"But the love of adventure was in father's blood"
-Buffalo Bill
It would be an exercise in futility to try and describe the expressions on some of
our friends and families faces when we first
hatched the idea of beach camping with our 4 month old son, and while I was not
surprised by their reaction, it should come as no surprise that we would
carry out what we had said all along.
The baby would be an extension of our lifestyle, not a
detractor.
To say that I didn't have a measure of anxiety as we slowly cruised
across Core Sound would be shortsighted, I was well aware of the unique challenges
that come with beach camping on Portsmouth Island and I was about to introduce
my infant son to an environment that can go from pristine to violent in the
time it takes for the wind to change direction.
As things go, mother nature appeared to mock my decision
making and thick rain clouds began to stack up in the distance while we set up camp for the first night.
While I love adventure, I try not to be fool hearty about
placing my family in compromising situations, should the need arise, our "back-up" plan would be to retreat to
the Tacoma if things got too sketchy for the tent.
Our first 2 nights on the island would test my resolve with
seemingly endless bands of thunderstorms that rumbled in from the sound then drifted down
the beach only to regroup off shore.
Emotions collide with reason in these situations, and there
was a degree of unspoken tension as Ash and I sat on the tailgate of the truck
sipping beer watching magnificent
lighting strikes out over the sea wondering if we had made the right decision.
To say that these situations are surreal would be an
understatement, think what you like, but camping on an uninhabited island is
not Disney Land and there are certain risk that have to be taken into
consideration.
That being said, the feeling of sitting there with Ash in that
moment is still with me, which is the entire point of going.
So the babies' first camping trip went off without a hitch, there
were no boogie men lying in wait, the mosquitoes did not carry him off, wild
animals did stalk our site (that we are aware of), and not a single shark breached
the depths of the ocean to try and rob us of our newborn son, and while a few
thunderstorms did create a short lived pucker factor, the trip and the memories it
created illustrate that life doesn't end with the introduction of a child, it
begins... again...
Stephen
