I Love Not Camping

Today we are in beautiful California. You will see a few different blog entries over the next couple of weeks about our trip with lots of pictures of the girls, but today I wanted to talk about something that I have been thinking about since we checked into our hotel.

I have a new stance on camping. I don't do it. I have had to defend this stance a few times as the weather gets warmer, but I won't budge. Know why?

I could spend the entire day gathering all the gear we need so that we have a place to sleep; a tent, bedding, etc. Or, I could just not do it and instead walk into our room to find this:

Clean sheets that will stay clean! No bugs! No strange, smelly, curious animals! (Unless you include the toddler, that is.) And the pack n play is provided by the hotel, so I didn't have to haul one of those big things anywhere. Not only that, but when the maid cleans the room, she even makes the baby's bed, like so:


Too cute! Back to my comparison. I could spend all day gathering up all the dishes we need to cook with, all the ingredients for each meal, try to find cooler space, buy enough ice, make sure we have everything we need to haul water back and forth from the water site to our camp site so we can wash all those dishes/dutch ovens afterwards by hand, or...


...we can just get a hotel room that has a kitchen fully stocked with dishes. And the best part about that is that the maid does those dishes, even if all we manage to get dirty is one cup, three forks, and a spoon.

But I know, I know, what about nature? What about being in the wilderness with the trees and the critters and, well, nature? I know this doesn't cut it, but let me show you what is right outside our hotel room door:

Trees and flowers and peaceful signs of nature! But I know that is not enough to convince anyone, so I also wanted to give you just a taste of what else we have seen today.

This one is a pretty crappy picture, but this is probably the least nature-filled little bit of the drive between our hotel and CG's mom's house. The rest of the drive is through a very twisty canyon with trees stretching out over the road and big flowering bushes growing in the median.

It is still not good enough, but I didn't get many pictures of the real nature, so I'm stretching it. I did get a picture of the most beautiful little stream, though.

So far we have spent most of the day up in the mountains playing in the trees. We almost also went to the beach, until I saw the parking costs and vetoed it since we only wanted to stop in for a few minutes. As for critters, we have seen most of the normal ones you see when you are camping, along with one of the cutest rabbits I've ever seen. We have also seen a bunch of the more domesticated kind of critters, horses and cats and dogs, etc. And yet I still get to have a nice, hot shower to wash off the day's dirt before I climb into my nice, clean bed. I also get to feed my internet addiction thanks to the free wireless internet at our hotel.

Now tell me, why would I want to go camping again?

*Edit* I completely forgot to add the most important thing! I could, when waking up in the middle of the night with the need to use the facilities, search in the dark for my coat, shoes, flashlight, toilet paper, and soap, then tromp through the cold, bear-infested forest to the nearest flushing toilet. ( my long-standing camping stance is that I had to have a flushing toilet) Then try to balance the flashlight while business is accomplished on a freezing, dirty, smelly seat, wash my hands in freezing cold water, and then tromp back through the woods to our tent where I would lie awake for about an hour until I am warm enough to sleep again. Or, I could simply barely wake up in the middle of the night enough to acknowledge the need, stumble half asleep the three steps to the bathroom, have a light that I don't need to balance on my knees, have not one but two flushing options, wash my hands in warm water with soap I didn't have to carry to the bathroom, and then climb back in bed before I've even had time to wake up. This is a very big deal to me because I drink A LOT of water. I will say it again, I love not camping!