Night Under the Stars

Last weekend we went on our first Maciukenas Camping Trip – as a family of three – and we lived to tell about it. :-) Actually, despite our anxiety about spending a night in a tent with an active 9-month old, with temperatures in the high-90’s during the day, the outing was pretty successful. We stayed in a fairly new state park close to Vernonia, Ore. (L.L. Stub Stewart State Park) – thinking that if things got really bad, we could always bag it and drive back home at night. Thankfully, Liana actually fell asleep in her playpen, despite some noise around the campground, and she slept pretty much through until 5:30 am. She even miraculously slept through the coyote howling in the middle of the night – a truly bizarre sound that unfortunately made US unable to sleep!

During the weekend, we had fun checking out the local (very small!) town of Vernonia, walking along the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, and just taking in the nature around us. After Liana went to sleep, we were able to see some awesome shooting stars as part of the Perseid Meteor Shower. All in all, we were pretty pleased with our “trial camping” experience and were very thankful for the extra-large “cushy” tent, which made camping with a baby much easier (thanks, Cornetts!) All the photos from our getaway are posted here.

This was our sleeping arrangement

 During the day, it was like a sauna inside the tent (see how red Liana's cheeks are!)

 Along one of our walks around a lake in Vernonia we happened upon this really funky abandoned concrete building, adorned with graffiti, ferns and full-sized trees growing inside! A plaque later informed us that the building was at one time a fuel house, used during the logging boom in the early 1900's. Random!  
 

The temperature at night was just perfect for a campfire on which to cook dinner...

And in the morning we feasted on blueberry pancakes with huckleberry preserves. Yum.