. I think we were all tired and relaxed so sleep just came quick. While the day was relaxing, the sleep was unfortunately not lol. We had one woman singing karaoke through the night across camp. We also had birds singing songs and chirping morse code all morning.

Nonetheless, we had a slow and late morning of packing up. Last thing before leaving for the weekend was making a quick breakfast to give us some energy before our two hour drive home.

Katie and I made bagels with a few options for toppings. We brought bananas, apples, strawberries, heirloom tomatoes, avocados, and cream cheese! I highly recommend for a quick breakfast option when camping. I think only thing we were missing was an easy protein like turkey, ham, or salami (which luckily, Maria and Chad had some leftover from their sammies the day before!).

Once I got home I immediately unpacked and showered and got settled in. I started reading in bed and fell asleep for 14 hours... I really needed the solid rest.

I am so glad we had the opportunity to all get together and disconnect from the world for a short 24 hours. Definitely would not mind a longer disconnect next time around. Hopefully we can all do another camping trip soon but based on schedules definitely not until the fall.

In the meantime, reliving the trip through photos will have to do!