Camping at Pinnacles

On Wednesday, Mommy, Daddy and I drove to a place called Pinnacles National Monument. We camped. This was my second time camping, but I honestly don't remember the first time. It all seemed new to me. We got to the camping place when it was already dark. Daddy built a fire, but it's not like building a building. He took a big knife thing and chopped some wood logs and made a pile. He took a lighter and made fire. Neat stuff. But it's important to stay away from the fire. Even though the flames are pretty, it is NOT to be touched. HOT!! Dinner was cooked on the fire. We had baked beans and hot dogs. For dessert we had 'smores. I just like to eat the marshmallows raw. Good stuff. A raccoon, which is kind of like a big cat with a stripe on its face wanted to eat our food. Daddy told it to go away.

Mommy put up the tent. I helped out by making sure she did everything right. The tent did not fall over so that must mean she did it right. I would have given her sticker for her good work, but I forgot my stickers at home.

We slept in the tent. I slept in between Mommy and Daddy. They slept in sleeping bags. I brought my Elmo bed that you blow up with air and slept on that. Mommy slept on my left side and Daddy slept on my right. But then I moved onto my tummy and then Mommy was on my right side and Daddy was on my left. How did that happen?

I counted the stars before I feel asleep. There were at least 5... million scabillion!

When it was morning, I turned to Mommy and said, "Mommy wake up! It's a beautiful day!" She looked up at the blue sky and said, "You're right! It IS a beautiful day!" We giggled. Daddy got up and made another fire. I got dressed and helped him while Mommy put the sleeping bags away. I noticed that there were footprints on our car. That raccoon walked on our car. Hey!


We had a yummy breakfast--bagels, cheese, sausage. I drank hot cocoa. Mommy and Daddy had coffee, although Mommy said something about how it was sludgy. I saw really big birds (but not the yellow Big Bird) fly overhead. Mommy said they were California Condors. Neat!

We heard rustling noises in the bushes. "Look! It's a deer!" Mommy and I investigated. We kept our distance, but we watched a pretty deer looking for breakfast. The deer saw me and watched me for a while. I didn't do much though except look back.

After breakfast, Mommy made sandwiches for our lunch and we broke down camp. That means we cleaned up and put everything away. Leave only footprints. Take only photos and memories!

Soon we went on our hike. It was hilly. It was hot. And it was pretty! Luckily there were lots of trees that shaded us. We passed by bat caves. We also walked through a rocky tunnel. "Tunnel!"

We ate lunch at a thing called a Reservoir, which looks like a big lake. There were tons of dragonflies flying around. Big red ones and small blue ones. We hiked some more. Then we hiked back. We stopped along the way to look at the pretty views and climb on some rocks.


We left the park and then drove to get ice cream! Yummy. I had a banana split with a scoop of cherry ice cream and a scoop of mocha almond fudge. Hot fudge syrup was poured over it, then whipped cream, then topped off with a bright red cherry. Delicious!

I had a good time camping. I told Mommy that next time I want Uncle Eric and Auntie Wendy to come with us. Mommy tells me that Uncle Eric has never been camping before. I told her that I will help him out if he comes.