I don’t know about you all, but I start getting really, really excited about a camping trip about two weeks beforehand.

For instance, my family and I are going to Belleplain State Forest in Woodbine, NJ on September 23rd for the weekend. Here it is September 9 and I’m already getting excited and planning the trip.

I just love being out there, sitting around a campfire or fishing with my boys or splashing around the pool or the pond.

I just can’t wait!!!

This trip is doubly special because it looks like we are going to be joined by a new family this trip. We have spent a pretty good amount of time with this family in the last couple of years due to scouts and baseball and both living in a pretty small town. We know they camp because we have talked about it and compared notes on the different campgrounds we’ve both visited.

This is just the first time we have been able to coordinate both families hanging out together, so I think this is going to be a really good trip if not “one of the classics”. I will explain that later, I don’t have the time to go into “the classics” at the moment.

They seem to be similar minded when it comes to activities and schedules while on a trip – which just means they agree that schedules don’t exist and we do whatever activities the kids feel like almost whenever they feel like it. No, we don’t allow our kids to play flashlight tag at the top of their lungs at 11pm.

So I am excited and hopeful. I know we are going to have fun because I decide to. I hope things work out with this other family as it will give us another family to share our fun with while camping.

Talk to you soon!

My family and I spent a weekend at the Allaire State Park a year or so ago and though we had a good time I don’t think we will be back anytime soon.

There was nothing wrong with the park, there was nothing wrong with the quaint little village and there was nothing wrong with the antique railroad that resides there.

There just wasn’t a whole lot to do there.

I understand that it’s a State Park and they aren’t notorious for activities and amenities, but it was just okay.

We went with another family that we have been camping with many times in the past and we had a bunch of fun with them. We get along very well with this other family and are very likeminded in our objectives when camping: have some fun and relax.

The sites at Allaire are of a decent size, the restroom facilities were clean and seemed to be fairly well maintained and of course the antique village and railroad are right around the corner so all in all it was a decent campground.

I don’t really know how to explain it except that we had to work at keeping the kids occupied through the weekend, something which none of us enjoy and none of us want to do.

So final rating:

It was okay and I would probably only go back with a larger group of people and with at least a handful of coordinated activities planned to keep the kids active and happy.