The Outdoors

I was a city girl that had never been on a camping trip let alone go on hikes. Living in Seattle I noticed that Washingtonians love the great outdoors! Learning this was exciting but I didn't know where to start with trying to even go camping on my own. How would I build a tent? What can I eat? I was clueless.

Fortunately my boyfriend had friends that wanted to get away for a few days to go camping by a town called Eatonville. It was finally happening; I was going to spend a few nights in the middle of nowhere. OK I had a million questions like would there be toilets? Would we have Internet access still? BEARS? Oh and how would we cook because I really hoped we didn't have to really build a fire. 

We drove to the town and upon arriving everything changed. We were in the this small town that had one building for each type of business: one grocery store, one bar, one liquor store, one diner, etc. Craziness. We went from big city to where the heck am I the twilight zone? 

Anyway my boyfriend's friends were great. They taught me how to build a fire and build my own little tent. What a blast! The weather was beautiful that weekend to so we swam and wrestled in the lake and  walked some nice trails. 

In the end I was thrilled that I tried something different and I didn't have to travel far to do it. I love how the people here are both city and outdoor cultured; it just gives me a broader perspective of Washingtonians. I'm impressed by how Washingtonians can really dip into city life and outdoor life so easily like it's all in the same. It's not something people can't do where I'm from so this was an experience for me and appreciate the open mindedness of the people here and the sense of community no matter where you are.