Camping in the time of ‘rona. Well, I wouldn’t call it camping… or even glamping. Maybe something in between. But the past couple days we stayed at Flying Flags Campground, which is a couple hours to our north. We really wanted to do something different and try to have an appropriately social-distanced family trip. We’ve been hemming and hawing over it for weeks, and just leaving the house was a bit nerve-wrecking, as we haven’t really done that much these past few months. I can’t even handle Target to be perfectly honest, so that’s the level we’re at ok?

The campground has different sleeping accommodations from safari tents to cottages to Airstreams to RV parking spots, and we thought the cottages sounded best. It turned out to be a good choice. We were the only family in the whole place wearing our god dang masks!! Having a cottage made it all the easier to stay away from people. The cottages were extra quiet with private bathrooms too. The campground itself was crowded and the RV’s seemed to be packed in like sardines. Obviously that made me worry. So we really made it a point to just keep to ourselves.

The cottage was really small and at times I questioned my sanity. Paying money to go be annoyed in a smaller house?? But in some ways it did feel nice to just be looking at four different walls. Stevie absolutely LOVED it. Mostly because there was a loft upstairs that was just for him. So all the usual activities that he does at home were moved there. Parking cars on the bed, parking cars under the covers, driving RC cars, playing Candyland… and when he was bored with all that, he could throw his flip flops down to the first floor and run them back upstairs to do it all over again. That kept him entertained for some time. I don’t know you guys. He didn’t make me “watch this”, so I let him have it.

We didn’t feel comfortable taking advantage of the pool or other amenities, so we took lots of drives (just like at home) and the change of scenery was quite lovely. Lots of farmland and vineyards and ocean views. We made a quick stop in Solvang for one of the best to-go lunches I’ve had… ever? And we even popped into an Ostrich Farm to feed the birds. It was fairly boring for Stevie. I, on the other hand, was in heaven. I could NOT stop laughing. Ostriches are just super weird and funny and they made me so happy. And the weather was positively gorgeous to boot!

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So I think we’d call the trip a success, and we’d even like to go back — but we will definitely wait until things cool off in the current covid-spike to do it again.

outfit notes

I liked this camping outfit IRL but hated all the pictures. The shirt is too short to get the tuck right or something. I really need to make an updated version one of these days so it has more of a blouse-y affect. But you get the idea. This is what I wore for our first day of cottage-ing, and I packed ultra-light. For day 2, I just changed my shirt. Then today (for the drive home) I wore my comfy, cool linen dress. Always a good travel companion. Same shoes the whole time and hair all a-muss, no fuss. The only way to “camp” if you ask me. And the fanny pack is small but fits a lot, making it one of my favorite vacay bags.

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allyship notes

Just as I’ve been researching my own city of Los Angeles and her racist roots, I always find it compelling to learn about my other favorite places to visit — these stories of racism spread far and wide and are not hard to find. This particular article is a few years old, but it includes the history of Portland. It’s had a fair share of jaw dropping incidents to learn about, even though it’s considered a progressive city. For example, in 1857, Oregon adopted a state constitution that banned Black people from coming into the state all together, let alone owning property or anything like that. I know 1857 feels like a million years ago, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that this type of oppression is a big factor in systemic racism, passed down through generations — still alive and well today.

loves,
jaana