Family Fun - Camping in the Great Outdoors

We started camping when the kids were little - 4 and 6, maybe. We travel Washington, staying at state campgrounds. We hike, fish, swim, beach comb, and mostly enjoy being outside. Arnie tries to talk me into real camping without the benefits of campfire pits and real flushing toilets. I'm mustering up my nerve...I love being outside, but I also love the idea that a ranger is near or that running water is available. Recently we tried a campground in the foothills of Mount Rainier on Alder Lake. The kids love to swim so much and the website advertised fishing at the lake, so we tried it. The campsites provided shade and sun throughout the day which was nice, but they weren't very private. Arnie deemed the campground population as "watercraft" people. Nearly everyone had boats, sea-doos, floatation fun, and children. There were several very large groups camping around us. Very loud and rowdy, but respectful of the quiet time hours, so we were okay.

I usually try to cook something unusual one night of camping and then do the traditional hot dogs on a stick over the fire one night. This trip I tried a recipe for meatloaf in onions. What an interesting recipe. We hollowed out onions, made a basic meatloaf mix with hamburger, seasonings, egg, and cracker crumbs, then stuffed the mixture inside the onions. These I wrapped in heavy duty foil and laid in the coals along side corn on the cob in the husk, also wrapped in foil. I made fry bread in the skillet with Bisquick mix and onions.

The meatloaf was delicious, although pretty ugly. I wondered if it would help the look of the food if we had browned the meatloaf balls before stuffing them in the onion. They were really good, though, regardless of the grayness of the meat. Arnie and Katie loved the onions, too. Robby smothered his in - you guessed it! - ketchup, but liked the meat a lot. The fry bread was my favorite. Arnie is not a fan of biscuit style bread, so he didn't have much fry bread. The rest of us ate it up! No fry bread left over.

The next night we roasted hot dogs over the fire and ate chips and salad (from the garden, of course.) We had fun, although I think we will let the watercraft enthusiasts enjoy Alder Lake without us. Arnie and the kids never found a great bank to fish from and the swimming area was pretty crowded. Maybe we'll try a remote river for our next camping trip.