Salem Camping Trip

I planned a camping trip to Salem, Massachusetts over Columbus Day weekend.  After booking and paying for our campsite I realized it was also General Conference weekend.  It was now really hard to be excited about the trip I've been looking forward to for weeks because I felt so bad that we would miss General Conference.  I kept telling myself we'd listen to it later, but I knew it wouldn't be the same.  So I paid the fee to change our reservations and we went on our trip this last weekend. True, it was a day shorter than we had originally planned, but it was so much better being able to go with a clear conscience!  

Here's our campsite on the GPS.   It was right on the beach at Salem Harbor.  Notice the rain on the windshield?  It rained all day Friday.  I kept asking John if we should just stay home, if we were crazy for taking three kids camping in the rain, but we went anyway!  When we got to the Boston area the rain was really coming down hard, so we tried to get a Space A room at Hanscom AFB, but there was no room in the inn, so my knight in a shiny poncho set up our tent in the dark and in the rain while the kids and I stayed warm and dry in the car.  Thankfully, our tent kept us dry as it continued to rain all night long. 

Saturday was overcast, but thankfully rain free!  We ended up having an awesome day playing on the beach and sightseeing around Salem.  This is Winter Island where we camped.

The boys and I built this sand castle and decorated it with some of the treasures we found on the beach.  (John was doing homework.)  Have I mentioned he started working on his MBA?  It's going to be a pain having school work that takes priority, but he's got to get it done. 

While camping we only came across one wild animal.  A BEAR!  We ended up letting him in our tent since he was pretty darn cute and we figured he'd be harmless since he had no teeth.

Instead of taking I-90 home we drove through New Hampshire and Vermont to see the fall leaves.  And yes, New England in the fall is every bit as beautiful as they say it is!

Pardon our jammies in these pictures, but we'd been camping and just wanted to get home, especially since it was raining again!  Yep, John set up AND took down the tent in the rain.  He's just awesome like that!