Father and Son Campout—Momoishi Style

Mmmmm, nothin’ like foil dinner, fresh out of the hot coals of a campfire.  Who doesn’t like foil dinners?  Sure, we’ve all experienced the “undercooked meat” or “still too crunchy potatoes” in the past.  Here’s our secret – cook it all at home beforehand.  Thanks to my sweetie, our foil dinners (consisting of grilled chicken, pan-fried potatoes with onions, and corn on the cob) heated up perfectly AND quickly.  Oh, make sure to double (or triple) wrap with foil. 

Sure, we could have had hot dogs, but doesn’t this look so much better?  Of course once Mark heard there were marshmallows nearby, chicken and potatoes didn’t seem so appealing anymore.

I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous taking both my boys camping on my own.   Particularly I was concerned about Mark not sleeping well or having a hard time.  Turned out, he was so excited to sleep in the tent, he kept asking, “Can we go to bed yet?”  Of course, it should be said that I kept him up extra late and he was nearly exhausted by the time we went to the tent. 

Here’s the only picture I have of Alex on the campout.  He didn’t hang out with me much, seeing as so many of his friends were there, charging around the campsite like a herd of lost buffalo.

 

Sand is NOT soft!!  You might think it would make a nice cushiony bed, but the truth of the matter is as soon as you put a tent over it and then lay down, it just packs up and at first it molds to your body, but come midnight, it just feels like you’re sleeping on coconuts.

 The boys didn’t mind, though.  They slept great.  Sure, Alex woke up sometime around 5, but Mark slept till at least 6.

You can see here how happy he was in the morning. 

The campsite is at Momoishi beach, halfway between Misawa and Hachinohe.  The wall Mark’s standing on was destroyed in the tsunami last year.  They only finished construction on it a month or so ago.  

The beach was close enough to the campsite, the calming sound of the ocean waves could be heard throughout the night.

Making breakfast turned out to be quite a chore.  One of the guys went home to pick up another propane tank for the griddle because the first one didn’t work.  Then it turned out the regulator, not the tank was the issue.  So another guy and me ended up making a bed of hot coals from the fire and just putting the grill right over it.  Let’s just say the pancakes cooked very quickly.

 

Our own little tent city on the beach.  I have great memories here.  I’m still hoping to get a good campfire with friends here again before we leave, like we did the first year in Japan.

Rob