Over the Memorial Day weekend, we had our monthly family camp out at Ho`omaluhia. I didn't take many pictures as I was under the weather so picture duty went to my lovely wife and lovely monkey princess #1.

We got there first thing to pick our spot for what was going to be a busy long weekend of campers. So since I got to my preferred spot first, I put my stuff down to stake my claim before I begin to set up. Then this lady comes along. Her group have been regulars there for a long time. She puts her stuff under the tree that I am about to set up under and stuff under EVERY tree around to reserve spots for campers that aren't even there yet. My wife and I are looking at each other and saying how UNcool that was. My wife asked if I wanted to move and I rather loudly, I am ashamed to say, said I didn't want to move as I got here first. Well the lady didn't move her stuff out from under our tree either and used it as there storage area. They made for a noisy weekend for us as we have young children in our group and get them to sleep early while our neighbors made big noise nightly until around 10ish every night. I told my wife that we will have to pick a different camp site on long weekends!

Anyway, enough ranting. I set up our tent and got space saved (not like the other group) for our other campers. Then I set up a little "clubhouse" for the kids to play in. On our previous trip, one of the mom's tent leaked in the rain, so I rigged up my poncho to give her rain cover in the trouble spot. The younger kids made the space between the tent and the poncho their clubhouse. That's what they called it so that's what it is.



Hanging out and doing school work while we wait for the others to show up.



One of the moms brought stuff for water fun.





IN COMING!!



One of the activities we did was a scavenger hunt where the kids had to go and find particular trees and get a leaf rubbing (without plucking one).



We also did a service project. Since the camp area we use is a botanical garden, we did a weeding project.



In the past, other service projects included dredging the lake with rakes on ropes to remove invasive plant species. I remember after a few camping trips where there were pigs running rampant, the pig population was trapped to reduce their numbers. I volunteered to dig the imu, but they wanted their people to cull the pig population. And we didn't get to have kalua pig.

Today, I scouted out our next camp site. We will be camping in two weeks and again two weeks after that. In two weeks, we'll be here.



Actually to the left where there are a bunch of trees for shade. And that island off shore Mokolii, aka China Man's Hat. It's about 400 yards off shore I think.

Thanks for looking.

Thanks for sharing Aloha!!!!!!!!!

Nice tarp! Is that the Sportsman's Guide one? What do you think of it?

-Blast, who needs to go to Hawaii

Thanks guys.

Blast, who needs to go to Hawaii, that was indeed the Sportsmans Guide tarp that you turn me on to. I bought that on and the other one that came with the two poles.

My thoughts...at 12x12, it should just accommodate you pretty nicely. It was easy to set up and seems durable, but time will tell. That was its first use.

The one with the poles seems better. It has more anchor points and seems to be better made. I think it was only 10 bucks more and it came with two 9' poles. I'll probably set that one up at the beach.

Any issues with the grommets or tie-downs tearing loose? I'm asking because I recently bought this screen-house thingy and it was a peice of crap. On the plus side, when I told The Sportsman's Guide about it they took it back, refunded my money and even paid for the return shipping even though we had used it camping. I'm becoming more and more cautious about cheap stuff even though Sportsman's Guide has a great return policy.

-Blast, who needs Aloha & Family to come to Texas

Oh, and more pictures!
Especially of the moms...

-Blast, getting old but not being old

So far so good with the tarp. It survived some decent wind gusts.

I personally don't like those canopies. I have had two. They have lasted a total of three uses between them. And they weren't cheap.

The first one got mangled. We had heavy rain overnight and the canopy didn't shed the water. It pooled instead and the weight buckled the frame. Then heavy wind gusts finished the job of mangling it. That was our first one one its maiden voyage. The second one got two uses. One camp...no problem. On the Memorial Day camp, I had it set up and a really strong gust of wind destroyed it. The legs up top where the canopy connects got bent and one of the frame pieces actually snapped. Never again. EZ Corner for me all the way from now on. Not as convenient, but strong enough to climb up onto. Funny, the tarp held up fine.

I take it Missuswether isn't home.

She's a new mom and sometimes cuts my hair.



Chris, if that's not good, please delete for me.