Pop Up Glamping

May 19, 2015 ~ Crystle ~ 4 Comments

I’d like to go back in time to last summer and smack myself upside the head for camping while pregnant, with a toddler, without a camper. What was I thinking? Such an unnecessarily uncomfortable experience, although it was fun and rewarding at the time.

Isaac and I have been looking at campers since March, and going by the towing capacity of our Toyota Sienna (minivans rule!) we narrowed down our wish list to a pop up camper with an 8-10 foot box. Local sale listings came and went (sparingly), usually selling before we even had a chance to respond. Some had roof rot, and nearly all campers in great condition were far out of our price range. Our sales page diligence paid off when we spotted this 1990 Coleman Columbia on Craigslist. It was within our budget, and appeared to be in fair condition. We contacted the seller just hours after the listing posted, and secured the second appointment to view it. I was sure we were going to miss out since these campers tend to sell the same day when they’re in good shape and priced fairly. Fortunately, the first buyer passed and having sold our old utility trailer the same day, we went to check out the camper with cash in hand. The camper was in amazing condition so we bought the pop up and towed it home the same day. After the kids went down for bed, we popped open the camper on the driveway and clinked beer bottles at the dinette, excited about our upcoming trips.

It was a stroke of genius to invest in a pop-up camper, and an incredibly lucky break to snatch one for sale in the Fairbanks North Star Borough where there typically two or fewer for sale at any given time. This year we have two littles we want to share the outdoors with. Camping with two tiny kids and two tall adults in a tent, on the ground, surrounded by mosquitos, under the Alaska midnight sun was not going to work for us. Sorry tent camping and backpacking purists, we’re a young family with many needs. We are the first to admit — we are sell outs.

Our camper has a two stove burner, two full size beds, and a sweet dinette that folds down into a twin sized bed. Although our coleman has a sink, we did not camp with full water and electric hook ups, and we didn’t rely on battery power. This was our maiden voyage and we needed it to be as primitive as possible for our own adjustment from tent camping to glamping.

Having a place to hang out, away from the mosquitos, while still catching a summer cross breeze was glorious. Our kids were able to bounce around like normal, the dog had a spot on the floor to nap, and I had kitchen space to whip up some hot chow. Vegan chow, no less.

And blackout curtains! Wonderful, gracious, functional blackout curtains! We don’t even have those up at home yet.

Our site was in the Chena Lakes Recreation area just outside of North Pole, close enough to home for us to bail in the event of some crisis, and close enough to town for us to run and buy more diapers, or whatevers that we may have forgotten.

I’m not one to toot my own horn, but TOOT! I did an excellent job packing up for the camping trip, bringing along all the necessities, and even some creature comforts.

Pop Up Camping - Alaska | Yea Yea Pueblo

Isaac is already brainstorming on how to rig some golf batteries to a solar panel to create super efficient energy for our camper. I need a water holding tank so I can stop going outside to wash dishes. And the kids need a few more blankets to keep cozy when the nights plunge into the high 30s like they did this weekend. We were warm enough, but not as comfortable as we could have been. Electric blankets might be in our future, if Isaac can somehow harness the power of the sun. I still can’t believe electric blankets are even an option for camping. Is it still camping? I’m having some doubts on the legitimacy of glamping, but I just remembered I don’t care.

We spent our days exploring the Chena Lakes area. Towering birch forests enveloped us on our nature walks, and the views from a 40 foot retaining wall were humbling. Snow capped hills rolled on to infinity to the North, and to the south, the Alaska range jutted into the sky, faded in appearance by the miles of atmosphere in between.

Our wildlife sightings were limited, fortunately. While we do carry bear mace on our outings, I have no idea how to use it, so we would likely be in a world of trouble if we came upon a sow and her cubs. On our first night out, there was scratching under my bed, and a low rustle in the brush nearby. A raccoon? A fox? We speculated on what it could have been, but never landed on any conclusions about our mystery visitor.

Camping is great. It’s a free pass to not clean, and to be disorganized. But despite my best efforts, I still tried to reign in the chaos, stuffing gear into our storage boxes, delegating chores to Isaac and even snapping at the dog to eat up food bits that fell to the ground. There were still diapers to be changed, mess kits to be cleaned, and trash to be taken out. Par for the course.

I do believe our Coleman Pop Up Camper will see much use this summer. Alaska’s brutal winter is in the rear view mirror, and the midnight sun is hovering on the horizon (all night long).

Otter Lake, Alaska

May 27, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ 3 Comments

It took longer than I thought it would for us to go camping with Margot. She’s fourteen months old, and before this last weekend, she’d never slept in a tent. Shameful, I know.

We likely would have stayed in a hotel while in Anchorage this past weekend for a Newborn Photo Session, but most were booked, and the Memorial Day Weekend prices were astronomical. On principle alone, it was much more preferable to camp outdoors for the weekend. Otter Lake, Alaska | Yea Yea Pueblo The six-hour drive south from Fairbanks seems to go by quicker in the spring months, maybe because of the long daylight hours, or new budding greenery. Spotting Denali while driving through Denali National Park is the highlight of the commute, so long as the mountain isn’t masked by cloud cover.

It’s not uncommon to see caribou, ibek, moose and other Alaskan critters from the highway all along the scenic drive. This time we spotted a black bear and her three adorable cubs just a mile from our campsite at Otter Lake on Fort Richardson. If photographing the bears were a gun sling, I surely would have been shot dead on the spot… I can never seem to be quick on the draw when obscure wildlife presents itself. One day I’ll get a better shot than the grainy brown bear-butt image I captured in the Yukon last fall. And it’ll always be from the safety of my minivan!

Black bears are small and skittish, though. If we had spotted brown bears, we most certainly would have turned back towards Palmer to find lodging indoors. Sharing a grizzly attack story on an episode of I Survived should be left to more adventurous souls.

We brought Sally along for the trip. My dearly departed Yango, and our new dog Sally have a lot in common — they’re both exclusively city dogs. Being tied to a tree, excluded from hot dog dinners, and swarmed by mosquitoes didn’t equate a good time for Sally, which is weird, because she’s a dog.

It’s a little embarrassing when your dog whimpers at the tent door for you to let her in because she’s cold and the mosquitoes won’t leave her alone, while your camping neighbors have real dogs who chase balls, bark at wildlife, and enjoy dog food. She’s just a spoiled indoor dog who needs her beauty rest.

I love our Sally, though. She’s so docile, lazy and tolerant — all the qualities I want in a dog while my increasingly wild toddler runs amok all around her. Otter Lake, Alaska | Yea Yea Pueblo The novelty of the outdoors was lost on the dog, for sure. The jury is still out on Margot.

She’s a new walker, and she is used to level flooring where she can walk quickly, carry things, and otherwise live out her busy toddler life with ease. In the wooded campground, however, tree roots, rocks, and debris all compromised her gait, leaving her on the ground every few steps, with sticks, dirt and leaves sticking to her clammy toddler palms. She was a good sport about the new method of exploration, but when it came to nap time or bedtime, she was non-compliant. The cry-it-out method we implement at home during nap and bed time was totally futile outdoors, especially without Margot’s precious sound machine and blackout curtains. Fellow campers were assumably unappreciative of her protest cries, and Isaac and I certainly weren’t enjoying it at ground zero, either. To maintain our sanity, we ended up caving to a later bed time (10pm instead of her usual 8) since rowdy young campers were still taking advantage of the extended daylight that runs long into the midnight hours.

We made it through the nights, though. All three of us (and a dog on the second night) in a two-man Mountain Hardware tent.

Isaac was the camp chef for the weekend. He was lucky though, we were close enough to town that we were able to eat out a chain restaurant for lunch one day. I had to go into town for the Newborn Session Saturday, so I obviously wasn’t going to pass up on Starbucks that morning! We were probably the only people disappearing from our campsite during the day to go into town to visit Starbucks and Target. We cheated, okay? Truly we were just trying to get away from the mosquito blood bath we had been enduring at the site.

I came home with over 50 bites and Isaac wasn’t far behind me. We look like we have chicken pox, but the itchiness should subside in another day or so. Margot was the camping miracle who endured not a single bite. She had a few layers on that the mosquitos couldn’t get through, I assume.

Citronella candles and herbal bug repellant were useless against the sheets of swarming mosquitos that are legendary in Alaska. Next time I’ll just layer up much better.

I have no problem car camping near town with a dog and toddler while pregnant, as long as I layer up against mosquitos better the next time, and understand that outdoor sleep schedules nearing the summer solstice in Alaska are for naught. Starbucks helps, too.

Oklahoma City, OK

May 1, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ 6 Comments

Touring a metro area that I called home for nearly a decade seemed a little surreal to me, especially with a growing baby bump and a toddler in tow. I commuted back and forth from the City to Norman, 70 miles a day at my claims adjuster job in what I can only refer to as my ‘old life’.

I worked hard. I still work hard, but I don’t have a paycheck to reflect that every two weeks. Visiting OKC reminded me of the career and young adult life I left behind a couple of years ago. I appreciated the work experience I gained, but I’m happy as an entrepreneur and housewife. On days that I’m bored and cooped up in our on-post housing in Alaska, I remind myself that it could be worse — I could be sitting in my cubicle in OKC, dealing with unhappy insureds, with only a long commute home and a cold meal to look forward to. I spent those days counting down until the weekend when I could have brunch with friends, or until the next payday. Now I’m watching Margot grow up little by little everyday while her little brother tosses and turns in my belly. It’s been so much more rewarding than the insurance workflow I was previously overwhelmed by.

It seems that even while I’ve been away, making major changes in my life over the last two years, Oklahoma has remained the same. Sure, there are a few I-35 improvements, new restaurants, and expanding suburbs, but the landscape hasn’t changed much overall. The scars from the Oklahoma City Bombing remain, although healed in part by a spectacular memorial site. The University of Oklahoma in Norman retains its Cherokee Gothic integrity, even while enduring its decadent student housing expansion. And the downtown area is still under construction — a metropolitan anomaly that is not unique to Oklahoma.

The Arts Festival was more of a people-watching event for me, since Oklahomans wore their Sunday best everywhere. Where were the Chacos? Where were the zip-away hiking pants and gawky gardening hats that I’m used to seeing in the Pacific Northwest? It was a deviation from my new norm, to say the least.

It only took 12 years since moving to, and moving away from Oklahoma to finally visit the OKC Zoo. I guess I was just waiting until I had a toddler of my own to make it more fun. Margot enjoyed waving and playing peek-a-boo with the animals in their exhibits. It was a fairly one-sided engagement for her, since the animals didn’t wave back. It was a sensory treat for her.

Margot got an even better look at the animals near her Great-uncle Sam’s house on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. She ‘helped’ feed the goats, horse and donkey that lived on farms close by. Outside of the zoo, she’s saw her farm animal friends from books in real life. She gleefully waved to them as well.

Traveling with a one-year-old went better than expected; she kept the screaming to a minimum onboard the aircrafts, and back on solid ground, she happily played ‘chase’ and ‘peek-a-boo’ with her Aunts and Grandparents — she even got to meet the Great-aunts who have welcomed her so warmly since her birth. I speculate she is receiving special treatment from Isaac’s maternal side of the family because Margot is the first great-grandchild. She is the changing of the guard, so to speak.

My side of the family is ever-booming in population, so much so that I have aunts and uncles younger than me, and my grandparents have grandchildren older than me. The Sanchez and Shamblin generations know no cyclical bounds in my neck of the family tree.

Visiting to the lower-48 was totally necessary, really fun, and a little too short lived. Next time we’re up for traveling again, we may not be ‘up’ for traveling again! Woodrow Paul will be here, yay!, and Margot will be old enough for us to purchase her plane ticket…grumble.

Oh, looks like you caught that — Woody is what we’re naming our boy. We think it embodies his Okie roots well, while still nodding dutifully to his wooded Alaskan birthplace. We’ll meet our Creole-Mexican-Alaskan baby boy in September, when the leaves turn amber, and the air turns cold once again. Until then, we’ll stick close to Fairbanks.