And…we’re back!  We finally made it back safe and sound last night from our camping trip.  Dusty, dirty, weird smelling, greasy haired and all!  hehe

 We had a great time…The Edu’s vs. nature!  And considering it was the first time for the girls and I, we did pretty well.

 We left San Diego late Thursday afternoon to meet up with our friends in Temecula, ate a quick dinner and started our caravan to Mammoth Lakes.  The drive was about 6 hours, and we didn’t arrive in Mammoth til close to 3am.  When we got to there, we didn’t have a reserved camp site yet, so we scoped out some campgrounds, but weren’t able to find any (next time, we are gonna have a reserved campsite for sure!).   We ended up sleeping in a parking lot til daybreak came, and then we all split up trying to locate campgrounds for all of us.

 Two of the families were able to find a nice campsite, and we were up and ready by lunchtime on Friday.  We stayed at the New Shady Rest Campground.  Here are shots of our camp…

 In the afternoon, some of us went to Lake Mary for some fishing, and shortly after these pics were taken at the lake,

 we spotted this fella…

 BEAR! was all I heard, and then soon after, our friends are yelling at us to run back to the cars.  I was so scared!  I grabbed Mia, Anthony grabbed Annalise & we made a run for it!  I don’t think I ever ran so fast, so hard in my life!

 When I joked about seeing a bear in last week’s post, I didn’t think I’d actually see one!  Crazy!

 We ended up seeing more bears throughout our trip.  Two of our friends saw a bear at the bathrooms, and there were two other sightings very close to our camp.

 On Saturday, half of us went to Horseshoe Lake, and the “daredevil” half took these bad boys out for a spin

 The lake was beautiful.  Serene and very relaxing.  So much so, that Mia fell asleep on my lap, and I followed soon after.  It was a blissful nap under the gorgeous Mammoth sun.

 When I awoke, however, I looked over my shoulder, and to my surprise there was…I kid you not, a wolf playing in the water.  The funny thing was, I thought it was a dog!!  And then a minute later, one of the other mommies tells me it wasn’t.  Can you imagine if I thought it wasn’t a dog!!  I’d be pissing in my pants!  OMG!  Thank gawd he didn’t come over to us, I don’t know what we would’ve done.

 The daredevils joined us at the lake shortly after, and we just hung out, enjoyed the view,

 took the raft out

 and the kids splished & splashed along the shore

 We also ate good during our trip…boy did we eat good!  Sheila made Spam Musubi’s

 We brought ribs, snacks, & there were S’MORES of course!!  This is Sheila’s recipe for a great s’more: ice cream cone, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips & marshmallows; wrapped in foil & thrown on the fire til everything was ooey gooey inside!

 We also had chicken fajitas, pizza, korean bbq, rice, corn

 and in the morning, Tina made the kids chocolate chip pancakes!  We feasted!  It was great!

 Here are some last shots of all of us before we left.

One family is not pictured, because their lil’ boy Jacob got sick  and they had to leave early.  But here are the rest of us…yea, that’s me without any makeup on…scary =P

 Despite running into some wildlife, and not being able to shower for 3 days, it was fun!  Definitely tested my normal hygiene regimen, haha but it was worth it!  My phone ended up dying on the ride up, and so did the car charger…so I really was without internet for the whole weekend.  I felt a lil’ withdrawal, but I think it did me good.  I was able to relax and enjoy the trip and the company of great people.

 I am a city girl at heart, but I now have a love for the country.  Can’t wait to go camping again!

                                                                                      xo, Louise

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