Camping . . . .sort of

This weekend we had a family camping experience . . . sort of. It involved some of the normal camping elements, like grilled Hilshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa, hoagie rolls, potato chips, ice cold diet cokes, and lots of other goodies. It also included a tent, paper plates and utensils on a picnic table and two very excited children.

However, our camping ‘trip’ also included some non-traditional elements. Namely, we never left our house, so we had all the comforts of home on this trip, without packing any of it.

We had a ‘picnic’ on our balcony using the kids’ plastic picnic table and dined on some delicacies we bought earlier in the day at one of our favorite stores that occasionally has imported goods – hence the Hilshire Farms.

We also had acquired earlier in the day an electric grill that my wife has been eyeing for months. As luck would have it, we got the very last one they had. So the kielbasa was grilled along with the hot dogs for the kids. She also made fresh hoagie rolls to eat the sausages on.

Once the main course was over, we were ready for dessert. Smores. Mmmmmm, yummy! The marshmallows were cooked over an open flame (albeit on our gas stove, but still, an open flame) and placed onto the nearest thing to a graham cracker we could find – plain digestive biscuits. Cadbury chocolate bars were broken up and placed inside along with the hot marshmallows.

After dinner was over we went inside and watched the live action version of Charlottes Web on dvd, and then decided it was soon time for bed. We headed to our ‘campsite’, a space made in our bedroom to set up our tent (brought back recently from America). We moved in all the blankets and pillows and allotted space for all four of us. We also turned on the air conditioner in the bedroom to cut down on the heat. Another nice part of camping at home.

After a few minutes the kids were settling down, and mom and dad were getting restless. The ground, in this case a marble floor, can be really hard at our age. The kids slept blissfully, while we tossed and turned most of the night.

The kids were so happy to have gone camping. We were so happy to have had some of the comforts of home on our ‘trip’, but more important, we were happy to make a memory together. It was an adventure that only took a little creativity and a good measure of child-like willingness to enjoy the simple pleasures.