Memorial Day Weekend - Camping & Canoeing

Last time I was with Liam, just as I finished tucking him into bed, he asked to go camping. I told him it was too late that night but promised to take him camping next time. We were scheduled to go camping on the 19th but his mother wanted to switch dates so we ended up going on Memorial Day Weekend.

We stopped by to visit some friends first and Liam had fun chasing me around with water balloons. After that we headed out to find a campsite. We headed out towards Elizabeth Furnace hoping that would be far enough out to find an empty campsite. Not only were all the campsites taken but the campground was full, cars and kids everywhere. It was enough of a zoo I was glad it was full so I didn't have to stay there.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who wasn't happy with the mountains being invaded by hordes of people. Liam and I saw a black bear running away from the mountains. We also saw several deer, a rabbit, beaver, and a "PeeYew" skunk.

Liam and I checked some other campgrounds but all were full - including some places that weren't campgrounds. There seemed to be some event going on with people running/biking over the mountain. Liam is such a sweet boy he happily offered to sleep in the car. However the forest service allows camping outside of campgrounds and I had good maps so we finally located a great spot to camp.

In the morning we went down to Passage Creek and Liam enjoyed throwing rocks and wading. We also took a short walk to the Elizabeth Furnace. We had been to the creek and furnace several years before.



I brought some new toys for Liam to play with. He had a great time with the silly string. He often points out 'clues' he finds on our trips so I brought him a detective kit and he bagged some clues and went over the suspect list repeatedly. He was quite cute discussing the clues. I'm not sure what the crime was but his analysis of the clues always pointed to the phone company employee.

In spite of the toys I brought for him Liam thought the best 'toy' was the voice recorder. He just loves to hear his own voice. I let him play with it and he recorded over 100 messages, most of which had something to do with him shouting how much his dad loved him. He did have one recording about him loving his mother so thats good too.

As always we had a campfire, roasted hot dogs and set marshmallows on fire. On the second night we had a thunderstorm. Part of having a happy camper is knowing what to pack. I brought a laptop and Liam's favorite movies so while it rained Liam happily sat in the car and watched movies.

The second night I gave Liam some glow sticks to play with. He enjoyed them but a little too much. He usually goes to sleep right away but this time he was up playing with them late into the night.



The next day we went canoeing at C. M. Crockett Park. Liam eagerly looked for alligators but all we saw was turtles. After I told him there were no alligators in Virginia, he switched to looking for zombies (as in Scooby Doo Zombie Island). It was very hot and humid but we had fun, although it was nice to get back to the air-conditioned car.