camping in LA

We went camping for just one night while we were in LA but we had the BEST time.  My nephew had never been before and it was so fun to experience it with him.  And my sister had never been (excluding a mostly disastrous trip when we were kids, so she was a good sport to give it another go).  We went to the Angeles National Forest, which is really huge (larger than LA itself, but not quite as big as LA County).  As we drove there, we were going through what was mostly desert and dusty, cactus-covered land.  Everyone was getting nervous because we all thought, "Is this the type of place where we're going to spend the NIGHT?"  But, when we got to our campsite in the mountains, it was a nice, wooded area that was more like what we were expecting.  My nephew loved seeing the tent go up and had a lot of fun playing and swinging in the hammock.  He got so dirty, and made us all laugh with his stream of chatter and excitement.  When M built a fire, he for some reason wanted to stand in the smoke, even though it was hurting his eyes.  Later, when I asked him what his favorite part of camping was, he said, "Sleeping in a bag!"  What's the least favorite part?  "Getting smoke in my eyes."

We were obviously practicing a lot of fire safety, and he said, rather matter-of-factly, "If I fall in the fire, I'll be like Anakin."

At the end of a lovely day, we all slept soundly on REI pads.  I listened to the wolves howling and felt secure as ever.