JoJo, Jo Bob and Jo Schmo

This is going back in time a little but still a blog worthy story. Before David left we went camping, because there are state parks in Washington like white on rice. Seriously, you could throw a stone from anywhere in Washington and be sure to hit a State Park. They have 120 of them, for a small state like Washington that is a ton. To put it into perspective Texas advertises 115 state parks. (there might be more but this is the number I found at Texas State Park Guide, if you can find a more accurate number I am pretty curious)

Ok, so we go to our favorite Manchester State Park. We go there all the time for little walks cause it is so pretty and quite and there is a great view of Mt. Rainier and the Seattle Ferry that goes back and forth. David and I have a secret spot, that takes a bit of getting to, but when you are there it is peaceful and quiet and you can see the seals, yes seals. One time, I think it was Mother's Day, we saw a seal catch a fish and eat it only a hundred yards away from us. Later that day, a beautiful gray seal with dark spots came 20-50 ft from us and stuck its head out of the water and was swimming closer and closer to us and looked us in the eyes and swam away. So cool.

Anyway, we got inspired by some pretty weather to go camping. David took a week leave, cause he had been gone for a while and now is going to be gone for 2 months. So there was lots for us to do, so we decided to camp for one night. Well, of course the day we registered our camp site it starts raining. This was our first time with our new tent (thanks mom and dad!), so we had to set it up in the rain. And we had planned to cook hot dogs for lunch but couldn't get a fire started. So we cheated and went back into town to get some food. (our park is like 15 min from the apartment) While we were out I remembered we left a bag of ice on the kitchen floor, so we rushed home to clean it up. We didn't start off real well but it gets better I promise. So when we get back it is still raining and so we got in our tent and played Boggle, my new obsession, and ate cherries.

Well the rain does stop eventually, and we hear little scurrying on the tarp. hmmmm what is that. David unzips the window and calls me over. What is it?!? A baby squirrel!!! He lives in campsite #35. Long story, but I named him JoJo. The neat thing was he hung around and I could walk really close to him. I tried to feed him a Frito but he only liked acorns. On another one of our walks I saw JoJo's brother Jo Bob (another baby squirrel), and Jo Schmo the local chipmunk. When we were cooking our lunch the next morning, JoJo was still there. I think he really liked me, which made me happy because who doesn't love teeny tiny animals?

After we had the car all packed and ready to go, we stopped by the volley ball net and played a little badminton. Now, for some reason this was the most fun of the whole trip. I love badminton. You don't have to hit the birdie hard, and well I probably don't play by the rules but I always have a good time. It was really fun.

So despite a miserable beginning the trip turned out really well. And we stayed mostly warm and dry. David and I cannot wait to go back. So camping trip one = a success!!