about RV camping

Most of our campgrounds have been really amazing. They are in prime real estate near beaches or lakes. For the most part, the campgrounds have been pretty empty but now that summer has started, there are more people here.

We pulled into Raglan, a beach town on the west coast last night around 5. We were put (as we often are) near the playground because of our kids. Since it is near the end of the school year here, there are many school groups traveling.. a common thing for high school students at the end of their third year.

Turns out the priorities of high school students and middle-aged parents are different. The students loved the playground and played their music loudly while jumping on the enormous inflatable pillow that is a feature of most campgrounds. Sonia loves to be in the middle of the action so she went out to jump too. 

Sonia, to quote one of my cousins describing one of my uncles, could make friends in a cemetery.  She immediately befriended some younger girls on the playground and for a while they danced to the explicit lyrics of some shitty rap song. I didn’t know how much of it Sonia heard and decided that in a different time, I would not have been paying any attention so perhaps Sonia could decide for herself what was right for her.

When I looked out the window again, Sonia was instructing one of the older girls to play a song she hears in her girl-power Zumba class so she could show a group of about ten people her Zumba dance. She did this for about a minute before she decided her crowd was not adequately impressed with her dance moves.

So the kids (high school students) congregated at the inflatable balloon and did their weird peacock dances and Ryan and I were annoyed as middle aged people tend to be so we moved campsites today.

Raglan is a well known beach town here. The beaches are expansive so the waves are really long and it’s popular with surfers. The town itself is a bit run down and attracts younger people on vacations. It also clearly attracts wealthy people because there are some fancy homes outside this town.

We spent today at a few different beaches. While Ryan surfed in the morning, I did homework with the kids. We do a little every day. It’s not going great. The kids don’t respond well to my teaching and since I am not a teacher, I am not very good at it. I can see why teachers don’t like parents to pull their kids out of school. 

After homework, we went to a grocery store and then headed out to a really beautiful black sand beach. I know it’s raining and cold in Seattle so I am not complaining when I say — it is hot here. I have started to pay attention to the UV index which you can find on the iOS weather app.

New Zealand has 4 million residents and 3.5 million tourists every year. This is why

another great beach

The water was Pacific NW cold but the sun is so hot you happily jump in with no wetsuit. 

Three weeks into our trip, we have periods where we are on each others nerves. Mainly the kids are on the parents’ nerves. I have banned them from asking me any more questions today. I do not intervene in their fights. 

It’s all part of the family vacation though. While the scenery is different, we are all still the same humans.