Happy Campers!

I'm happy to report that the Bailey family is full of happy campers! So happy, in fact, that we decided to make it a semi-annual event!

We arrived at St. George Island State Park just before the sunset and set up camp.


Then the amazing Jesse and Tammy cooked the best camp food I have ever had. Our dinner was grilled salmon, green beans, and rice. It was ah-mazing!!!!


It was pretty chilly that night so we warmed ourselves by the campfire and roasted some marshmallows.

We also decided to walk down to the beach to check out the view. And it was worth it! The moonlight shimmering on the ocean was pretty darn amazing.

We did eventually head back to camp and get some sleep while the raccoons invaded our camp and sprinkled our trash all about. I heard them in our camp and I swear there was one crawling up our tent. Joe woke up bright and early and cleaned up what he could.


Rosemary, of course, insisted on her morning yoga routine.



After breakfast (another delicious meal of cheese grits, bagels, bacon, and eggs by Tammy and Jesse) we walked to the beach again. It was pretty chilly and we were having a great time until Rosemary decided to jump in the water! It was way too cold to leave her in her wet clothes so Joe ran back to camp to get a change while Tammy wrapped her up in the blanket. She ended up falling asleep like that with Jesse holding her. It was right at that moment that my brand new camera died! Tammy came to my rescue and let me borrow her camera for the rest of the trip and I did replace it once we got back home.

We somehow lucked out and found out this was butterfly migration season. I'm talking about thousands of butterflies! It was amazing (I seem to be using this word a lot lately!). We walked to the playground that connects to a hiking trail and they were everywhere. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! All that effort I've been putting into attracting butterflies into my yard for the past two years and here they all seem to be in one place created by Mother Nature! Just amazing. There was also wild rosemary everywhere you looked. I tried getting a picture of my Wild Rosemary next to the wild rosemary, but the best I could do was getting her smelling it.

We went back to camp after this and I took a nap while the troops played what I found out was an epic football game that Rosemary is still talking about! I liked my nap, though.

After another great dinner of mac n cheese, Jesse's ridiculously good habanero chicken, and corn on the cob, we all piled into the Perkin's tent, which is actually big enough that I think I could actually live in it for an extended length of time, and played Scattergories. Thanks Alina for bringing that! Rosemary got a little tired so Joe put her down and we moved the party back to the campfire to roast some marshmallows. The raccoon family from the previous night made an appearance. They certainly weren't shy. One got uncomfortably close to me. If it weren't for the mesh on the beach chairs we brought with us I think I would have run! After some more marshmallows and conversation Joe and I retired to the tent to join our sleeping beauty.


This was the gorgeous site I woke up to the next morning. Rosemary is in the habit of always having something to say right when she wakes up in the morning. That morning I was greeted with "I like to camp. Where's my other sock? [one sock slipped off during the night] Maybe under the bag? Where are my friends?" So I took my cutie patootie to the campfire that was already roaring and had yet another cheese grits, eggs, bacon, and egg breakfast before packing up and heading home. It was the best camping trip we have ever had. I was nervous about how Rosemary would handle it, but she was a trooper. More than a trooper. She loved it! I can't wait for our next camping trip!!!!