Instead of the usual birthday party with a dozen sugar-hyped kids running around, we decided to celebrate our son’s eighth birthday by going camping. His only concern was that he wouldn’t get any presents if he was stuck out in the middle of the woods, but once we reassured him that they were wrapped and waiting for him at home, he was thrilled with the idea of a birthday adventure.

I spent days packing and repacking our gear. I was determined to make sure we had bug spray this time–unlike the time we camped out near Mount Saint Helens–and ended up covered with mosquito bites. Also, I wanted to make sure we would be able to carry everything fairly easily. The site we had reserved was labeled “primitive” and was supposed to be for “hikers and bikers only.” Unfortunately, the forest service maps weren’t clear about how far we’d have to hike in. I guessed it would be about a mile and a half, which isn’t a long walk by any means, but if you have too much stuff to carry, it would get old quickly.

1. tower02, 2. lake, 3. lensflare, 4. paddleboat, 5. peeking, 6. vista02, 7. vista01, 8. road, 9. tower

With everything stowed neatly away in the trunk of our car, we set out early Saturday morning and drove up to Anacortes, where we needed to board a ferry headed for Orcas Island. We missed the first ferry by a narrow margin. We had to wait three hours for the next one. All of us agreed that was not a very fun start to a birthday adventure, but time passed and we boarded next ferry, enjoyed the ride and eventually arrived at Orcas Island.

I’ll say one thing for the place: it’s incredibly beautiful. Each turn in the road brought us something to admire: rolling hills, verdant farmland, lush forests, fresh-water lakes and salty ocean beaches. No wonder it’s the wedding hotspot of our state!

Anyway, we checked in with the park ranger and headed for our campsite, which turned out to be only a couple hundred feet away from the parking lot rather than the mile-and-a-half that I had envisioned. While that brought me relief at the time, I later came to wish the campsite was less convenient.

We hauled our gear up to our site and unpacked everything. It was unclear where our tent was meant to go, which is the first time that’s ever occured to us in a public campground, but we selected a grassy patch of land and set it up. We were towards the back end of the campground, where trails headed out to various destinations. There was only one other tent beyond us, and because it didn’t have a picnic table or site marker, we just assumed it belonged to the park ranger–several spots throughout the area were reserved for the park service’s use.

Anyway, after a quick dinner of Top Ramen (no gourmet food for these hardy backpackers, ha!), we headed out on a short excursion. We couldn’t go too far, since daylight was waning, but a trail led us to a series of pretty waterfalls. It was a nice evening walk.

We decided to go to bed at 8:30, so we would be well-rested for an early start the next day. Well, as Robert Burns wrote,

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley

An hour later, a handful of young people showed up at the mysterious tent behind us, and between playing songs on their acoustic guitar, drinking and puking, shouting and laughing, they kept us up until two or so in the morning. Around 10:30 that night, one of the other campers marched up to their tent and asked them to be quiet since lots of people were trying to sleep. They kind of tried. There was a lot of shushing and giggling, but the party continued, until I got really angry and read them the riot act at about midnight. Another hour or so passed, and there wasn’t as much noise coming from the tent, but somewhere nearby the giggling, shouting, drinking and puking was continuing. Robert went out to investigate.

He found them 50 yards down the trail, sitting in some bushes. As he approached, they tried shushing each other and one kid whispered, “turn off the lights so he won’t see us.” This proves how drinking doesn’t sharpen wits. He had already seen them and heard them…and they were wearing white shirts, so even with the flashlights extinguished, he could see them. Duh.

Robert reiterated that there was a whole campground of people trying to sleep and asked them to be quiet so they could do so. The kids were suprised. “You mean you can hear us way back here?”

Robert was dumbfounded that they would even ask that. He doesn’t usually take walks through the woods in the dead of night. All he could think of to say was, “well, YEAH!”

Robert’s encounter didn’t ultimately have that much effect on them, but mercifully, they fell asleep (into drunken stoopers) not too much later.

Our kids were so exhausted with the excitement of the trip, that they slept through all of this. That was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because they would be in good moods the next day. It was a curse because they would get up early and Robert and I were too exhausted to handle rising early with much grace, but we did the best we could, since the kids woke up at 6:30.

Just after we had finished breakfast, the park ranger showed up asking questions. Apparently there were a few too many cars in the parking lot. It turned out that the party animals were there illegally and they were camped out in our spot. Yes, their tent was set up in the spot where our tent was supposed to go–which explains our confusion the day before! Anyway, the ranger charged them for staying the previous night and gave him 45 minutes to clear out.

I could have hugged him.

We enjoyed the rest of the day with a trip up to the observation tower at the summit of Mount Constitution. It supposedly provides the best view of the Puget Sound; however, it was totally socked in with fog when we first went there. We tried later again in the day, when the fog burned off, and it was indeed spectacular.

We also went for a four mile hike around a gorgeous lake (the kids loved this!), Robert took them on a paddle boat ride, while I lounged around on the beach reading a silly novel. We then spent a VERY peaceful night at our campsite and awoke to the pitter patter of rain…well, it wasn’t really a gentle rain so much as a downpour, but I’m trying to put a positive spin on things here, so give me a break! We got soaked through and through while breaking camp, ate breakfast in a seaside restaurant and waited in line for another three hours at the ferry terminal for our ride home.

It’s funny: so much of our experience this weekend could have been deemed awful, but really, we were all so happy to be out doing something different and spending time with each other that all of us truly enjoyed the trip. In fact, we’re eager to go back. Orcas Island is beautiful and there is a lot to keep a family entertained.