camping in the great smokies

This morning I am sitting with the boy while his mom steals a couple extra z's. He's watching a signing video and I will see if I can blog a little about our family camping trip.

We took the van, of course, with the biggest load-out ever -- even bigger than our cross-country trip where we lived in it for four months. In retrospect, we could have done without the stroller, but the exer-saucer turned out to be indispensible.



The rear bunk area of the van makes a comfy refuge when the bedroom doors are closed. Unfortunately it's not really big enough for the whole family at once, so I would decamp to a tent after lights-out.



We camped at the Deep Creek Campground in Great Smoky Mountains national park. We redezvoused with Picot and Suzie Floyd and their daughters Myrina, Daphne, and Maeve. That's Picot below, with Maeve and Peter.

The campground is near the Cherokee reservation, along the banks of Deep Creek. The water was colddddd but beautiful. It was great for swimming and playing in. We carried tubes upstream and floated down past the rocks and over the rapids. We fell in a lot. It was great.



Peter thought the whole thing was great. He has mostly stopped eating sand but once in a while he tries to eat a rock when he thinks we aren't watching. He loves the water and doesn't seem to notice the cold.



Better post while I can!