Our Camping Trip

This was my first camping trip in the 5th wheel without Mike.

I drove the truck pulling the camper there and back home again and was comfortable doing it. My son, Seth, backed the trailer into our campsite at the campground and then into the driveway when we got home. He did a great job, too. Got it right in place without any problems.

It was a good thing to take it out because now I know the things wrong that need repair or addressing. There are a couple leaks that need to be addressed, a few things that are broken, some things inside and out that need replacing or fixing, stuff like that. When we got home, I cleaned the inside, mopped the floors, vacuumed and then opened all the exterior compartments and emptied everything into the driveway. Then I vacuumed the large storage compartments under the trailer and organized everything and put it all back in place. It's clean and tidy now and I know where things are.

First things first. Sleeping quarters for the boys.

Admiring their work.

The view.

Time for a fire and a beer.

King of Tokyo.

We played games. King of Tokyo, Yahtzee and Dominoes.

A brief walk on the beach with the tide out.

Looking at the photo above:

In the distance, the rounded shape hill sort of to the middle left of the photo is the hill we call Strawberry Hill. It's a hill that has been part of our tradition to climb with Mike since we've been coming here. Every year, he'd tell me and the grandchildren that this was the last time he was ever going to climb it because it was too difficult and every year we would talk him into doing it one more time.

My plan was for the three of us to climb to the top of Strawberry Hill for Mike and lay to rest a tiny bit of his ashes.

The climb begins and they took the least difficult path which was still difficult and the one Mike preferred to climb.

Amon got to the top of the first climb and had to sit to catch his breath. It's extremely steep and loose sand which is difficult to climb because with each step you take your foot slides into the sand and down the hill.

Looking down from the top of the first climb. This is the path I came up and is straight up and more steep but I love to climb.

This is the view from the top of the first climb.

 Strawberry Hill in the distance. It's about a mile away or so.

At this point, Amon said he is going back because he didn't feel he could make it to Strawberry Hill. I'm glad he didn't go because he would have had a hard time with the climb.

Getting closer but still a ways off. We climb the back side, which is to the right of the hill from this photo. We go around that way and then come down the front side and through the campground meadow area and walk back to the seawall where our trailer is which is about two miles.

That has always been our tradition and now a tiny part of Mike is buried at the top of Strawberry Hill. I love and miss you, Mike.

Mike is here, at the top, overlooking the ocean and our favorite campground.

Coming down the front left side of the hill and looking back up at Strawberry Hill.

This is where we emptied our shoes of sand, at the picnic tables.

Walking through the meadow campground area.

In the last photo above is the last of the dumpy trailers to go. Our 5th wheel camper is at the end of this road, way in the distance you can see it. It's white and in the middle. That is where we are set up near the waters edge.