Camping with the Scouts

TORII BEACH CAMP OUT

David went camping with the Boys Scout Troop out to Torii Beach the weekend of January 16-18. He has camped many times with Boy Scouts, but this was his first camp out without Mike along (Mike usually camps with the Scouts as one of the adult leaders). Since Mike had to work on Friday and Matt was wrestling on Saturday, he decided to pass on this camp out. David was not too thrilled that he would be "by himself", but he decided to tough it out.

The scouts gathered at the Scout Hut Friday afternoon and were on the road by 5:30PM. We allowed David to take his cell phone as a comfort (they do not usually allow phones/electronics to go). Sure enough, about bed time we got a teary call from David. "Can't sleep", "Other Scouts too loud", "The others won't go to bed"...in other words, "Mom and Dad, I miss you!". We stayed positive, gave our love and kisses over the phone, and hung up... and Mom felt her heart break a little!
David did call in the morning- having a great time and they were heading out on their 10 mile hike "Love ya, bye!!". From what we heard, it was a beautiful hike through Torii Station and up to some castle ruins. How cool is that to hike to castle ruins???

Mike, Matt and I went up Sunday morning to pick David up. They had had perfect weather for the camp out- warm and sunny with very little wind. The camping area there is RIGHT on the beach- very pretty. Here are a couple of photos of the beach in front of the camping area. I am not sure what the stakes sticking our of the water are...maybe they harvest seaweed out there or something.

Later, we heard from the scout master, Walt, a funny story. For dinner on Saturday night, the boys were going to cook meatballs and rice to put in tortillas (this is a meal Matt learned from his Anacortes troop, and it has quickly become a favorite in this troop). David was assigned the task of cooking the meatballs. As he gets things set up, David whips out his cell phone. Walt asks him what he is doing. "I'm calling Matt to see how to how to make the meatballs!". Walt laughed. "I think we can figure this out- put away the phone!"
Mike and I got a chuckle from that. David has helped prepare this meal lots of times- yet felt he had to call his brother to make sure he was doing it right.

So our "Baby" survived his first "solo" camp out. Sigh. Just another step along the way of growing up...