This was me about 2 weeks ago.

My friends it’s true…I went CAMPING. Don’t cry, everything is fine.

For those of you who know me, you’re already well versed in the Danielson ways of vacationing. Bigger cities (i.e Seattle, Portland, New York), hotel rooms, shopping, Red Robin and the occasional melt-down. An outdoorsy, rollin around in the dirt, sports playin youngin’ I was not. My childhood was all about stirrup pants, Hello Kitty, trading stickers, Barbies and trying to convince my Mom to crimp my hair like errday.

When I started going out with B, I knew I was in for some adventures…hello THE PASS. But I was actually excited about trying this whole camping thing.

Apparently, there are different kinds of camping. For your convenience, I shall break them down in laments terms for ease of understanding:

• Backpacking – This is when you hike with a really-effing-heavy pack on your back into the wilderness, stop at some point, put up a tent and go to sleep. Advantages – great workout and the scenery might be pretty. Disadvantages – Having to carry everything you need on your person. This means that a 5th of vodka, ipod player, Juicy jumpsuit and 3 bags of Stacy’s Pita Chips are simply out of the question.
• Car Camping – This is when you drive in the luxury of your own vehicle to the campsite directly and either sleep in your car or in a tent. Advantages – Ability to pack as much as you like, including multiple bags of chips, cases of beer/wine/vodka, ukuleles (why not?) and maybe a teacup yorkie named Professor Snazzypants. Disadvantages – n/a.

To ease me into the whole camping thing, Bryan opted for the car camping option. That’s m’boy.

We departed at around 2 o’clock and Bryan had smartly packed all the essentials.

• Clothes
• Tent
• Sleeping bags + pillows
• Chairs
• Cooler
• Beer, wine, rum
• Water
• Food
• Bear spray
• Sunblock
• Toilet Paper
• Camera
• Fire Wood

My contributions.

• Dry Shampoo
• Blush + Mascara
• Nerds Rope
• Chex Mix
• 2 celebrity gossip magazines and a Food and Wine
• Hot Pink deck of cards

We drove out to Slide Lake (about 1 hour from Jackson) and claimed a camping spot as we anxiously awaited our friends, Jeremy and Lorie to join us. To pass the time, we ate, drank and played trivia games on Bryan’s phone.

When Jeremy and Lorie arrived, we decided to try and find a more secluded spot along the Gros Ventre River. It didn’t take long for us to find this little gem.

We immediately made a fire and let the good times roll.

The next morning B and I woke up around 8:30 and went on a “nature-walk” as I was calling it (SO Bob Ross). But not before I got in a little bit of breaking news:

And dorky faces…

Our Nature Walk was so beautiful and we had a nice little 20 minute stroll.

Check out this arty photo I took of the wildflowers:

When we returned to camp, Jeremy and Lorie were stirring and Lorie brought the ingredients to make breakfast sandwiches. Ingredients included:

• Amazing organic ciabatta bread
• Tomato
• Bacon
• Homemade Pesto Aioli

Can you say holy-yum?

Since my allergies were killin me softly and I forgot my meds (aka Allegra) we packed up camp and hit the road back to Jackson.

Overall, I did a pretty good job at camping. Some would argue that one cannot be “good” or “bad” at camping, but I think you can. The only skills I need to work on are

1.) packing more candy

2.) bringing allergy medicine and

3.) urinating in the woods :-).