Chris' good friend Emily wanted to celebrate her birthday with a good old fashioned campout, and so at noon we headed off for Lake Perris, a campsite an hour and a half off Interstate 15.
Here's a fun fact about Perris, California: It's freaking hot.
This picture is before we even got there:
Yes. That's a reading of 109 degrees.
There were seven of us to start out with, and two others arriving later that night. And since the temperature had topped at 111 degrees, we decided to set up camp as fast as possible, throw on the bathing suits, and head down to the lake.
It was pretty crowded, but we managed to section off our own little square of water, and Emily even found someone with an air pump to blow up the pool floats. If you've never had the experience of laying out on a pool float in a lake, drifting along in a rhythm that makes you want to fall asleep, with the sun warming your back... well, you should try it. It's amazing.
I didn't want to take my camera down to the lakefront, so this is the only picture I've got of the lake, with that cute OSF posing in front of it.
Then it was back to the campground, where the boys started a fire in the pit and Cody fired up the grill for dinner. It was still freaking hot, and no one bothered trying to keep the pit alive. Sad, since Cody and Emily had brought up a ton of firewood.
While Cody grilled up a ton of burgers and hot dogs, we sat around in our wet suits and camping chairs, snacking on Goldfish and french onion Sun chips, and wondering when in the heck the heat was going to stop.
Silly, OSF. Why do you hide from the camera?
Our amazing chef, Cody, taking his duties very seriously.
The OSF and I, in our post-swimming, lake gunk covered, gross and sweaty state.
It still hadn't cooled down by the time the sun went down and the "games" started. I'm just going to say that these games may or may not have involved red cups, a deck of cards, and various bottles. In the middle of the "festivities," Sarah and Kristen finally made it to the campsite, bringing more ice and snacks with them. We stayed up until around midnight, chatting about Disneyland passes and our favorite characters on The Big Bang Theory, before the "game drinks" and two hour swimming excursion finally caught up with us.
I think it was actually cool for a total of one hour during the night. All I know is that I eventually fell asleep feeling hot and woke up around 7:30 feeling hot, with a brief reprieve at 1:30am when I ventured out into the cool for the bathroom.
Cody was up bright and early when I woke up, already working on breakfast for the troops. Bacon and eggs, baby. Because Chris and Sarah demanded it.
The plan was to stay until checkout at noon, but as the temperature rose higher and higher, we decided to "get the he out of he" as Chris put it. So while breakfast was cooking, the rest of us packed up tents and bags so we could make a quick exit.
Chris and Emily work on breakfast's finishing touches.
After breakfast, we loaded up the cars; somehow, even with all we ate, drank, and/or left behind (ahem, firewood), we still had a heck of a time getting everything back in the two cars. It took awhile, but we finally managed to squeeze in the last camping chair, and jumped in the air conditioned cars to "get the he out of (t)he."
We were back before eleven, to find that San Diego was a measly 86 degrees. 86. Phfffshh. You haven't felt heat until you've been to Perris in July.
And the final trip picture: Chris and Sarah jumping on the pile of blankets and sleeping bags as we unpacked the car.
