Urban Camping. Have you Ever?

We have our city camping going on full force.  Our tent is up in our living room, and instead of the stars above, we will be watching Princess Mononoke through the front zip down flap of our tent.  It's not the Outsiders, but the movie store up the street didn't have that one in tonight.  

We grilled our dogs and sausages, had dinner together and made a super yummy drink (*see below for recipe) for the night.  And we got to roast marshmallows for s'mores.  Right in our backyard!  It was awesome.  Lily didn't join us at first and After a minute or two, Tallulah said, "I am going to tell Lily we are having a lot of fun and she shouldn't miss it."  They might actually have a future together, as sisters.

Here are some shot from the evening:

One gigantic marshmallow, in flames, on our grill.

"heaven"

"I can' t eat this fast enough."

"Go Felix!  and wow!  look at my hands...sooooo sticky"

Lily, in the tent, camping.

The tent in our living room.

And Good Night, everyone.  I am exhausted from all this camping.  

-Melissa

*recipe from Bon Appetit - Sidewalker  

- created by Damon Boelte @ Prime Meats in Brooklyn NY

1 1/4 cups Applejack (Laird's Apple Brandy - $21.00 in Seattle)

1 1/4 cups fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

6 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 cups chilled Hefeweizen beers

3/4 cup chilled Club Soda

8 lemon wedges

Mix frist four ingredients, and chill for 2 hours.  (I just chilled with ice since I was running late.)  Gently stir in beer and soda, pour into glasses with ice and garnish with lemon wedges.  Yum!

Stay Gold, Pony Boy

Lily bowling, while I retry the first line to "If" over 20 times.

posted by Melissa
Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Sometimes you can make plans for a camping trip (one night away at Lake Wenatchee), get everything ready and be really on top of your game.  That's what I did yesterday.  I went shopping; got those ginormous marshmallows to make s'mores with, lots of food, and a box of wine.  I came home and prepared a delicious salad, potatoes with garlic and marjoram for roasting, asparagus, sandwiches for lunch.  Before sitting down to enjoy The Dead Poet's Society, we even completely packed the van so we could just get up and go.

Well, we woke up to a chilly breeze and pouring down rain.  Not a surprise in Seattle, in July.  But what was surprising was that when I stumbled out from bed barely awake to check the weather over on the other side of the Cascades, the hourly forecast was filled with thunderstorms and rain.  Every hour, except for the ones when we would be sleeping.  Camping in the rain, with my three kids...yea, does not sound like fun to me.

We were all terribly disappointed, but in a "making the most out of life" effort, we all came up with ways to have fun anyway.  Camp in the living room, grill out and roast marshmallows over the grill, boys day out- Harry Potter movie, girls day out - get our nails done.  But first, go out to Breakfast and Bowl.

Tallulah walked out and only heard the part about us not going.  She was beside herself with tears streaming and her face covered in her hand.

"I wanna go camping." was her hardly audible lament.

"Tallulah, we are going to camp in the living room tonight, even put up the tent!" I said, hoping to perk her up.

"No, I want to go camping."  Again.  More tears.

"Pumpkin, we can even roast the marshmallows in the grill and make s'mores."  I tried again.

"Oh, OK!"  And she was off with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders.

Turns out it was all about the marshmallows for TJ.  I should have known.

As luck would have it, our dear friends, the Riley's, made it to our breakfast and bowling morning.  It really hit me when we walked up to the lanes, I have missed bowling these past two weeks.  We had a really great time and some poetry was shared aloud too.  I recited "Résumé" and Mr. Riley recited the poem above, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.

It wasn't as I had imagined from some scholarly effort, he knew it from the great movie, "The Outsiders."  Remember that one?  So many great actors in it, all so young.  Can you remember them all? Without Googling it?  I think I might just watch it tonight, in honor of Mr. Riley's great memory and poetry month.

Stay Gold, Pony Boy.
Melissa