We have officially been at home for well over a month without leaving our house. Not for work. Not for fun. For a traveling family, that’s hard to do. And how can you have a travel blog without actually traveling? Extremely hard to do.

Oddly, we are holding up well in this scenario. We work on family puzzles together. We watch TV shows that inspire travel like Aerial America and shout out, “we’ve been there!” each time they flash over some place we’ve visited. We’ve pulled the maps out to show Ben (now 7) where he’s been and plan out where we think we might want to go next. It’s a big list we’re hoping we can start on soon.

To visit family and celebrate birthdays we are so very fortunate to have FaceTime and Zoom. I can’t imagine this scenario twenty years ago if Ben couldn’t “play” with his cousin every day at 4 o’clock or just see and say hi to Grandma.

But hey, I should be writing about travel right? How am I going to write about travel during a pandemic lockdown? It’s called Imagination. And I’m going to use as much inspiration from the imagination of a seven year old as I can conjure up to give him the home trip of a lifetime. That’s right! We decided to go camping! At home. Indoors. Sound fun? Read on and inspire your own Home Trip to your favorite destinations.

Camping Essentials Preparation

As we have been learning over the last month now, there are very few things we actually need to get by. Camping is no different. Just a few essentials to give us the rustic experience we crave.

• Tent – yes we could certainly pull out a few sleeping bags to cover the shelter category. We are indoors after all. We could add a few blankets overhead to make it a cross between a tent and a fort. Ben would be happy as a clam with that setup. But if you have a tent, room in your living room to stand it up, and have only used it in a real life camping scenario once, then why not pull out all the stops?!

• lighting – for true authenticity one must include the traditional camping lantern and campfire (or gas fireplace) for lighting. We also thought including white twinkling Christmas lights can create an awesome firefly effect in our great outdoors.

• Rustic atmosphere – despite working 9 1/2 hour days and homeschooling for 2 each day, there’s always a way to find time to enhance the campsite with a couple of handmade trees. Nestled next to the campfire (gas fireplace), they sparked excitement and anticipation as we got closer to the weekend. Take note of the added spooky eyes from some creature peering out of the dark hole in the trunk. These embellishments surely fuel some great campfire stories.

• Food/Snacks – you can’t go wrong with hot dogs and beans. Am I right? And no self-proclaimed camping expert would dare camp without the iconic S’mores basics: chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers. Just add sticks for roasting. Really though, with the difficulty in getting out and stocking up, anything you enjoy for fun makes a great dinner at the campsite.

• Games – a fine selection of favorite games is necessary for any travel event whether it be camping or a road trip. For this event, we selected Scrabble Junior, A pack of Mad Libs and of course our favorite spooky ghost stories.

The Experience

Night one was as authentic as it gets. We spent an hour putting the tent together, taking it down and doing it all over again because we used the wrong pole set in one of the top slots. By the time it was up, it was time to go to sleep. And like any camping experience, there were multiple wake ups in the night.

11PM: “What’s that noise?” Ice Maker

11:05PM: “What’s that noise?” House settling.

11:10PM: What’s that noise?” Water circulating in the AeroGarden.

2AM: “Mom? I need help with my blankets.” Re-adjust blankets.

6AM: “Dad? I’m too scared on this side of the tent.” Drag air mattress closer to mom and dad.

6:30AM: “I see a white worm doing push-ups outside the tent.” Ignore until repeated three times before responding with, “there are no white worms in the house.”

7AM: “Can I come over and sleep with you?” Respond with non-verbal lifting of covers inviting him into the fold.

This took us right into Day Two. Fresh brewed coffee (an essential need after that night) and a real camper’s breakfast complete with eggs, bacon and toast was enjoyed by all. We delighted in eating this meal in front of the campfire.

With full bellies and a completely unexpected window of cool sunshine outside, we decided to get out and take a hike.

Now, we are very lucky that our town has a wonderful set of hiking trails that wind through several neighborhoods. In seven years however, we’ve only tried to find a trailhead near our house once when Ben was a baby. After finally finding an entrance, we had to turn around as it was not conducive to pushing a stroller. Somehow we never tried again. I guess we were too busy doing other things. Until now.

We hiked our way through a total of 4.7 miles covering multiple trails. It was beautiful, unexpected and so much fun that we did not think possible for our weekend camp out. We encountered beautiful creeks, tons of wildlife like deer, ducks, water snakes and turtles sunning themselves all over the place.

Unfortunately, we may have run into a few people as well that had our social distancing skills over-challenged. Seemed everyone had the same idea for this beautiful day. In the end, it was still worth it.

Night two was packed with our dinner and activities. Between all of it, these activities took us into the 11 o’clock hour before we finally had to say, “it’s time for bed Ben”. Of course this was met with a lot of resistance.

We ate our dinner of hot dogs and beans. The boys had some macaroni and cheese on the side. The S’mores dessert did not disappoint. For those that wanted the marshmallows toasted, I decided to use the broiler in the oven. They came out perfect. If the weather was better we could have roasted over the gas burner on the grill outside. Lots of options there.

We played two rounds of Scrabble Junior first. This was Ben’s first time playing Scrabble and he did really well. He didn’t want any help with his words which was a main contributor to the late hour of the evening. At one point I said to him, “you look exhausted” to which he replied, “I am! But that doesn’t mean my brain isn’t still thinking”. He finally took some suggestions so as not to impact his Mab Lib and story events.

The evening ended with one funny Mad Lib titled, “Easter” and a reading of the final chapter to a Scholastic Book Fair book I bought when I was in elementary school titled, “Grandpa’s Ghost Stories”. A classic that has stood the test of time.

Before Ben turned off his lamp and turned out the lights on this epic camping trip, he concluded with, “I just don’t want this day to end”. Neither did we.

And that my friends is what makes it all worth while.

Carving routes