Camp Esmeyer

We really weren't sure if we were going to take a camp this year. Pathetic isn't it? Isn't camping the poor persons vacation? Well....we went camping and had a blast. It was a trip that was inspired for months and put together in two days. We really had fun. It all begins on the day we had record temps....July 9. We caravaned, following our girls and my parents. They each had air conditioned cars. Babe and I did not. We pulled the bosses pop up with the windows rolled down, high noon, high heat, it was 112 F when we drove through Placerville, wonder how hot Sac was when we blew through.... We were so happy and grateful to be going that NOTHING would dappen our spirits! We arrived at Fallen Leaf Campground in great time. We were hot and unloading and I was insistant that we pop up the pop up! It was locked. There was no key. It was in San Lorenzo in the bosses desk. After a little help from camp maintenance, we opted the safe route and called a locksmith. All was well, back in business!

Day 2: Life is good. Heard bears, drank coffee late, Jamie spooked by bears moves in with us, me awake most of the night eyes darting, keeping vigilant bear watch and heart beating like crazy until 5:30 am. Woke up happy at 8:30 am. Day at the beach, no problem. Life is good. No domestic responsibilities. Rachel on domestic overdrive....loving it. Mom too, loving it. Jessica is on her 9th novel in 5 days. NO JOKE. Our Mains Counsins found us, more girls, three of them, LOVE IT!

Day 3: Slept much better. Feeling good. Got my fiber. Daniel has arrived. Texting traffic airways must have hit gridlocke with all the finger tapping in our camp. Dad is having a great time. Not usual, part of the Alzheimer’s. I suppose the good thing about that nasty disease is he forgot he hates camping. Mom and Rachel are the camp domestic mamma's whipping up all meals AND cleaning. Jamie, Jessica and I take it all in stride, not threatened at all. Jamie banned Jessica from bringing a book on an outing today, claiming anti-socialism. Johnny and Heather come up, have dinner and take Jessica back to Carson for the night.


Day 4: Excited to get up seeing the sky so blue! Drink coffee. Eat fiber bar. Drink coffee. The first cup still in my tummy's sink didn't seems to go down yet. Starting to be tired. Feeling kinda lousy. Think I might hurl. YAK! O.O.C.!!!! (Out of Commission!) I'm down and out with full on flu and fever. Felt bad couldn't even sleep it off, felt so bad. Finally theraflu at 10PM and slept.

I missed my sister and her boyfriend Steve hanging out. I missed Daniel being Daniel. I missed the return and goodbye of Johnny with Jessica. I missed everything.

Day 5: I feel better! I am happy. Tentatively head down Rachel & Jim's path to camp. Some toast, yes. I'm going to be ok. Someone hurry and catch me up on what I missed! Jessica is on book 10! Beach day. Jess is homesick. Jamie is full on 18. Daniel left right after breakfast. Rachel and mom are still the Domestic Queens and Jimmy babe was my hero in sickness. Dad is still happy?!! Let's celebrate. Let's go out! Guess who shows up in to town? ALEX & PATRICIA! Jessica's other brother! She's so popular.

Day 6: Woke up a little sad. Last real day. Don't want it to be over. Just started. Can't we just live here? Can't we just live as nomads in a pop up and pop up where ever we pop up? Why God, why must it be over? Decided to do Lake Tahoe today. So glad we did. It was really lovely. The water was warmer than my swimming pool. Maybe I should read up on global warming, because Tahoe water has NEVER been called anything but bone breaking cold! We swam all day. Then rain clouds appeared. No big, we swam any way! FUN! But I did keep my hat on in the water, as I didn't want to get my hair wet. Such fun. Back to camp. This time, my domestic mamma kicked in. I made dinner, we ate and saved lots of room for all the chocolate we hadn't eaten.

We had so much fun. A few small irritants that come with teenagers, traveling, budgets, humans, animals, waste and acts of God. Other than that all was well. Stay tuned for our "Adventures in Bear Hunting!"