City Campers

LONG STORY: A sunny Friday - hooray! So, this afternoon, during the kids' break between programming/dance and acting classes in West Seattle, we headed to a park I've been wanting to check out for years - Camp Long.

Don't let the morose expression fool you - CJ was happy to be there, I swear ;)

I first discovered Camp Long's existence probably about 15 years ago, when I was online researching potential places to stay in Seattle not too far from Safeco Field when we still lived down south. I always thought it would be a kick to 'camp' out and then go to a ball game, but we just never did it. Camp Long has always been in the back of my mind as a place to check out. Today, it was in the front of my mind. 

Before we left home, I packed the kids a small picnic lunch, and as soon as their morning class ended, we headed for Camp Long, just about 7 minutes away from their 'school.' 

What a treasure the place is! It totally exceeded even my wildest mind's eye visions of what it might be. Camp Long is a heavily forested 68-acre park. It's an amazing emerald oasis in the middle of the city. Here are the kids going into the woods. ... 

We quickly encountered fun ways to cross little waterways.

And we came across several great, rustic cabins you can rent for $50 a night.

The kids *totally* want to do it, and I'm inclined to agree. It's kind of funny thinking of paying that much to 'rough' it for an evening, but the cabins are charming looking, each with an outdoor oven/grill - and a cold, dirty bathroom a bit of a walk away. ;)

One of the park's main draws is a challenging ropes course. This isn't a great photo of it, but take my word for it, it looks like a doozy. It would definitely get the heart racing. The obstacles are pretty darn high off the ground and look plenty wobbly.

You have to rent the ropes course, and there were LOTS of signs telling you to keep off otherwise, so we kept our distance.

We did NOT keep our distance from Schurman Rock. Originally built in 1939 by the Works Progress Association, it's purportedly the first man-made climbing rock in the U.S. It's made from all natural materials, and is named after Clark Schurman, a mountaineer who worked at Camp Long. 

The climbing feature has a variety of routes built into it. You can take it mostly easy, or challenge yourself. The kids clambered right up the rock. They were a little sketched out by coming down, but made it with no real trouble. 

IN OTHER NEWS: I've been working on a whole lot of cookies the last couple of days, including some 3D sun ones. Can you find Annabelle's among the suns? It's the cutest one. :)