Car camping with an almost 3 year old

This past weekend we went car camping for the first time with Kenny. In Washington, reservations are pretty much a necessity for the state campgrounds around the busy time of year (i.e., now). I tried reserving a campsite at Deception Pass, but it was completely booked. The only place I found a campsite available was at Dash Point State Park. And let me tell you, there's a reason that nobody else wanted this campsite.

Let me preface my complaints with the fact that Kenny had lots of fun. Sleeping in a tent, having a campfire, roasting marshmallows and hot dogs - all were new and exciting experiences. And Eric and I enjoyed it, through Kenny.

Having said that, the campground itself was a sea of dust. It was about an inch thick wherever there was no pavement. The campground staff actually put some stuff that looked like grass clippings on the dust, which did improve it slightly, but still - very dusty.

The beach was crowded, dirty, full of dogs, and encrusted with mats of dried seaweed. Nothing close to a wilderness experience. Of course, we were 7 miles north of Tacoma, so what did we expect? I was kind of hoping for something like Seahurst Park, in Burien. That doesn't have camping, but it is a great waterfront park, and also pretty close to an urban center.

I have a reminder set up in my Treo for January of next year - make summer reservations at the most popular campgrounds.

The Worst Diet in the World; follow-up

I've been fully recovered from a while now from my bout with doxycycline induced esophagitis (see previous post). It ended up being about a week of being seriously ill, then another week or so of needing to be really careful of what I ate, as lots of things still caused pain on swallowing.

I had written a letter of complaint to Rite Aid about their policy at the pharmacy of not asking if you wanted to speak to a pharmacist (see my earlier post for details). About a week after that, I got a call from a pharmacist who worked at Rite Aid. He could have been a little more gracious, but he did apologize for the whole episode. Interestingly enough, it turns out supposedly they are supposed to ask you if you'd like to speak to a pharmacist. As a matter of fact, it's a legal requirement.

He also said I'd be receiving a gift card from Rite Aid. Haven't gotten it yet, and it's been more than a month. Humph.