Kit and I went for a two night campout in the Orestimba Wilderness at Henry Coe State Park. It was Kit's first overnight trip away from Tuk.
Tuk did just fine without us. She had friends over for wine and a movie. They went out for a massage.
Kit helped put up the tent then she arranged the pads and sleeping bags herself. I showed her how to make pillows from jackets and bags.
First thing we did was to hike over to the horse camp and say, "hello." We met Steve, Roxanne, their horse and pony. Kit named the pony Valentine.
Kit sat on Valentine. Later she would ride Valentine bare-back for about a mile. Kit loved it.
I made meatball spaghetti for dinner.
Oh, and Kit had her first slice of Marie Callender's strawberry pie. Yum.
We played cards in the evening: Go Fish, Crazy Eights and War. We'd say, "One, two, three... shoot!" but sometimes I'd say, "One, two, three... spit!"
Duck came along.
Kit enjoyed her wonderful sleeping bag. She can still stand up in the tent.
We heard a group of turkeys before sunset. Several times we looked outside at all of the stars. In the middle of the night we could hear a large group of coyotes howling nearby.
We took several treks out to the fishing pond.
We had lovely weather.
On the Orestimba creek trail.
We had lunch on this rock formation. I brought the camp stove so we had warm chicken wings and babyback ribs. Thank you Tuk for packing them for us.
Kit wanted to draw. She drew several wonderful pictures which I must photograph and include here.
Happy oak tree in the valley.
Kit with mule ears.
We fished at Kit's pond several times.
She helped get the worms ready.
She caught several large mouth bass.
She enjoyed throwing them back herself.
Kit, do you like having fishy hands? Yes!
Saturday evening there was a campfire program. He led a song about a unicorn.
After the campfire program, Kit and I went hiking in the dark. We brought along a flashlight just in case but I wanted to show Kit we didn't need it. She was impressed by how well we could see with just a touch of moonlight and the stars.
Kit slept very well that night. Hiking, fishing, pony ride, camp fire ... what a wonderful day for a little girl.
Enjoying warm oatmeal for breakfast.
All too soon it was time to pack up and go home.
Good part is Kit saying, "Dad, if I can camp two nights (without mom) then I can camp MORE than two nights. Let's camp again... for a week!"
Kit in the same pose as I was just in.
We stopped to play in a creek.
She found this lovely rock.
Here is one of her new booster seats. This one will take a one-way trip to Thailand so she will not have to take one back and forth in the future.
On the way home we stopped at Casa de Fruita for ice cream.
And we stopped by our old house in Gilroy for Kit to see it.
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