Big Stump
Post created to discuss some things related to Camping 2010. This year we have booked sites for 2 nights. The thing different about this camping site is that we dont have assigned sites. We will be assigned sites as we checkin there. Hence we may not be all together but a little bit distance apart. Hopefully we can find enough sites closeby to each other that we can pitch as many tents closeby as possible.
But we can use this opportunity to enjoy camping family style too. What this means is that instead of having session after session of group food we can have some sessions where families can be by themselves enjoying camping at their own pace. So which means we will have some group food sessions and some fixed group activities but we should have some free time allocated for family time as well. 🙂
With that in mind here is what i propose for the food sessions.
1) Sat Lunch : Handle your own
2) Sat Snacks: Group Snacks
3) Sat Dinner: Group Dinner
4) Sun Bfast: Group Bfast
4) Sun Lunch: Handle your own
5) Sun Snacks: Handle your own
6) Sun Dinner: Group Dinner
7) Mon Bfast: Group BFast
8) Mon Lunch: ?? (Restaurant, Pizza?, Thepala?)
For scheduled group activities there is a small hike to see the Humongous trees right next to the campsites. So we can schedule a time for that.
There is also a nice river 2-3 miles from campsite for which we can schedule a group activity.
There are also some caves in that area (around 10-15 miles) which families can goto by themselves either during camping or while returning back on Monday.
Of course all these are just suggestions and based on the feedback from the group we can decide what to do.
How about discussing food?
Sat Group Dinner can be something that a few people can bring prepared from home for the group or we can cater from Milan like last year. I think its better to cater from Milan rather than preparing from home.
Sun Group Dinner will need to be something which is prepared on site. So Tacos may work well on Sunday evening. Sandwiches is another option.
For Monday we can just plan to eat pizza at some pizza place nearby.
We can cater from Milan for Sat Group Dinner.
PLEASE NO THEPLAS
Heh Heh. Mita, you will not see thepalas for the group food but you will probably see them for the individual family lunches on either Sat or Sun afternoon. 🙂
Or maybe this time have thepalas for Sun breakfast 😉 (instead of croissants)
Deedee’s Kitchen maybe another place to consider for catering. Some of us have already tasted their food. They do provide jain food.
How far are we from the nearby city . If we are a little far then we can have group sunday lunch and instead everybody can handle their saturday dinner, like potluck dinner either from home or get it from outside.
In other words we do sat lunch on your own, sat dinner either potluck from outside or home , sun group breakfast, sun group lunch and sunday group dinner and Monday lunch on your own
Croissants and bagels for breakfast
Considering cost, Sherley is good option as her quantity of food is more (almost double).
Neelam, gathering everyone to go out of campsite on Sunday will consume valuable time. (everyone will need to shower too 🙂 ).
Instead we can go down to the river on Sunday around 11am, and play in water and have individual lunch there.
Depends on what the others think also…
Milan, Deedee and Shirley are all good suggestions. We will need to find out which one is willing to prepare food early morning and give it to us in morning (around 9am/9.30am).
Since we are so many of us . The other option may be to split into groups of 10 or 15. Keep the menu same and each one is with their own group. For example if the menu is sandwiches then within their group they can allot things who would get what and make the sandwiches and eat.
I know eating with the whole group together is fun but considering so many people and almost everyone having kids for practical purpose we may want to split in smaller groups.
I like the Idea of individual lunch as well but the only concern is how far is it from the campsite.
we will be reaching the campsite around 4 so I can pick up the food at around 1 . We have abirthday party to attend in Milpitas, so I will be happy to pick up food if it is in Milpitas or on the way to campsite
For Monday lunch, we can all have sandwiches together. we can cut the vegetables at the camp site like we did last year and take it with us to the river.
Mita the plan is to goto river on Sunday.
Monday, probably wrap up, clean up and then head onto some restaurant on the way home (unless people are stopping by caves). I will post the cave information soon.
Neelam, I liked your idea of smaller groups. However people will need to create smaller groups on their own. That way those who are still interested in individual lunches can do so and those wanting to co-ordinate with a smaller group can do so also.
The river is just 2-3 miles away from the campsite.
Moaning Caverns is 21 miles from Campsite (30 mins)
http://www.caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm
California Caverns is 24 miles from Campsite (50 mins)
http://www.caverntours.com/CalifRt.htm
Both are on the way back home. So you need not take a big detour.
Here is article written by me about the caves that we visited in 2000.
For those who want to visit, advise is to do reservations.
Bagels, bread,croissants for breakfast.
saturday dinner – cater
sunday dinner – prepare at the camp site
for people who are planning to go to the caves can stop at Tracy for desi pizza or panjabi food on their way home. (some of us had stopped by at this place last year while returning from our snow tubing trip)
So is Tacos fine for Sunday dinner?
Wake Up Campers. :-). Is Tacos fine for Sunday?
Tacos is fine for Sunday or we can also have taco salad (beans,guacamole,sour cream, onions etc etc) with tortilla chips. This way each of us can take salad and eat with chips and no need to make the tacos 🙂
Taco is perfect 🙂
Taco is fine.
Nilesh’s idea sounds good.
Taco is fine .
1) I have heard Smart & Final has Tostada Bowls which could be used for Taco Salad. If somebody happens to go there, could check it out.
2) About Family or Group Lunch at River – Two different ways to river we went last time were natural access. Both ways had around 20 feet+ of downward, moderate slope walk. Since it is natural access to river and not manmade, there are no picnic benches, restroom/changing room, garbage bins there. Hence we will have to take all our(individual/group) lunch items down and bring leftover & garbage back up. May be we can find better river access where we can have lunch as well. Otherwise my 2 cents are to have lunch at camp site and go to river pre or post lunch.
The point about concerns with lunch at river is valid point. We can have early lunch on site (around 12) and then head to the river. By that time the water will be warm too.
In the mornings there is a ranger lead program for kids where they tell story to kids, make them do interesting craft and tell about bugs. So kids can attend that.
Let me know if anyone is available to help out with some estimations (food and paper products) for camping.
I like dimple’s idea of having lunch at the campsite on Sunday,(This will keep us free from carrying lot of stuff down to the river.keeping in mind children’s needs i think it will be too much to carry & manage) & with this, may be can plan group lunch at the campsite so that we do not have to worry on saturday morning about sunday lunch.To allternate the group meal if required, we can have individual/own dinner for saturday as it will be easy to store cooked food for one day (Saturday.
We can have Desi burgers for sunday lunch, Masala burger patty from Trader joe’s is very nice.
My 2 cents :-).
I agree with Sejal’s idea of individual saturday dinner since it will be esy to store and each one has to take care of their own dinner. This will remove the hard work of estimating the food quantity and other things atleast for saturday
Desi Burger is also a good option.
Since some of us are meeting this Sat, lets flush out the details of when to have individual lunches during that time.