At first I didn't think I would be able to get past knowing someone else used it (same feeling I get when I walk into a hotel room -- gross), but it was so much nicer and cleaner than I had expected. We brought our own bedding of course and lots of clorox wipes for cleaning...but honestly it was so spotless and clean I really didn't freak out about cleaning when we first got inside. It didn't smell musty like campers sometimes do either. I was impressed!
We went to Pine Lake State Park in Eldora. That's such a beautiful park with so much to do! We went on lots of walks/bike rides on the many concrete trails and played at the very nice playground multiple times. The playground also happened to be a giant sand box, with nice sand toys courtesy of the park.
There is a beach for swimming, but it didn't seem warm enough to swim, plus Rylee and I were a little grossed out by lake swimming. I used to swim in lakes just fine, but now I'm pretty leary of getting into lake water. We did see some swimmers though, as well as many fisherman and some kayakers. The lake is surrounded by tall trees - it's quite pretty!
There is also a place for tubing down the river near the park...we watched hundreds of people getting onto buses to be dropped off upstream. Our camping neighbors were a bunch of college guys -- they did the 4 hour tubing adventure and said it was a must for us next time.
Another fun thing the park offered was movie night at the campground. Kung Fu Panda played on a large screen after dark. We stayed up to watch it Saturday night. The kids loved it! We just brought our chairs to it, but saw several families bring blankets to sit on and bowls of popcorn to eat while they watched.
We cooked suppers over the fire -- hot dogs one night and chicken/veggie foil packets the next. We also did one breakfast over the fire -- scrambled eggs with veggies and ham - Yum! James and I both loved all the delicious food smells coming from the camp sites in the mornings. For lunches we just ate lunch meat and fruit. We kept all of our meals super simple so we wouldn't need to pack too much. Our camper had a small fridge, so we only brought what would fit in the fridge.
Another thing we loved about this trip was visiting the town the campground was located near - Eldora. On Saturday morning, in need of some coffee (we weren't sure how to bring that), we ventured into town to check out the local coffee shop, appropriately called, Love-a-Latte. It did NOT disappoint!!! First of all, the shop was adorable!! Honestly, the cutest coffee shop I've ever been to. Second, our drinks were amazing!! I got a turtle mocha (chocolate and caramel) and James had a Tiger-something or other, which was white chocolate and caramel. The kids got strawberry smoothies, which were equally as good as our coffee drinks.
After visiting the coffee shop, we went inside a few of the shops on the square. With no intentions of buying anything (we're on a budget these days, remember), we came out with these 2 lovely items.
We aren't positive yet, what we will do with them....but the ideas are generating. The best part -- we bargained them down to $15 total for the two. I should say James did...I wouldn't have even thought to bargain!
When we left the downtown area, headed back to the campground, we saw that the visitor center, which happens to be an old train depot, was having some sort of event with a sign that said "Kids activities". We decided to stop. The depot had cookies and lemonade, so it was a great stop!! We also checked out the old train car. The people who were hosting were incredibly nice -- they gave us some information on the old depot and train car (and recommended a movie to us while we were there -- Central Intelligence -- she said it's hilarious). They also suggested we go visit the farm museum on the other side of town. So of course we did.
This was another great stop! Lots of history. The entire second story of the barn (which was beautiful by the way), contained thousands of old farm artifacts. The kids enjoyed writing on the chalk board while James and I looked around. The hosts of this place were equally as nice and informative as the people at the train depot. Iowa has lots of nice folks!
We walked over to see the one room school house after we toured the barn. I've been inside these old schools before, but this one just felt so real...I could actually picture myself having attended class here for some reason.
We were very glad we stopped into town and checked out some of the local attractions!
Late Saturday afternoon, while I was returning to my camp site from a walk, I saw my parents drive in to the park. They joined us for supper, a walk and s'mores! It was great to have company! We decided our next camping trip will definitely involve more people; it's much more fun that way.
Overall, we were all very happy with our camping trip. The kids are already asking to go again! When we got home, we had a couple of "birds" hanging out in our rock bed..... I think Grandma and Grandpa might know where they came from...
James would like to share his "healthier s'more" idea he came up with this weekend. He sliced apples (into thin circles) and put peanut butter on them, then placed the melted marshmallow between 2 slices of peanut buttered apples....it was really good!! (Sorry we didn't get a photo of them).
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