Florida Glamping Fun
I grew up camping with my family. We loved to hang out with our extended family, throw up tents and put a few lines in the lake. We roasted our marshmallows and caught bugs in jars. Well it has been many years since those times and I grew to be afraid of bugs and such. Factor in that I married a dude who had never touched a grill, never went fishing and only went camping when forced and counted it among the most miserable times of his life, and you might guess that I haven’t been camping in quite a while!
Fast forward to year 12 of marriage and my husband is a grill master and loves to go fishing so naturally I wanted to see if I could sneak a camping trip in the mix. He was all for it! I had been hearing a lot about glamping and considering our camping skill level, (a combined PSR 0.25), I thought that it might be a nice intro back into camping. After doing a quick search on the interweb, I found a place close by and booked 2 nights. The location was Topsail Preserve Park and they rent a campsite out through www.fancycamps.com.
It was a beautiful location. The beach was about a mile from the campsite but they offer a free tram that will take you to and from the oceanside. We took advantage of the tram as well as walked and rode bikes. There was a strong sense of community between the campers and we were welcomed with open arms.
A few things we learned:
There may be an A/C unit but it is no match for Florida heat! If you go anywhere close to the summer then plan to be somewhere else during the high heat points of the day.
Food on a stick is your friend. I marinated and made a few different types of kebabs for dinner. It made dinner super smooth and not to mention delicious! I will share my recipes for them on an upcoming blog.
Put up every single thing that is outside! We were visited by a very curious, well-fed racoon and I think he wanted to stay the night!
For me, camp fogger spray was a must. I am a beacon for mosquitos so besides spraying myself with spray, the camp fogger really provided some relief.
My other must is coffee, (I am drinking some right now in fact). I wasn’t sure about how we were going to get our coffee in so I did some google research. We ended up buying a kettle and a french press. We rented a camp stove through FancyCamps to heat up our kettle and voila, coffee.
Glamping turned out to be the perfect thing for a romantic weekend. It gave us a chance to reconnect without all of the distractions of life but with the ease of a ready-to-go campsite. I highly recommend it. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and we are ready to take our camping to the next level and get a tad more primitive.
