Places to Go - Wednesday Night Camping at Shenandoah River State Park (Bentonville, VA)

A few weeks ago, I had a relatively easy weekday schedule (no real estate work, no weddings to edit) and Dan just finished trial, so he had a few mellow workdays too. Thus, we decided to take the kids out of school a few hours early and head to Shenandoah River State Park to camp for a night. I've wanted to spend a night here for awhile now, but weekends are usually booked solid up to a year in advance.

And now I see why. The campsites are AMAZING!! Huge. Private. Water views. Plus, since the sites are walk-in (a really short walk), you don't have to listen to cars all night long.

Dan fished. We hiked (we didn't see a single other person on any of the trails). P explored. T kept the fire burning. F read (of course).

We saw snakes. And butterflies. And honeysuckle.

Turns out camping on a Wednesday night is pretty awesome. I wish we could go all the time.

Shenandoah River State park is only 75 miles from Arlington (about 1.5 hours away). They also have a zipline course that looks super fun (I really want to try it next visit). You can find more info on the park here.



The baggage carts were a huge hit. Somewhere along the way they became a "ride".








Seriously, how gorgeous is this campsite?



Several of the park's trails leave right from the campground. We're hoping to take the kids overnight backpacking this summer (fingers crossed), so T decided to test out his new pack.

Places to Go - Car Camping at Cunningham Falls State Park, Houck Area Campground (Thurmont, MD)

In my 20s, I camped and backpacked a lot. Seems like almost every summer weekend my friends and I packed up the Jeep and headed somewhere or other; living in CO really does give one a great appreciation of the outdoors. I planned on continuing such excursions throughout my 30s, but I worked at a law firm (often on weekends) and then the babies came and all of a sudden my sleeping bag was crammed into a corner of the attic, unused for years. When the girls were little (3 and 2) we tried camping at Assateague Island, but P wouldn't sleep (she kept waking up every hour to "go see the stars" - cute, but exhausting) and the wild horses figured out how to open the latch of our cooler (nothing beats awakening to random strangers laughing outside your tent and saying "I bet they don't even know yet"). After that Dan proclaimed "no camping til they're older." And FINALLY they're older (well at least two out of three are). So we planned a camping excursion with good friends and their children. As far as car camping with children goes, Cunningham Falls State Park has a lot going for it - clean bathrooms (with showers), lots of families, even small cabins if you reserve early enough (we didn't). The sites were small, but adequate. And the kids all loved exploring the outdoors (oddly while playing Star Wars), sleeping under the stars, and roasting smores. As for me and Dan, returning to ground sleeping proved difficult and somewhat painful (our poor backs). But the stars, WOW, it's amazing how many of them there really are. Amazing.

If you're interested in visiting, Cunningham Falls also has a lake for swimming and a short hike (0.5 miles) leads to a large waterfall (more on this tomorrow). Unfortunately, neither the lake nor the trails are accessible from the campground, but the drive to them is pretty short.


P's all about the tattoos lately. Just a phase? Time will tell. I think she kind of looks bad-ass with them.


*The girls spent the morning at a build a bear birthday party, where they made pink dogs (Pinky and Pinkalicious), who (of course) HAD to come camping with us.
*All the older kids are taking tae kwan do, so we witnessed a lot of kicking. A lot.
*T's obsessed with driving the mini-van. Obsessed.


*Dan loves T's "Jungle Buddies" shirt, primarily because all of the animals featured (a lion, a zebra, and giraffe ) neither live in the jungle nor are they buddies. Good job Carters, way to do your research.
*It took T hours to fall asleep, so I walked him around the campground in his stroller. And he cuddled the lantern like a baby, until, eventually, I saw his head drop to the side.


I love when they act as "nature explorers", the more acorns the better.