Mindy Sue Cleveland Photographer

Mindy Sue Cleveland Photographer

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Monday, September 2, 2013

What to do with a young family while camping?

What on earth do you do with a young family while camping?  Well I don't have all the know how but I will tell you what we did in Yellow Springs.  One of the coolest towns ever.  What makes it cool? The fact that all the road signs say, yeah ride your bike in the road!  OR that everyone walks around shoeless.  Or that every door has a rainbow flag with the words inscribed, "Be Yourself at Yellow Springs."  OR the fact that we met a dozen wonderful people in a matter of a few days.  Besides the awesomeness that is Yellow Springs the people, Yellow Springs the landscape is phenomenal.   Every day we had the wonderful opportunity to hike the lovely hills and gorges of Ohio.  
The mornings were early with Stella waking up the whole camp site at the crack of dawn.  Our tent doesn't have block-out curtains like the kids bedrooms.  So Logan would load her up into the car and drive around until the sun was was fully up.  We enjoyed eggs and bacon for breakfasts and Rueben sandwiches for lunch.  The kids wandered off into the forest looking for the raccoon that ate their sugar cereal the night before but to no avail.  When you are camping, you have to have something to do - whether you are boating in the waters of Lake Powell, hiking the Grand Canyon or motorcycling across the sand dunes of Moab.  You need an activity.  Ours was hiking.  
We went hiking every day of our camping excursion.  The kids fought us every time but loved the hikes while on the trails.  Logan jumped into the freezing cold lake on one of our outings - in his underwear.  Idiot!  We found caves, natural water springs, wildlife, the Blue Hole, an old dam, and rubbed sulfur rock on our faces.  It was wonderful!  And then after our hikes, we would go back to our campsite and eat.  Eating is a very important part of camping.  You must have good food.  I think it would almost be sacrilegious to go camping without s'mores.  Dam those things are messy.  
It was magical - being away - in some remote elbow of the world, just our little-big family, no emails, no photoshopping, no iPads or worldly distractions.  This is the closest we can come to bliss.  We wanted to go back to Yellow Springs the minute we pulled away, leaving you in our rearview mirror.  We'll come back soon.  

































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