Breakfast

I heated up some premade quesadillas and a breakfast burrito on a pan over my camping stove. I also made some instant coffee, but it was too hot to drink and by the time it cooled, Lizy had forgotten about it and I threw it out.

While I was preparing breakfast, Lizy went down to the beach and set up our sun shade to reserve our spot on the beach.

Walk to the Store

I had forgotten to pack Theo’s pool floatie, so we decided to pick one up at the store. Lizy led the way to the Pinecrest Store. Theodore fell asleep in the stroller while we were walking. We were heading on a dirt path in what seemed like a farther and farther direction from the store at one point. I started to get nervous, so I began to walk over to someone walking out of their cabin to ask for directions.

“What, you don’t trust me?” Lizy asked me.

So I didn’t ask and we kept walking for another ten minutes.

Lizy pointed to a forested area to the left of us.

“You know, if there was a road this way, we would be there,” she said.

The road seemed to curve the exact opposite direction she had pointed around the next bend.

After another ten minutes, we turned around and headed back the way we had come.

The next time we saw someone walking out of their cabin, we asked them for directions and they told us about a shortcut around a tennis court. We actually hadn’t walked that far in the wrong direction.

The Store

The store didn’t have the type of pool floatie we wanted. The one we had gotten him at home had an attached sun shade. All the ones with attached sun shades had already been sold for the season. We ended up buying two floaties anyway, one for Theo and one for Lizy. We also bought three branded Pinecrest T-shirts, one for me, one for Lizy, and one for Theodore.

We walked back to the beach near our site using the regular path.

Hanging out at the Beach

Theodore woke up on the way back to the beach. We changed him in our sun shade tent. Then we went into the water with him. He loved the water. People couldn’t stop looking at him and telling us what a cute baby he was. He loved that. He loved getting attention. His favorite part of being in the water was splashing. He would splash in a frenzied way, and his face would light up with joy.

After going in the water, Theodore fell asleep in the stroller. We walked over to the snack bar at the other end of the beach to get lunch. I got an Impossible burger and fries, and Lizy got two corn dogs.

After lunch, we took Theodore back into the water. Then I watched him for a bit on the shore while Lizy swam freestyle for a while in the lake. Theodore loved watching people on the beach.

The Decision

At the end of the day, we were contemplating whether we should leave our sun shade tent on the beach or pack it up and take it back to the site. If we left it, we wouldn’t have to bring it back the next day and we’d have a guaranteed spot on the beach. While we were deciding, we started talking to a family sitting near us on the beach.

“We used to always leave our stuff on the beach, but one time someone stole our floaties. Since then we pack all our stuff and bring it to our site every evening,” the mother said.

“Sucks that one bad apple has forced you to lose faith in the Pinecrest community,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s a shame. But, you’ll probably be ok.”

I’m a naive, trusting person by nature. Lizy is usually more cautious, but I was able to convince her we could leave the tent. Maybe we could restore this family’s faith in the Pinecrest spirit.

Dinner

For dinner I made nachos in the Dutch oven. I cooked the last steak on the stove while building a fire. At home I had precut onions and jalapeños for the nachos. I layered the chips in the Dutch oven with cooked steak, refried beans, cheese, onions, and jalapeños.

After the fire was built up a little, I separated the logs enough so I could put the Dutch oven directly into the center of the fire. I know campfire Dutch ovens often have legs to let the fire breathe beneath them, but I was just using a regular Dutch oven you might use on a stovetop.

After I took the Dutch oven out of the fire, I opened it before blowing off the ash, so some of the ash went into the nachos. It was a learning experience and we couldn’t taste the ash in the finished product.

I thought the nachos turned out really well. Lizy liked them too, but she found a piece of plastic from the scissors I had used to cut the meat in the pot. That was obviously a mistake.

Evening

Lizy put Theodore to sleep in the tent and I cleaned up from dinner. When I was in the bathroom later in the night, I turned on my phone in the stall so I wouldn’t be completely in the dark. I think the phone attracted a giant beetle. It really freaked me out. I kept trying to kick it out of the stall, but it kept moving erratically in the stall. I’d never seen such a big beetle before. The whole experience kind of rattled me, so I decided to go for a late-night swim to calm down.

I walked down to the beach in the dark. I took off my clothes and floated naked in the water. I was worried it would be cold, but it felt warmer than during the day. I could see so many stars in the sky. I thought about how lucky I was to be camping with my son for the first time. I thought about all the future camping trips we would go on together. I thought about how soon he’d be old enough to eat s’mores. I had seen other kids eating s’mores when I had walked to the bathroom past other sites. I even thought about how one day we would be grown and he wouldn’t want s’mores anymore. I thought about how quickly life happens.

Then I got out of the water and put my clothes back on.