Since getting back from my trip to the other side of the world, I came home and realized that I needed to spend as much time exploring my local beauty as I do daydreaming about faraway places. So I made it a goal to finally visit some of the places on my Maryland Bucket List. I’m happy to say that in the past almost year, I’ve crossed quite a few of them off!

One of our recent trips was to Cunningham Falls – and we even went camping. If you remember our last camping trip, then you know that this was quite brave of us to try for round two. Luckily, while this camping trip was far from “perfect” (we do have kids – I think perfect is impossible at this point), it was definitely an improvement from last year (improvement = no killer mosquitoes).

We got a little lost on the way to our campsite, as there are several different entrances into the park. We first arrived at the Visitor Center, which I was actually glad for. They had a fun tire park for the kids to get out some pre-bedtime energy, and we also noted for the future that there were a few trailheads there, as well as a Bird Sanctuary.

By the time we set up camp, it was getting pretty dark, so we roasted our marshmallows over the propane fire 🙂

Naturally, we chose the wrong air mattress to bring – the one with the slow leak. So we woke up not just once, but twice, throughout the night to noisily blow it back up. Poor Rhenner also had the tail-end of an ear infection, and woke up with a fever. Mattresses were refilled, medicine was administered, and sleep was attempted in between. We woke up stiff and still tired, but we had a day of FUN planned so we pushed through it.

Our first stop was to the lake for some green-water swimming!

 

This is typical Rhenner – I don’t know why, but he is addicted to eating sand/dirt whenever he can. Maybe he has a deficiency of some kind I am unaware of??? He will joyfully throw sand up in the air, with his open mouth waiting to swallow it down. Yuck.

We also rented canoes and took the kids (plus Kaleo!) out for  ride. They made us split up, though, so I took Rhenner and Adam took the dog and Axton out. This 30 minute time out on the lake was probably my favorite part of our whole camping trip. It reminded me of my childhood, and going canoeing and camping with my dad. It was just a peaceful part of our day!

That afternoon, after lazy naps in the tent and hammock, we went for a hike to see the actual Cunningham Falls. And I must say….this was probably the most disappointing part of the whole trip! The falls were small, but there were also signs everywhere that said not to climb on the rocks. Obviously no one else was listening, but we decided to be respectful and turned around where we were asked to do so.

We tried to prepare ourselves for a better night sleep, rearranging the boys’ sleeping bags and pads and even bringing in towels to use as extra cushioning. Again, it was a rough night with towels and blankets not exactly cutting it for Adam and my old people bodies, and Rhenner waking up with another fever. We were farrr crankier the next morning when we woke up. Adam and I fought for a good hour over whether we should take down the tent before or after our hike. And since we worked while we fought, it was undecidedly decreed that we would, in fact, take the whole campsite down before we did ANYTHING FUN!

After everything was all packed up and squished back into the car, we found ourselves angrily back at the visitor center. We started a short hike, and by the time we were walking through the bird sanctuary, we were laughing at our crankiness and holding hands once again.

I (almost) forget how much work it is to go camping, in the excitement of planning where we’ll go, what we’ll see and do. But we are always glad we did it, and I can only hope it will all be worth it, and that we instill a love for nature in our boys’ hearts!