The Great Outdoors – by Daddy

As you already know from reading these pages, both Grace and Patrick are fascinated with nature. Our regular walks to the park via the creek trail which runs at the back of our house feel more and more like they were planned by David Attenborough as a new documentary rather than a means to get to the swings. What should be a 5 minute walk can often take half an hour due to the many stops we are obliged to make in order to examine interesting fauna, flora and insect life along the way. Not that I am complaining of course, those of you who know me will be aware that I would much rather be outdoors than indoors and I am delighted that the kids are showing such an interest in their surroundings rather than wanting to sit in front of a wi-box station thing playing video games. Ever since Tara first told me she was pregnant over 4 years ago, I have been excited at the prospect of one day going camping with my kids and so I have been growing increasingly excited for the last few months as Grace has been showing an interest in tents and camping in general. This started when Tara pitched our tent in the living room about four months ago in order to show Grace and Patrick what it looked like. There is something quite strange and quite wonderful to come home from an average day at work to find your wife and kids ‘literally’ camped out by the sofa!

 

As Grace is now a big 4, she and I decided that a celebratory expedition was in order, After all if it’s appropriate for Johnson to traverse Africa in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday then Grace’s birthday,  we felt, should be marked in a similar fashion. Admittedly traversing Africa seemed a bit ambitious and also a bit far from Canada so we decided to plan something closer to home, much closer to home actually, for our inaugural expedition, Grace and I decided that we would set out to conquer the farthest reaches of the back garden.

 

The trip started with a visit to the equipment store, which is a grand way of saying we went into the basement and cracked open the stacker box containing all of my camping stuff. Some of the stuff in that box like my lantern and stove dates back from teenagerdom when I used to go camping every weekend and it was nothing short of magical to see Grace’s eyes light up with wonder at all the interesting gadgets and paraphernalia that Daddy has accumulated over the years. Of course you don’t take everything on every trip; the required equipment of each individual expedition has to be carefully considered. My equipment list was as follows, Tent, Sleeping bag, Thermal mat, stove, food supplies, water, and my trusty Swiss army knife. Grace took her winnie the pooh sleeping bag, Catherine the doll, A stuffed pink Pig (dressed as a ballerina), her new camping lantern with bird sound effect and the bumper book of Disney tales.

 

We decided that it would take us two days to fully explore all of the back garden and so elected to begin by securing a base camp mid way between the house and the flower bed. It was decided that Patrick would accompany us to base camp as support, before Grace and I would move forward. Almost immediately the adventure was faced with peril. No sooner had we left the civilisation of the kitchen and abseiled down the steps from the deck at the back of the house than it started to rain. To my shame I suggested that we may wish to abandon the trip and return to the house, but thankfully my team was made of sterner stuff than me. “No way Daddy” was Grace’s reply to my wimpish suggestion, while Patrick showed the true metal of his adventurous spirit by letting out what can only be described as a primal scream before running headlong into the now rain soaked grass fists flying as he went.  Thankfully the rain never became truly heavy and the tent went up in no time thus establishing a solid base from which to explore. The first thing Patrick and Grace wanted to explore was the tent itself and so it was largely left to Daddy to set up the beds and prepare lunch. Once we had eaten, it was decided that the team would split, Grace, Catherine (the doll) and I would form an advance party with the object of charting the surrounding area while Patrick would remain at base camp in order to launch any necessary rescue missions. In order to be at peak physical preparedness for any such mission Patrick decided that he would conserve his energy by taking a little nap and so returned to the house. After a brief planning session Grace and I decided that we should extend the expedition beyond the boundaries of the back yard in an attempt to investigate the legend of the dinosaur park. Specialist transport equipment would be needed to cover the distances involved and so Grace thought this would be an excellent opportunity to test out her new bike. I am overjoyed to report that Grace took less than 10 minutes to master both the peddling and braking of her new ‘big girl bike’ and the dinosaur park was ‘discovered’ in record time. After thoroughly exploring the playground, we headed back to base Camp where our expedition hit on its first real obstacle. During the time that Base camp had been left unmanned it was attacked by the local wildlife ‘Canine Boxerorious’ otherwise known as ‘Rosie’. It seems that the empty Kit-Kat wrapper left inside the tent had been too much for the stupid dog to cope with and not content with having once eaten a bunch of grapes that nearly killed it the dog decided to try and finish the job by eating through the tent. Understandably Grace was pretty upset as she figured that this would bring a premature end to our adventure, but I was determined to show her what the real spirit of camping is all about and so a hasty and temporary repair was fashioned and we were back in business.

 

Patrick and Tara joined us at base camp for dinner, the highlight of which was the toasted marshmallows. Then with bed time approaching Grace and I said goodnight to Patrick and Mummy and set about making ourselves comfortable in our tent. Now it’s fair to say that what I expected was for Grace to have her story and then tell me that she wanted to go to bed in the house. In fact, after several story’s from the Disney book and a chat about all that had happened that day, Grace turned off her lantern and settled herself down to sleep. I had to chastise myself for doubting that she would be prepared to stay in the tent all night. In the event, she was asleep in no time and didn’t wake up until 7:00am the next morning. So there was me thinking that Grace might not be ready for ‘proper’ camping and yet I am ashamed to admit that it was me that had to call Tara from the house at 9:00pm in order to ask her to bring out my lap top and a drink. Grace was even a little disappointed that I had not planned suitably by bringing breakfast out with us, ensuring that we had to return to the house early the next morning ‘But that’s the end of our adventure Daddy” she reprimanded. Next time we camp I may have to hunt a deer for breakfast to make up for it, or alternatively we could go to the coffee shop at the bottom of the road I suppose. Either way we will be going camping again very soon.