Wednesday, July 24, 2013

gramping 2013 ~ part 2

For the final segment of our 2013 gramping experience...
we changed locations.

We loaded up the bikes...
and our two oldest grands...

 
...and headed to Fort Camping at Brae Island Regional Park in Fort Langley.

What a great place to camp with the girls...
other than the mosquitoes!


Emerson and Spencer are eleven years old...
and exploring by bicycle was much more appealing to them than the playground.

Fort Langley is a quaint historic village with shops, restaurants and museums...
and is surrounded by the Fraser River and lush agricultural countryside.

We were camped next to the river and right near the village...
so after setting up camp we went exploring.
 

It is a clean and tidy town...
with lots of neat places to visit.
 

One of my favorite stops is always Wendel's Bookstore where they claim to have a great selection of
only the best and most interesting titles

We checked to see if they had two particular cookbooks that might fall into that category.
Bingo!
They were somewhat hidden on the shelves though...
so we made sure they were a little more visible!

Today Fort Langley is a small village of 3,400 people.
But it is also known as the birthplace of British Columbia...
and is home to the Fort Langley National Historic Site...
a former fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Somehow I have managed to live nearby all my life and never paid a visit to the old fort.
 We decided it was time!


If you ever visit Fort Langley...
be sure to include a tour of the Fort Langley National Historic Site.
It is not often that one walks through a museum where everything is out in the open...
rather than behind glass.


Adjacent to our campground was a trail which runs for miles along the river.
Posted signs advised us to watch for bear.
We watched...but never saw.


The river...once the hub of the fur traders...
now serves as a playground in the summertime.
 

Though we saw swimmers swimming...
and jumpers jumping (off of bridges)...
we stuck to biking and observing.

Across the river was another gravel trail that we checked out.
It is called the fort-to-fort trail...
and connects Fort Langley to Derby Reach...
some 7 kilometers away.

Biking is fun.
But food is funner...
so it seems.

One of the girls' favorite camping foods are the campfire cinnamon snakes.


You don a Pillsbury Doughboy apron (optional)...
and open the can of Pillsbury crescent rolls.
It seems they find opening the package as much fun as making the treats!


The crescent rolls are wrapped around a roasting stick...
over a layer of foil...
and roasted over the open fire.
Once they are golden and cooked to perfection...
they are brushed with butter and rolled in a cinnamon/sugar mixture.


So good!

Now let me end with one of our camping-food-fiascos.
The girls remembered that we popped Jiffy popcorn over the campfire one year...
and wondered if we might try that again.
So off we went to buy some Jiffy popcorn.


We could not remember how we did it last time...
but soon figured out that the wee handles on the Jiffy package were too short.

So we attached the popcorn to a roasting stick with Duct tape.
Duct tape may be good for many things...
but not near a fire!

It soon melted away.
Next we used the longest tongs we could find.

The girls were very patient in holding the popcorn above the flames...
but after half an hour with no popping happening...
Grandpa took over.


So ended our popcorn experience...
in a ball of flames.

After all that waiting...
we had no popcorn.

I had popcorn twists in the RV...
but they declined the offer saying that was just not the same.
Maybe we will perfect our campfire popcorn method for next year!

We are back from camping...
and on to new things this week.
Though we never saw a bear along the biking trail...
we spotted one this week...
in a most unlikely spot...
a few feet from where we were strolling.

Next post!

 
 

21 comments:

  1. Judy, you and your husband sure are having a fun and busy time with the grandkids! Great photos in this post and the previous one. Making memories. :)

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  2. So surprising that there were no field trips to the fort for you while you were growing up. What fun to see it for the first time with grands.
    Chuckling at the pop corn...couldn't just be cooked over the stove inside the camper? Of course not!

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  3. Ahhhh...the originals! We have a few places like that near to us that we have never visited. We should treat our own locales as the tourists do and I'm sure that we'd be enlightened. Your bear story sounds very interesting!

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  4. What a lovely time you all had. I wonder where the bear was?

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  5. What a wonderful time it looks like you had. I will have to remember those cinnamon sticks, haha, my grands would love them!

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  6. I enjoyed reading about your Gramping this year, Judy. Can't wait to do some of that.....soon!
    Fort Langley is a place I like to visit a couple of times a year. I enjoy the bookstore and the antique stores - always finding some little treasure there.

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  7. What a great memory for grands and grandparents!

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  8. I'm glad you gave us a look at this little get a way as we just talked this week about trying this out with our grandkids and did take a drive there. Now it's on our list for the future. Your twins are at such a perfect age! We've not tried the cinnamon snakes yet...but they sure do look good!

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  9. Oh what fun it must be to be your grands...you make it sound so easy!
    hugs
    Sandi

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  10. I saw when I passed your place last night that you were home again. I can see you had a wonderful time making memories with your grandgirls. You and Elmer know how to keep it simple while still achieving your granchildren's joyful satisfaction!

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  11. Oh what a tease! Looks like a great spot with the older girls. That fort looks like a great stroll through. Oh boy now I want one of those cinnamon twisty stick thingees! They look real good.

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  12. Looks like a wonderful time.Sorry about the popcorn...but the "snakes" look delish!!

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  13. Yes. I agree with Miss Debbie... the snakes look yummy! Your different camping stages sure do highlight how time moves on. Don't you always look forward to the next stage?

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  14. Terry says...Grandpa! Oh so fun. I will definitely pick up some crescent rolls for our grandcamping. That looks just so yummy. We will have to see if we can come up with a jiffypop campfire experiment that works out. Who knows? Those girls are so grown up already and I can see that they must be so much fun!

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  15. Pillsbury would do well to use those cute pictures in their ads. That cinnamon sugar roll looks so delicious, and the fact that it was made over a campfire was even better. I look forward to riding bike with our grandchildren. Great pictures!

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  16. Isn't it fun to take the older ones on new adventures. There is nothing like camping food. Looks like some nice bike trails. I need to check those out sometime. Wendels is my favorite hang out spot form TWU days.
    And now your real camping trip at your home is about to terminate.
    We will need to plan a cycling trip soon, rather than just riding to the farm.

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  17. Fort Langley looks like an interesting place to visit, Judy! It looks like your twin grand girls had a wonderful time there, even with the popcorn fiasco! :)

    I look forward to seeing your bear encounter--that is always exciting!

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  18. You need to visit a local camping supply store and purchase an over the fire popcorn maker! A lightweight metal box with a long handle; uses a bit of oil and about 1/4 cup popcorn. It's a tradition for our family every year to make campfire popcorn and it turns out really well! However, one year I put too many kernels in the box and the lid blew off with popcorn literally flying everywhere! Good memories!

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  19. Sorry, me again! Here is the model we have: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Buffalo-Tools-CIPOP-Campfire-Popcorn-Popper-/400316292409

    We found it locally at a sports/camping supply store for $19.99.

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  20. Thanks, Maureen. I'm taking notes here...for next time!

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