Community camping at Hanna Park with our friends

What a dream week of camping we just had at Hanna Park in Jacksonville, Florida. Our friends Val and JF flew from Ottawa to come camping with us for a week and Helen Anne and Dan and the kids camped right by us too. A little community on the road. Exactly what we needed at this point of our trip!

Val and JF are also translators and JF is really good in the marketing stuff, among other things. I remember when I worked in an ad agency in the old days and I had a pitch to come up with for the next day. That night we were going out together to a Mexican restaurant and he was just firing up the best ideas over sangria and tacos. This time around, when a big rush contract fell on my lap Friday at a quarter to 5 (for Tuesday morning - and advertisement is not my usual line of work), I was so grateful he was there. Coming up with ideas together over gin and tonic while washing camping dishes didn't even felt like work!

Mountain biking with friends. Dropping our bikes in the middle of the trail because we spotted a barred owl that looked back at us for a while. Further down in the thick jungle-like forest, finding a very loud meowing and snuggly cat that looked so out of place that we felt it might have been a lost RV cat that needed to be saved... until JF and Mara caught up with us and reminded us that we were not in the middle of Big Bend National Park, but in a county park and that there were houses 350 meters away... I guess we were still in animal life saving mode...

Seeing how fast birds can build a nest when our friends left the back door of the van open one morning (in 4 hours they had brought a lot of material in there to start their nest!) 

Removing a tick from a very brave 5 yo little girl's neck (so glad for Google search even while camping!).


Organic frozen yogurt at Happy Cup in Jacksonville. Walking hand in hand with friends.

Hilarious Seinfeld impersonations. A shrimp peeling marathon. Hauling moss in firewood bags and made up games.

Hair cutting lessons. Flute lessons. Juice making lesson.

Very wet days and nights. Bike bruises. Sun burns. Bug bites.

And many, many, MANY games of Carcassonne at *almost* every hour of the day and night.

This is what group camping memories are made of...