i jumped over the moon

[ursamajor]

Of course the first time I go camping in 20-odd years, we manage to land ourselves in the area with the worst air quality on the entire West Coast, thanks wildfires. Still, this had been long-planned; milestone-ish birthday celebration for the dear friend I've known longest in the world, with plans to see Rent at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

hyounpark and I started the drive up to Oregon Thursday after work; there was annoying traffic all along 80 until we hit the turnoff for 505, and then we made decent progress until twilight. We stopped for the night in Red Bluff, slid into the Green Barn Whiskey Kitchen on a recommendation from the person checking us into our motel, and had delicious steaks and cheese curds and loaded mashed potatoes.

We made the rest of the drive up to Emigrant Lake the next morning after a breakfast of our leftovers and fresh waffles from the machine in the motel cafeteria. Pit stop in Weed to pick up souvenirs for a friend; it was nice to hit the cooler air in the mountains after temps in the 80s in the Central Valley the day before. Once we got to Ashland, we met up with Elana and Dan for lunch at Ruby's (bison burger and a pineapple smoothie for me, cheesesteak and a margarita for H); it was a beautiful day on the patio.

Afterwards, we wandered around town for a bit - I ended up buying a project dress at Paddington's which I will probably need to poke sewing-knowledgeable friends for help with. (The skirt fit perfectly! The bodice, not so much. But it is a gorgeous green and has bikes printed on it and was $15, so worth pouncing on.) Poked into an antique shop, and stumbled across a vintage altar that was actually shallow enough it might fit into the niche in our hallway for storage purposes. We didn't end up buying it, as it wasn't going to fit easily into our sedan, but we're considering seeing if it could be shipped; at least now we have another search term for useful furniture for that wall.

Everybody needed a caffeine perkup after that, and Bloomsbury Blends provided an adorable shaded patio, affogato, and more good conversation. Then we made our way out to the campgrounds so we could set up our tent and start making dinner (ramen) before it got dark.

Elana and Dan have done a lot more camping than we have, so we were glad to take advantage of their knowledge! Things we have learned for next time:

* our tent setup isn't actually all that complicated! But we should have checked on the stakes beforehand; when we opened the stake bag up, it was obvious some moisture had gotten in somewhere, as they were all rusted together. So we just used our duffels and boxes to hold the tent corners down from the inside.

* air mattresses aren't actually the most comfortable for side sleepers, heh, but there are pads out there with smaller air pockets that will be more comfortable for side sleepers with hips like me, heh. (Hips don't lie, aged aching version.)

* two person sleeping bags are awesome! We borrowed one from Elana and Dan, and will probably buy our own for the next time. Which, admittedly, probably won't be until spring, I understand winter camping is its own beastie, and Hyoun is Done With Snow 4 Lyfe.

Jenn joined us the next morning after realizing she wouldn't get in until close to midnight if she kept driving the previous night, and still have to set up her tent in the dark. She reported the declining air conditions: "I drove into the cloud of smoke in the mountains, wondering if I'd pop out the other side before I got to the campground, no dice," so we decided instead of the planned hiking and swimming, we would go into town and take advantage of indoor activities with better air filtration.

We spent the afternoon at Science Works, playing with all of the interactive experiments. In particular, there was a magnetic spinning table where you were supposed to see how long you could get rotating metal rings of various sizes to remain on the spinning platform, and given we spent like 45 minutes playing with just that exhibit alone, I think we've decided that needs to be a bar game.

We opted for early dinner at Skout Taphouse - beer and cocktails for everybody else, I appreciated their "I DON'T DRINK BEER" menu and got two rounds of the mandarin cardamom cooler :) The dirty fries were popular; I opted for the raclette sandwich (with lingonberry jam and bacon) while H got the brisket, natch. We did find a bookstore open after dinner (many bookstores in town, but even the latest of them closed by 7, boo) and I picked up Chloe Gong's Immortal Longings based on a quick perusal, then finished off with ice cream at Zoey's - Rogue Valley Pear and Oregon Trail (chocolate, blackberry, hazelnuts).

It made me miss the kinds of dates Hyoun and I used to be able to go on pre-pandemic, though also pre-West Coast move; bookstores just close so early here and now. A typical date for us used to be dinner out somewhere, then browsing in a bookstore (Harvard Book Store or Brookline Booksmith, most likely), then ice cream (JP Licks) (or sometimes hot chocolate at Burdicks) requires bookstores to be open until at least 8 or 9 pm, and then ice cream shops open until at least 10 pm, preferably 11 pm. Harvard used to be open until 11 pm. Our nearest indie bookstore closes at 6 pm. SIX. And it's surrounded by restaurants and ice cream shop options. I know we should explore San Francisco-based options for this, but it takes an hour to get home afterwards, and it feels like such a waste to not be able to support the bookstores closer to our neighborhood.

Then Rent! (Yes, I bawled; crying in a mask is hard.) Elana, Dan, and I had all seen it before; Jenn and Hyoun had not. Hyoun: "This is basically what I studied in college, and you're telling me you got to see this on Broadway for your intro to theatre class just because you started two years later than me?! JELLY." And then back to camp, nerding out about memory and perception and casting and staging based on the different versions we'd seen, and what it meant to us seeing it at 18, in our mid-20s, in our 30s, and now in our mid-late 40s.

Long drive home on Sunday; we got on the road early. Stopped in Weed again for a bathroom break, had delicious chili and a London Fog at Ellie's. Took a longer break in Redding to walk across the Sundial Bridge, then brunch at Deja Vu: chorizo benedict, froofy frozen chocolate beverages, pancakes and waffles with all the toppings. One last stop in Vallejo so we could pick up Filipino groceries at Seafood City, and then home by sunset.

So we survived our first camping trip together! And enjoyed ourselves enough that we want to do it again, though maybe not so far of a drive for a weekend. Bonus: We managed to get away with ZERO MOSQUITO BITES.