My annual camping trip to Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin for 2008 is now but a memory. My husband and I fell in love with the campground on our first trip there 7 years ago and has since become a campground we visit every year, usually in the fall.

But we may have to rethink when we take our annual trip there or stay in another campground in the park because our last 2 fall trips to Peninsula State Park have been very cold and windy.

The park has 5 campgrounds. We like to stay in the smallest one, Weborg, that has just 12 sites. We like it because it’s small and cozy, the bathroom and shower building is nice, there’s a great day use room that looks over the water, all the sites have electric hookups, there’s a pier for fishing or enjoying the view, and all the sites are right on the water or require a short walk of about 30 seconds to take in great water views.
But that also means there is not a lot of protection when the wind comes off the water which is what we have been experiencing. While I don’t consider myself a wimp, I do get cold and don’t enjoy myself that much when I’m shivering. It was fine during the day because it was just a matter of wearing extra layers but the below freezing nights were a little more challenging. We have a heater and blankets, and my husband has a sleeping bag. But because we don’t do winter camper his sleeping bag doesn’t have a “below freezing” rating. The heater in our popup worked great, until we ran out of propane in the middle of coldest night. We got propane the next morning but I felt chilled the entire day. And I thought I had plenty of blankets (5), but I think I could have used about 10 more!

So I guess I learned I’m more of a “fair-weather” camper because freezing cold and rainy weather does tend to dampen my enthusiasm, especially after a week of it! A day or two doesn’t bother me but the near constant presence of it that I experienced this camping trip made me realize that I get a wee bit crabby and cranky (just ask my husband, son and daughter).

Gosh, I sound like a total whiner don’t I?

It wasn’t all bad. We were camping and to me it’s like that goofy fishing sticker I see on vehicles that says “a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.” That’s how I feel about camping. Even a bad trip is fun. We found ways to enjoy ourselves. On the worst of the cold and rainy days we took excursions to a couple of wineries and did some shopping at the local stores (I found some great warm sweatshirts that we immediately put to good use). Plus we spent 2 afternoons in the day use room at the park where there was a fireplace (we had to bring our own wood but that was no big deal). We played cards, visited with other campers, drank a little wine, had snacks, and watched the waves crash into the pier.

Plus the bad weather gave me the opportunity to visit with a local artist who had come to the park to paint the scenery and spent the afternoon in the day use room with us. She sampled our homemade wine and I got to try my hand at drawing and painting which was fun but obviously something I’ll never earn a living at. Even after my lesson and best effort to create something presentable, the small quick watercolor the artist did for me as a present and that literally took her less than 5 minutes to do was the clear family favorite. ” alt=”null” />

I got to keep the 2 drawings I made. When I took them over to the table where my family was playing cards I had my 2 drawings in my hand along with the one the artist had made. I made the mistake of saying “Look what I did.” My family immediately looked up at the paintings in my hand and said in unison “I like that one,” pointing to the one the artist had drawn. That’s when any glimmer of hope that I could earn a living as an artist was dashed since her 3 minute painting got raves and the 2 drawings I worked on for an hour got no comments at all (my family was obviously practicing “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all.”).

The artist who kindly shared her time and patience with me, along with giving me a treasured memento of my trip, is Mary Anderson. If you get to the Door County area check out her work. It’s on display at the Paint Box Gallery in Ephraim.

We did get 1 beautiful day during the trip where the temperatures got up near 60 and where it was sunny which made the water a gorgeous blue.

We were a little early for color though so the pictures you see interspersed throughout this post have mostly green foliage.

At the time of the trip, gas prices were still over $3.50 a gallon and it certainly seemed to have kept people home. There were a lot of empty campsites, but the weather was probably a factor in keeping people home.

I still highly recommend taking a camping trip to Door County, Wisconsin. My first impression every time I get to that area of the state is that I’m entering a picturesque coastal area in New England. It really does have that kind of feel to it.

Happy Camping!

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth although it may seem like it because it has been over a week since I have written here on the blog.

We all have times where our lives get a little crazy. That was the case with me. In the early morning of the last day of our camping trip (October 6), my husband’s grandmother (Grandma H) passed away.

Her passing made the last week bittersweet. Wednesday was her wake and mass, and Thursday was her burial. Friday was the wedding of one of her grandchildren, who in honor of her gave every guest a deck of cards because Grandma H’s favorite thing to do was play cards.

The weekend was an annual 2 day shopping trip tradition I started with my daughter 7 years ago when she was a teenager and I wanted to find a way to do something with her that she would enjoy and remember (and what teenage girl doesn’t like to go shopping - especially when Mom is paying). We waited until the last minute to decide whether or not to go and then decided that Grandma H wouldn’t have wanted us to cancel our plans so I spent Saturday and Sunday shopping with my daughter.

Now that I’m back home and have a minute to breathe, wouldn’t you know - I’m getting a sore throat and cold.

Okay, back to the topic at hand - camping.

I’ll post pictures and some stories about our camping trip later today or tomorrow. I won’t say more about it right now other than it was cold, rainy, and windy. (When I say cold I mean it was below freezing several nights. When I say rainy I mean it rained part of all but 1 day or our trip. And when I say windy I’m talking about gusty 20 mile an hour winds straight off the lake).

Some camping trips are more enjoyable than others…..this one was definitely in the “others” category.

Why your iPod should be on your Camping Checklist

I think it’s nice to have a little background music playing when you’re sitting around the campfire with friends. It doesn’t have to be loud or anything, just there. The problem is that many of the coolest places to camp are a bit on the remote side and the only radio stations you’re going to be able to listen to are polka and bluegrass… and that’s cool if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s just that most people aren’t.

If you bring your iPod you’ll get to listen to music you like (well, I hope that your iPod has music you like on it).

Why an iPod and not a different MP3 player? The biggest thing is that there are a lot of accessories available for the iPod that you just aren’t going to find for other MP3 players.

For example, Kensington makes weatherproof speakers for your iPod so that you can safely stick your iPod outside.

Also, the battery life of an iPod tends to be pretty long. I know mine gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hours before needing to be recharged.

There are also some nifty little gadgets available like a portable charger that will allow you to recharge your iPod from a couple AA batteries so you don’t need to have access to electricity.

And here’s one use that I just found for an IPOD (I did a video about it recently and I’ll post that for you soon). You can use the light on the iPod to read trail maps when you’ve managed to get yourself lost without any other gear and with it quickly becoming too dark to see, much less read a map. Yes, it’s true – I have no sense of direction.

And while this video really has nothing to do with this entire post, it’s damn freakin’ cool so here is the “Will it Blend” iPod episode: