Sam, Hy, and Christian . . . a few of the Fjords National Park Junior Rangers
Trip Details (an excerpt from an email to my parents):
. . . on Thursday we drive, drive, drive, drive to Seward (2 1/2 hours away). get there. the kids are famished. we are all sick of being in the car. i pull out the
premade tinfoil dinners so they can eat while we get the pop-up trailer popped up. NO CRANK. i repeat, NO CRANK. Eric said it was there when he left Seward two weeks before, but no amount of searching can find the crank. . . . that right there was a sure fire indication that this wasn't going to be the blissful trip we had planned. . . (I had to keep reminding myself of a quote my favorite Young Women Advisor would say, "Adventure is Misfortune Correctly Understood.")
. .. so, Eric goes in search of a crank while the kids and I play at this discovery type park on the beach. it is a nice evening and the kids are having the time of their lives (oblivious of course that anything is going on). Eric comes back, this is no surprise, saying that everything in Seward is closed (it is 7 p.m.) and that we can stay in a cabin. Sounds good to me. . . anything other than getting back in the car for a long drive sounds good to me. The kids continue to play at the
park while Eric is putting the camper back on the van. After a few minutes the kids are anxious to "get camping" so I corral them down the coastal bike path to our campsite, and what do we find? a mostly popped up trailer. Eric in a last effort attempt decides to try and use some of the jack rods and wallah they work (well mostly, we probably got it up 98% of the way, which only effected the door which we were able to jimmy rig).
At this point I'm thinking wow, that was the biggest
gliche of the weekend. Done. Over. And to be honest, it really doesn't get any worse, but for the next 12 hours it didn't get any better either.
The kids are falling apart, so we get ready for bed. During all the changing of clothes and brushing of teeth and setting up beds, Warner discovers that he can crawl out of his
porta crib. Huge-Uh Oh. TWO HOURS later we finally get him to sleep (after driving all around Seward. . . the kid just wasn't one bit tired and it doesn't help that it isn't one bit dark). And then sleep is relative. He began crying when we put him down, so guess who slept with me? on me? all over me? Warner. I probably got about two hours of decent sleep and while I'm laying there with my 1-year-old sucking his thumb right in my face and jabbing me in the ribs I'm thinking, "Is this really worth it?"
The next day we did some great things. . . we walked the bike path, went to the
Sealife Center, hiked Exit Glacier, and got Ice Cream at the Creamery. The boys got Jr. Ranger Booklets and were so excited to earn their badges. Warner played with the rocks and the boys played football with Eric. It was a good day (other than the side effects of a lousy night of sleep).
We got the kids ready for bed early, let them watch part of a movie on the laptop and then headed to bed. Yup, we all headed to bed. Especially our sleep deprived Warner who I had layered up extra well, not allowed to have a nap, and had given
Benedryl. He slept for 14 hours. It was heaven. I woke up so much more in love with the idea of being a camping family and especially more in love with that little boy.
Ahh, the blessings of a good night of sleep.
The kids spent the morning at the park while Eric and I took down camp. About halfway home, at
Girdwood, we stopped and got the boys
slurpees. They each got their own and I found out later that was the HIGHLIGHT of their trip. . .
slurpees. It was a fun little weekend. Glad to be home and in my own warm bed. Glad to be in Eagle River where the sun is shining and the weather is spectacular. But really, I'm glad to be in a place where my kid cannot get out of his crib and I sleep at least 50 feet away from him. That to me is heaven.
