Pro Camping

Mom prepping the veggies for fried rice on our camp stove.

View from the nature trail.

 Look closely! It's a baby alligator and a set of eyes of another one!

 The yellow flies were so bad while we were camping that we huddled around the box fan whenever we could.

Chase getting his neck scratched by Megan, looking very relaxed or like he wants to break my camera paparazzi style! 

 First glimpse of the lighthouse in the distance.

 I Say it every time but I LOVE MY STATE!!!

We couldn't go inside the lighthouse but it was still beautiful from the outside!

 The lighthouse and the house attached to it.

 The beach was covered with hundreds of these little guys but they would hide in their wholes as soon as we approached!

 This just seemed like a painting to me.

 I know, I know! You're like "stop it with the lighthouse already!"

Beautiful butterflies.

 Red wing black bird.

 This bird made the most peculiar sound by shaking it's beak back and forth.

 That is not a reflection in water, just a couple of dragonflies hanging out.

 Blossoms laying low.

 Horseshoe crab!

There were SO many of these in the area we were at!

 Perhaps a message in a bottle?

Perhaps the message says "DON'T LITTER!!!!"

It's not about what is on the outside but what is on the inside.

 Last one of the lighthouse I promise!

 SUPER PIPER!!!

Not really but I wished I could fly when the tide started rising and we were still on these rocks!

This was my hiking attire for the day!

 Colton gave me the camera after he took that last picture and left me behind!

As revenge I'm posting this picture of his back, it looks  like he has huge shoulders and a tiny head!

hahaha do you see it?! 

The little baby forgot his sunglasses and I offered him mine.... Honey badger don't care and neither did Colton.

 You would think these guys didn't own shirts!!!

This is Chase by the way!

 This particular plant is endangered and protected by the park. The park ranger said that this is the largest stand of these flowers left in the world  that anyone knows of... and there wasn't a ton.

Be kind to plants we couldn't live without them!

 Packing up the tent and heading out!

This was from a little while back when we went to Wakula springs.
We spent one day a piece in each park and camped in between the two!

The destinations were great but I must say the campsite was my least favorite of any place that I've ever camped.

The place smelled of dead fish and as I mentioned before the yellow flies were the worst!!!

Did I mention it rained and our tent decided it would stop being waterproof around the bottom so we came close to floating away in the middle of the night?!

Colton and Chase slept in the truck and Mom and I stuck it out in the tent!

You heard me right!

So instead of packing everything before we went exploring, we packed everything that was dry and spread the tent and bedding out over picnic tables to dry off.

Which turned out to be the best idea ever!

Packing up to go home is always our(pretty sure everyone's) least favorite part of camping.

But when we broke it up into two shorter packing sessions it wasn't bad at all!!!

Look at those smiling faces!
It probably sounds like I'm complaining but I'm really not!
I'm only mentioning those things because that is what happened, I'm not sugar coating anything because camping is sweet all on it's own!
(And I'm cheesy all on my own!)

If you are daunted by the idea of camping, don't be!!!

Ask someone who is experienced to come along so you can learn things that they have already figured out!

My family has been camping for years and there really is nothing like it!

We went through some extreme conditions this last time but the positive outweighed the negative by a lot!

Not to mention it really is all part of the great experience, the stories you will be able to tell!!! 

And spending time together without any distractions from the outside world is worth it in itself! 

I think I'm ready to go camping again!
Where will it be next?!

xoxo

Piper Arielle

Photos by: Piper, Colton(The one of me) and Nancy(Folding the tent)