Van Camping with Rory

We took advantage of perfect Napa Valley weather and a new-to-us local campground to steal Rory away for an overnight camping trip.

Rory and Julie snacking

Friend Karen was in town and joined us, using my backpacking gear and our almost vintage Big Agnes tent for her lodging. After picking Rory up from daycare we drove about 25 miles up valley to Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.

The young man is relentless about telling anyone around him where he wants to be: outside! This park didn’t disappoint, though the large patches of poison oak made us wary of letting him wander too much. Lots of ball play in the small parking area near the restrooms. A little bit of zoomie bike riding on the road.

When Rory woke up in the van (middle of the night, morning), seeing how close he was to the surrounding forest he would simply exclaim “outside!”.

Our hiking crew

On Saturday morning we gathered ourselves for a short hike along Richey Creek. He enjoyed the hiking just fine, but all he really wanted to do was hang out by the creek and throw rocks in. Or just gather rocks in a menagerie in preparation for throwing them in.

Bale Grist Mill

After packing up we drove a mile towards Napa and stopped at the Bale Grist Mill, well worth the visit to see a mill operating and producing flour. I’ll be making some bread with purchased souvenir flour today.