Although I've been camping about a dozen times, every time I go, at least one acquaintance says to me, "You? You're going camping? I never pictured you as the 'camping' type."

Apparently I don't give off that outdoorsy vibe.

But, to be honest, no one is more surprised than me. Although camping is somewhat fun (honestly, Colby, with the right crowd it's a good time), it requires more preparation, planning, effort, and old-fashioned gumption than it's worth. I'm always acutely aware of the effort-to-reward ratio in life. It's the reason why I don't buy pineapples, or wipe my ass that one last time. Diminishing returns, my friends.

Note however, that camping and being a computer programmer do have one thing in common: lack of hygiene. When we got to our campsites, the other two families we camped with were dismayed to find that there were no showers available. Me? I'm thinking that it's only a 48 hour trip and it wouldn't have been the first time in my life (or this month) that I went 48 hours without a shower. Yes, I know that's nasty, but I work at home and some days I just don't need (or get around to taking) a shower. Usually those aren't the same days when I skimp on the ass-wiping.

Overall, camping went pretty well. There were other kids for Daisy to play with and it was only a 2 day trip, so there wasn't enough time to get bored. You know who loved the trip the most though? Mr. (Rick?) Raccoon and his raccoonny friends. Well, it's not so much that raccoons love camping as they love stupid campers who don't store their food well. Each night when we gathered around the campfire, the raccoons would sneak over to our other picnic table, located about 20 yards from our firepit, and would steal our bread/cookies/joy-for-life, etc. You'd think that we would have learned to store our food better after the first night's thievery, but we city-folk learn slowly. The raccoons would climb onto the table, grab an entire loaf of bread (still in the bag) and quickly waddle away. We were left shaking our impotent fists at the woods.

The only other issue we had was the weather. As it turns out, if you go camping during the summer on the northern coast of California (here), the weather will suck. It will be somewhat foggy and chilly. We spent much of our time there huddled around the campfire. There are worse ways to spend a weekend though.

I took an epic shower when we returned and have removed most of the soot and stank from my body.