Camping Memories 2015

On my other blog, I shared a run down of all the things that happened on our camping trip to Bend, OR that we just got back from. Here is a list of some of the things that I predict I will remember most about this trip.

1. Late night campfire philosophical discussions with Ted and Spencer. Staying up til 12:30 talking was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

2. THE RESISTANCE. This was a game we played a lot on this trip. In it, there are randomly selected 'spies' and 'resistance members.' The spies know who the other spies are, but the resistance have no idea about anyone. The resistance wants to succeed 3 of 5 mission to win, and the spies was to fail 3 of 5. The rest of the game mechanics don't need to be explained here, but seriously, this game is awesome and you should play it. We played this a ton, and learned that some of us are much better at lying than others.

3. Rafting down the Deschutes River. The river is pretty mild and you can hike up about a mile and the float all the way down to the campground.

4. Exploring the river! On our last full day there, a group of us went about two miles farther than usual. We didn't know what to expect but what we found was a lot of beautiful scenery, some pretty deep water, a few mild rapids, and a little island full of wildflowers. It was awesome.

5. Waking up to the sound of the younger kids around the fire. There was a group of about four kids who were always up early, and it was not uncommon to wake up to the sounds of them talking about Lord of the Rings, or Monty Python, or who knows what else.

6. Playing mafia. I love this game, and it's a lot of fun to play it around the campfire in the dark. We had one game where the mafia won (which isn't that common), and one where the mafia was lynched but after a pretty long, interesting game. We also had some great storytellers, which made everything more fun.

7. Listening to podcasts in the car. We spent between 16 plus hours in the car on the this trip, and I spent a lot of it listening to old episodes of the Nerdist podcast, plus the new Hello Internet.

8. Inside jokes! When you have a group of people in tight quarter for long enough, some inside jokes begin to form. My favorite is the joke that formed from the Peters family getting so involved in a conversation that they drove all the way to Kennewick (not at all where they wanted to be), which led to a series of Kennewick jokes.


Overall, it was a pretty awesome trip. I love being in a great place with great people. It's nice to being somewhat isolated for a while with people you love and trust and to not have to worry too much about anything. A little break from real life for a while can be pretty nice.