Way-Vacation Countdown: 3 days

Our son has always enjoyed the yearly vacations and bi-weekly camping trips we take over the summer, although at 13 we are testing the limits of how much he'll put up with. Last weekend he went waymarking with us to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma and after about 30 minutes wandering a rose garden and a Japanese garden, you would have thought he had been enduring Chinese water torture for a couple of days. Of course, he wanted to get back home to a new computer game. My hope is the combo of new books to read, his Nintendo DS, and the cash he'll likely get from his grandma and grandpa in Wyoming will be enough to keep him in good humor. Plus, I suppose when you're 2,000 miles from home it's not like complaining is going to get you anywhere fast.

To keep him happy (and therefore keep us happy) he gets to earn itunes credit along the way for good behavior, and we've bought a bunch of his favorite magazines and fun little gadgets and treats to dole out in the middle of the long driving days. He's actually a really great traveller and has been since he was an infant, but he doesn't handle heat well and that will be the problem. We also have a bunch of geocaches planned at rest stops along the way and 3 small squirt guns for water fights when we stop.

I suppose the real problem will be if he reads the blog and sees this post. Then I'll be in trouble. :) The picture in this post is from our most ambitious trip which took place about 4 years ago. All three of us backpacked the Lost Coast of California. We drove out into the middle of nowhere and then hiked about 30 miles along the pristine coast. We saw sea lions, and a herd of elk sunning themselves on the beach. Sea otters would pop up out beyond the surf and watch us playing on the beach. We didn't see a single soul the entire time we were on the trail. Amazing. Here Hunter is playing with a kite we packed along on one of the beaches we camped on. He did a great job as that's a grueling trail and most adults have trouble with it. I know that there's no way he'd tolerate it now.