Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Our first family camping trip


Ram has long been hankering to go camping. I would demur. While he waxed eloquent about starlit nights, the early dawn birdsong and the call of the wild, my thoughts would be depressingly pragmatic: what about food, I would ask. What about kids squalling at night because they haven’t gotten enough to eat? Or what about running water? While he might bask under the evening sun, I might be the only one running around trying to get us set up.

But in these worst-case scenarios, there is no concept of a team. It gives the impression of a vague but ruthless dictator (Ram), and his hapless, chicken-without-a-head wife. But reality is different. Six years of marriage has honed us into a pretty good team and each of us has learned how to work the other into our way of thinking. While Ram may disdain to talk about the mundanities of real life while envisioning a perfect holiday, he also knows that I will not enter into an agreement without straightening out the details of those mundanities. And reciprocally, I have learned not to bring in mundanities while talking about something broad like an overall vision for a holiday, and keep them for their place in the nitty-gritty planning. Or at least, in theory, that’s how we work. If I am hungry, all bets are off and our discussion usually ends in a brawl. 

So this time when Memorial Day rolled around, we decided to take the plunge and camp out… somewhere. As to where, we still hadn’t decided by Saturday afternoon. I leaned towards the safe bet of Morraine State Park, while Ram thought we ought to aim for a more ambitious first project. He thought Cook County Forest, about 3 hours from Pittsburgh, might be it. 

We hit on Presque Isle almost by accident. As we were driving back home from breakfast, a guy on the radio was swooning over the delights at Lake Erie and Ram mused, "Presque Isle is pretty close to Lake Erie". "Isle?" asked I. "You mean a real island in the lake? We have to go there! Imagine camping by the water! We can sleep to the sound of waves! It will be like being in Goa!"

Presque Isle State Park
And that was how we started out on our first camping trip. In the midst of Ram's thrilled explorations of tents and camp stoves, we made a detailed plan of what we would eat and when and how. By the time I wrote out lists of things we had to take, things we already had, and things we needed to buy and by the time we bought all these things, it was already late evening. We pondered on whether to puff full steam ahead and drive down to Erie anyway, and then set up camp at night when a rare streak of common sense struck us. "I know!" we exclaimed at the same time. "We should practice setting up the camp and using the stove in our backyard tonight!" 

Back home we went. While I jogged Durga on my knee and read out the instructions on how to put up a tent, Ram and Ani attached the poles and the ropes and sure enough! We had a beautiful red tent, spacious and airy, with a jaunty flag atop it. "Why don't you figure out the camp stove and I'll start cooking on our real stove" I said to Ram. "Kids are getting hungry". If there's one thing I really dislike, it's hungry kids. Kids that are otherwise awesome, sweet, sensitive and smart turn into howling, unreasonable, uncontrollable banshees. Durga's still at the age where I can stick a milk bottle into her mouth and she'll be quiet. But Ani requires more cajoling. 

Kids fed, tent up, cooking stove up and roaring beautifully. We looked to be in good shape for our trip.

The next day, we had breakfast and started out, the radio playing great music, the kids humming along, the man a bit puffy-eyed due to caffeine withdrawal. We stopped for coffee and gas. Ani said, "Me! Me! I want to feed the car!" so I let him. Durga watched, transfixed at the sight of her big brother wielding a gas pump. "Waah!" she let out, pumping her hands, wanting to come out and join the fun. I caught her eye, fixed her with a gimlet stare and said, "Durga. The important thing today is the camp. All this is minor. Stay where you are". She subsided, much to my astonishment. 

And then we were finally, really off! The day was beautiful, sunny, the skies a clear deep blue. Summer at last! About an hour into the drive, Ram tried to put on the AC. "God, it's so bloody hot!" he complained. I gazed at him in false sympathy and mocked "Is a bit of heat too much for your baby skin? Is our man a widdy-biddy Amreekan baby?! Be a man of the great hot plains of Kolar, Ram!" This is a standing routine between us. I hate the cold and he hates the heat. I consider myself a true daughter of Chennai, of heat and humidity. Ram, on the other hand, loves the snow, sleet and frost.
Kids fell asleep halfway through the drive. Ram and I talked about research, our careers and co-workers, and plans for trips for the remainder of the year.

At the first sight of the lake, we cheered, waking up the kids. We registered at the office at Sara's Campgrounds, parked the car and went to the beach to pick a site for our tent. It was pretty crowded. I think, when we started out, Ram and I had this image of camping as being essentially a solitary pursuit. My own idea was a scene from Parent Trap (when Lindsey Lohan was young, clean and cute) where there's a single tent, a blue lake and an endless stretch of human-less forest. Reality was more carnival-like. A radio somewhere nearby was loudly playing Adele. A pot-bellied, sunburnt old gent strolled by and said, "If you're thinking of pitching a tent here, don't forget to grab a fire pit". "Huh?" we blinked. "You know, a fire pit", he said, gesturing towards a short iron cylinder about a foot in diameter. "You start a fire in there and it stays there". "Oh.. wow.. sure. A fire would be nice. Umm… what would we need the fire for, exactly?" this was me at my brilliant best. "Well you just light it. You get some logs right by there. It's five bucks at the store for 5 pieces of wood. Daylight robbery, if you ask me. Anyway, you get those logs and you start the fire. See? I've got mine going", he said, pointing to a large fiery ring next to his tent. His wife, in a little bikini, waved, pointed to Durga and said, "Awwww so cute!" I smiled at her. I like everybody who say nice things about my kids. Mind made up, I said, "Wow! That's great! Ram, get that fire pit. This nice gentleman here says we need one". "Errr..", said Ram, not exactly sure what we were getting into, but too polite to say so in front of the man, who introduced himself as Mark. "And I'm Varsha", I said cheerily. "That's like Marsha, but with a V". "Hahaha!" laughed Mark, as though I said something very witty. "Put up your tent and I'll help you get a bench", he said. 

"I wonder why we need a fire", Ram said as we made our way back to car. "It's pretty hot… and it's the middle of the day. And we have a cooking stove". 

"Oh well. We couldn't have said no to him. Poor man. He was being so nice! Hey, plus, he's going to help us get a bench. That'll be useful while cooking"

So we unloaded our tent, plonked the kids on the sand and told them to dig around, spread out the tarp, weighed it down with stones from the beach, and put up the tent. Ram finished it by flinging out the canopy on top of the tent with a flourish. "You gotta tie up that canopy!" yelled Mark from his campsite a few feet away. 
"Err… tie it up where?" 
"To the stakes!"
"Oh right! Hey look Varsh, now it looks just like the picture!"
I was calming down the baby. Ani had flung some sand into the wind, which went into Durga's eye, who promptly began howling. "No flinging, Ani! No blowing it either! Dig it and keep it to the ground! How would you like it if I did that to you?"
The sight of the erected tent did wonders to soothe tempers and the kids scrambled into the tent in perfect accord with each other. 


"Now for food! We can't cook now, but let's go to some place nearby and get something to eat", I said with an anxious eye at the time. I grabbed a couple of bananas, a bag of dates and some water to tide the kids (and me) over till we actually got the food.

From the Mexican joint where we had lunch, we drove down to Presque Isle State Park. Ani had a hankering to bike and I had a hankering for a boat ride. We debated and decided that we should boat first and then bike, since it was so hot. But alas! No boats at that time- apparently they only had them at 11am or at sunset. Tired of driving, I declared we should all walk back to the bike store, rent a bike to come back to the car and that I would drive the car and kids back while Ram rode the bike back to the store. Seems a bit convoluted, no? It didn't seem so at the time and needless to say, it didn't work out terribly well, as you will see further along.  And so it was we sent out on what we expected would be a mile-long hike, but in reality was more like two and a half miles. Ani, being the trooper that he is, walked nearly the whole distance. Durga, since she too has adventurous blood in her, decided that she wanted to walk as well. Since she doesn't walk by herself, this involved a laborious dance where I would hold either one or both her hands and she would toddle along, sometimes slipping, sometimes sliding. We took a LONG time to complete that hike.





Much to Ram's delight, we also happened to observe a whole number of birds we had never seen before. We saw the Baltimore Oriole (and its nest!) and a Cedar Waxwing. 
Baltimore Oriole


Cedar Waxwing
But the best part were the warblers. Have you taken a walk in a forest path where there are tall trees and you can see little birds, smaller than sparrows, flit by? You might be able to make out a dash of color, but the birds never stay long enough for you to observe them. You can definitely hear them. These are warblers and they are beautiful, tiny and really hard to find. Ram has been trying for months to observe these little guys and hadn't been too successful until Presque Isle. In Presque, there were so many warblers that they were practically flying in front of us. We saw many American yellow warblers and in one case, a nest housing a warbler too! Three little female redstarts landed at my feet quarreling and chirruping loudly. 
Yellow warbler
                      
Female redstart
What makes Presque easily so unique is that in those 2.5 miles that we walked, there were at least 3 or 4 different types of terrain: there were flat grassy lands, there were marshes, there were tall wooded trees and there was the lake and its shore. Each terrain had a completely different set of birds. 

Ani was excited by the large spider webs we passed. We peered down into many of them, counting the insects captured. We saw a pupa of some unidentified worm. At these stops, Durga would sit down on the ground and pluck leaves and twigs and throw them in the air. 

After our long walk, with Ram in the heights of ornithological ecstasy and me growing increasingly stressed about everything, we finally reached the bike store. And learned that they were not going rent any more bikes for the day. Yaarrgh! Now what? "Please, could one of you just give my husband a lift to the boat center? It's only 2 miles away!" I pleaded, to no avail. The bike guys gave me the phone number of the park ranger, to ask for help. I did so (marveling that my phone was still working and hadn't yet achieved its usual state of death), again to no avail. Ram started making noises about quickly walking back the 2.5 miles to get the car. But I spotted an Indian couple walking nearby. If there was ever a time to exploit the Indian connection, this was it. I grabbed Durga (a baby always makes a case for pity that much stronger) and accosted them. I blurted out the whole story and asked, "Do you think, if you could possibly, drive my husband a couple of miles down to get the car?" They initially demurred: oh but we have a tour that's going to be starting soon. But I wasn't about to let something like that stand in my way. "But the tour's in 20 minutes, no? If you leave now, you'll be back within 15". I can be pretty ruthless when it comes to getting my way to food.

So long story short. They drove Ram to the car and drove back in time for their trip. Hurray! Then we got to the camp; the sun was just about to set. I made Ram some tea, and hot chocolate for the rest of us. We watched the sun set on Lake Erie, a beautiful sight. We spotted Mark and his wife at the water's edge. He waved and walked back towards us. He said, "Well, I almost forgot the bottle of champagne!" Apparently, he and his wife come here multiple times every year, and have been doing so for the past fifteen years and at every sunset by the lake, they open a bottle of champagne and drink to the sunset. What a nice tradition! 

Then while I took the kids for their various peeing and pooping jobs, Ram cut vegetables for our dinner and I made pasta with broccoli, ginger, garlic and oregano with alfredo sauce. Pretty fancy for a pair of newbie campers, eh?

As we were eating, the night advanced and it became darker and darker. Then, the fireworks began! This was such a pleasant surprise! I guess they had them for Memorial Day. They were beautiful. We ate under the light of the fireworks. Then, we got ready for the night. The thing with making your kids walk 2.5miles is that they eat without complaint and they drop off to sleep without a fuss!

So if you're an avid (or merely interested) birdwatcher, here's the low-down on Presque:
Terrains present:
Marshy land
Forests with tall trees
Shoreline with lake
Grassy flat stretches

Birds we observed:
Baltimore Orioles
Cedar Waxwings
Many red-shouldered blackbirds
Many cowbirds, catbirds and Eastern phoebes
American yellow warblers
Redstarts
Some cormorants on the way to Presque