College Girls Camping Trip

What I like about camping is you can get really dirty.  Either you're all by yourself, so no one else sees you, or everyone you're with is just as dirty as you are, so nobody cares.  

~Anonymous former Boy Scout

For the past few years, some of my best college girl friends and I have gone camping in the fall.  We love cooking over an open fire, watching the leaves fall and laughing and reminiscing about how time flies  -- somehow, years have passed but we still look the same ;)  Haha :)

Here are some of the pics from this year's camping trip:

But the place which you have selected for your camp, though never so rough and grim, begins at once to have its attractions, and becomes a very centre of civilization to you: "Home is home, be it never so homely.  ~Henry David Thoreau

 Our campsite -- beside a creek and under the falling leaves :)

 Enjoying smores -- we used regular marshmallows AND (as evidenced by the foreground) toasted-coconut marshmallows.  I am a BIG fan of the coconut addition.  Yummm.

The girls decided my smore looked the best, so we took a picture.  Apologies for the no-makeup look :P

Proving that it "wasn't that cold" by losing the sweatshirt, haha -- oh, and please note the incredible, magical and creepy-looking plastic tarp we used to cover the tent Friday night!!  It was a steady, rainy, dreary, wet Friday night, and Sarah's innate genius had prompted her to pack a huge roll of plastic (just in case, she said). We were soooo thankful for that tarp!!

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another.  
It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.  ~Henry David Thoreau

We sissy camp by choosing a campground with close bathrooms BUT we are camping cooking purists -- we cook over a fire all weekend long.  Delicious!

It always rains on tents.  Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent.  ~Dave Barry

Sarah's rain boots.  Which were the Best Idea Ever and which have inspired ME to buy some rain boots for next year.  Sarah was full of genius ideas :)

Usually, Sarah and Jennifer attempt a brave and courageous trek across the creek in their bare feet, so as to prove their hardy pioneer qualities.  Usually, I cheer them on from the safety of my thick socks and practical distance from the coooold creek water.  But this year, it was so cold that even THEY didn't attempt a crossing.  This is Jennifer coming (quickly) back from a little water test.  Nope.  Not getting in THAT.

Jennifer couldn't find a pet-sitter in time, so her little basset hound Taylor came with us -- he enjoyed chasing rustling leaves and stealing hot dogs.  He is a seriously gifted thief.  

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"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn."  ~Elizabeth Lawrence