Camping Out

I have lived in Oregon, one of the most beautiful places in the United States, which is filled with green forests, crystal clear rivers and creeks. However, I had never gone camping to the ocean shores of Tillamook, Oregon, until my junior year of high school. This is a time in my life when I would have rather gone out with my friends, instead of being out in the wilderness. I also knew that without electricity my routine was going to be changed.  When I dared this experience I was worried, but my mom convinced me to take off with her, my uncle, his wife, and their kids.  My anguish was then replaced by all the fun I experienced in my visit, creating lasting memories.

            My mother had been talking about taking a camping trip for the weekend, two weeks before I started school, something that I had never experienced before. To say the truth, I wasn’t very excited about camping and sleeping somewhere else that wasn’t my own comfy bed. While sitting in the backseat of our mini-van, which was filled with my noisy, yet funny cousins, I was thinking about how my night was going to be like. I thought about mosquitos, and some of the bear warning signs that I had encountered once on my last visit to the beach with some of my friends. Adding all of these thoughts together on the one hour drive from Hillsboro to Tillamook was not forming a very welcoming picture of how a first camping experience should be. 

            We arrived in the afternoon just in time to explore the beach and walk on the soft sand, while the waves of the cold ocean splashed our bare feet. It was a cool afternoon, like it usually is every other summer in Tillamook, making me feel better about spending the night at that place. After some hours of building sand castles and playing soccer on the beach, we ate dinner in our campground. Prior to dinner we decided to set-up camp.  This is when we discovered that a tent was not included, because of my uncle’s forgetful mind. Instead of calling the trip off we decided to be thankful of the sleeping bags and blankets we all brought. During the night my aunt and uncle talked about myths and stories they knew from our Latin cultures, as well as other things that had recently happened in their lives. Meanwhile, I looked up at the sky, and was very amazed at how the sky looked. The dark sky had many twinkling stars, which made you stay in awe of the perfection of such beauty, because in fact I had never seen anything like that. While the hours passed my worries faded and laughter replaced the bad thoughts.       

           The next morning I spotted a couple of mosquito bites on my legs and arms, but I realized that none of us were missing, even though we were exposed to the summery night air. I also have to say that I was somewhat irritated because of the sand, which was indeed in almost every part of my body. In addition, camping out on the beach was one of the most enjoyable times that I ever had, which is why every year I try to convince some of my friends who have never gone camping to join me and have the adventure that I had, without having a lack of faith of fun times ahead.