Campfire Tales: Changing My Mind

My mom always says “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.” And I do, often. Just ask my husband.

What if changing your mind is more than just a fleeting thought? More than just choosing spaghetti over a hamburger for dinner. What if you actually change the way you think about the world? Change the way you think about your abilities and limitations? Change your priorities?

I love Sister Hazel’s take on the subject in “Change Your Mind.” They say, “If you wanna be somebody else, change your mind.” The album cover even has a slide on a raft! I feel like that’s a bit of the journey I’ve taken over the past two years writing this blog. My mind is changed. Profoundly. As big a part of my life as it was before — playing outdoors is even more of a priority. And I appreciate all the benefits so much more!

So much so, that even the threat of a rainstorm didn’t stop us from our weekend plans of camping out. Hard core campers might be laughing, but I want my kids to have a few more enjoyable experiences before we really start “roughing” it. Instead of spending the night in a tent from Saturday to Sunday. We took off to Doheny State Beach Friday afternoon to beat the rain — with our charcoal briquets in hand for a campfire. We’d decided to have every bit of the campout experience (minus the sleeping in a tent). We:

• Bundled up in warm clothes.
• Set up the tents on the beach for playing.
• Relaxed in our camp chairs.
• Brought way more food than we needed.
• My 8yo dug holes at the beach, while my 4yo flitted around “camp” doing pretend chores.

We got a fire roaring in the fire pit:

We grilled up our dinner.  And then, of course, we had to have some:

We stayed until it was past bedtime (a special treat). We sang songs and told ghost stories. We watched bunnies playing in the grass. The kids led us around with the lanterns. We watched the fire and talked, until the campfire burned down to embers:

You don’t have to be a camper to enjoy time around the campfire.  Here are some more places in OC with fire pits:

• Doheny State Beach (We were headed for the day-use area at the south of the park, but it had been damaged by the recent storms. The ranger was unsure when/if it would re-open for day-use.  So we grabbed a fire pit by the lifeguard offices.)
• Aliso Beach Park
• Huntington Beach (although they just temporarily removed 84 of their 167 fire pits)
• Or check this listing of Beach Bonfire locations from BeachCalifornia.com

Most are first come, first serve — so either get there early or have a Plan B. Also, check for parking fees. You can buy firewood from the rangers at Doheny, or you can bring your own.