I lost my camping mojo after the last trip of last year. Just didn’t think I had it in me for this summer. For the first time in many years, I didn’t stalk parks.wa.gov site 9 months out, waiting to scoop up my favorite sites.

Usually we camp 3 or 4 times in a year, so it was a bit strange not to have any trips on the docket. We watched from the sidelines while friends planned the now-regular trip to Steamboat Rock.

But then Danielle started making rumblings about doing just ONE trip. Surely we had that in us, she said. She would even find the spot. This late in the game that would be a tricky thing. So of course I had to get online and see if there was even anything decent to be had. By this time our visiting friends from Germany and Yinnie and Spike were game too, so we needed either 4 sites or 2 big enough to get cozy on.

There was 2 sites at Scenic Beach State Park. We’d been there before several years ago. It’s an easy trip – a ferry ride from downtown Seattle to Bremerton or Edmonds to Kingston, and then maybe 30 minutes driving. Not too far but seems another lifetime away.

Anytime a ferry is involved, it instantly becomes both more fun and more work – dealing with the schedules and potential wait times – but it can also mean less time driving.

The fact that it was a quintessential Seattle summer day didn’t hurt. We didn’t even bring the canopy.

By some Christmas miracle, we made the first ferry out of Seattle, and pulled up at the ranger station right behind Jim and Kathleen who’d come across at Kingston. And then there was this.

This is the view out your tent when you don’t need to put on the rainfly, something we’ve never been able to do in maybe 7 years of Seattle camping.

We were gone 4 days, not so many miles but worlds away. Friends met, kids assimilated, and we all took it down a notch. The only decisions to be made were what and when to eat and drink or go to the beach. No screens to look at. I “checked in” on the ferry, and that was it. Much laughing, talking, walking, sitting around the fire.

That’s when I remembered why we camped in the first place. Yes, it’s a boatload of work, basically bringing the contents of your house with you so you can live in the woods for a few days. But the recharging and resetting of your insides, the living at a different speed and engaging with your family and friends face to face instead of virtually – THAT is why we do it.

Already planning for next summer.