Home Sweet Camp

For those who are not familiar with pop-up camping, I thought I would show you around a little bit.  We picked up a 1999 Coleman Bayside for this trip - an upgrade from the circa 1988 pop-up we had inherited from my parents a few years ago.  While the Bayside is significantly heavier, it offers some features that go along way towards keeping us comfortable on a trip this long.

 First, it has two king-size beds, so we can put the boys on one side and us on the other.  Second, it has a dinette bump out, which not only provides a designated dining area, it also keeps the floor clear to allow access to the boys' bed.  In our previous trailer, if we had the table set up, we had to climb over it to get to the bed, and if we had it set up as a bed (as we usually did for CJ to sleep on) we did not have the option of eating inside.  Finally, the Bayside has a battery that charges from the car when we drive, which allows us to use lights when we're not at a campground with electricity, and even has a fridge that can run on DC, AC or gas.  All in all, we've been pretty happy with the upgrade!

I still prefer to be setting up for at least 2 nights when we camp - otherwise the time it takes to set-up and take-down camp cuts into the time we can spend exploring or driving.  But overall, this is a pretty happy medium between tent camping and RVing.

These two nights in Yosemite are our last camping nights of the trip. We're looking forward to enjoying our last stop in the great outdoors!