French Creek Camping

For years Ryan and I have wanted to take the kids camping... REAL camping, and not just in our backyard! And for years, Mother Nature, church obligations, work, school, and/or Saturday soccer games have gotten in the way. However, we finally got our chance, at the last minute, this past weekend to take our first "real" camping trip to Fall Creek State Park.

We jam packed my suburban Friday afternoon with all of our old and outdated camping gear and hit the road for an hour or so to an area near Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. We set up camp, got comfortable in our new home for the next two nights and three days, and started a fire for our hot dog dinner. Brooklyn, Kendall and Hudson absolutely loved setting up their tent with sleeping bags and twinkle lights, and then started playing card games and American Girl Dolls in the tent. When dinner was over we headed over to the campground's outdoor "ampitheater" for a little presentation on the area's history and cook s'mores with some of our fellow campers.

On Saturday, we headed to the Hopewell Furnace Nation Historic Site to see what it was all about. This wasn't part of our original plan, but the previous night's presentation sparked an interest. The site was the original birthplace of iron works in America. Hopewell Furnace Company was the first in the area to make items out of iron and learning about it was fun. We toured the farm/work site, ate a picnic lunch, and learned a lot.

The afternoon was spent at Fall Creek's boat docks where we rented canoes and kayaks and took them for a spin on the lake. The kids loved getting the chance to paddle and steer the boats. Then it was back to the campsite to light up the fire to cook our foil dinners and frozen mac and cheese, which turned out so much better than I thought it would! As it started to get dark, we headed back to Hopewell Furnace for their annual Star Fest event where we got to look through these insanely huge and legit telescopes to see some of the stars and planets in our solar system. It made me want to come home and learn how to use our lame telescope!

Sunday we went on a beautiful four mile hike near our campground, cooked lunch over our camp fire, and went back to the boating docks for another round of boating activities. Brooklyn wanted to try kayaking on her own, and Ella wanted to try a standing paddle board. They both did fantastic and loved it! Kendall and Hudson were stuck with me and Ryan again in kayaks, but they still loved using the paddles and moving the kayaks in any direction they chose!

 

Two nights of camping and I'm totally smitten. I just love it! I don't know why - the tents, nature, campfires, simplicity of life - who knows, but I can't wait to do it again. We did learn the hard way that sleeping comfortably at night is really important! While Ryan and I had small mats to sleep on, the kids did not and therefore, didn't sleep as comfortably or as well. Next time, we will make sure everyone has something soft to sleep on to avoid those tree roots, rocks and uneven ground that make sleeping difficult!