Easter Weekend Camping - Lake Lurleen State Park

Camping at nearby locations makes for easy and fun weekend trips.  We live near several state parks both in Mississippi and Alabama.  For Easter weekend, we chose Lake Lurleen State Park just outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  It is the perfect half way point for meeting friends from Birmingham to camp.

This was my view each morning as I drank my coffee.  Beautiful grounds.

Since this was a holiday, I still wanted to have something festive and fun.  I love decorating my table at holidays and cooking holiday meals.  So, I tried to incorporate this into our camping trip.

Marbled egg and cross sugar cookies.

Easter Peep S'more Kits

If you do anything on Pinterest or social media, it is not hard to collect a few hundred holiday ideas for every season.  Basically, I keep it to flowers and a seasonal decorative item or two.  Mix in a few things that coordinate and you are holiday ready!

For this camping trip, I started with a little wooden bunny that I found at a local arts festival.  Since it was a bright turquoise blue, I knew I could mix in lots of colors to make something bright and attractive.  I added a mason jar with fresh flowers and a printed "Happy Easter" sign that I put into a frame I had at home.  With a tablecloth and using my dishes and glasses, I had a nice table to use at meal time for serving.

Our Easter table was a nice addition to our camp spot.

I didn't want to go overboard with meals.  Our friends and our family split the meals and used a Google Sheet to share and plan.  We did:

1. Grilled steak and potatoes foil packet dinners for our first night with Easter Peep S'mores for dessert.  The Easter Peep S'mores is an idea from the Let's Camp S'more blog.  Each person had their own kit to make a s'more.   Print a set of Easter S'more Labels for your individual kits.  So fun!  
2. Our breakfast the next morning was pigs in a blanket, cinnamon rolls, fruit, eggs, coffee, and mimosas.
3. Everybody did their own sandwiches for lunch.
4. At supper, we grilled hotdogs and roasted marshmallows.
5. Easter Sunday we decided to combine our breakfast and lunch menu and do one big brunch.  

It was perfect.  The prep work ahead of time made this an easy trip.  We weren't cooking the whole time.

Meals are always more fun with cute table cloths.  Our friend, Bryan, picked this up at Camping World!

There was time to paddleboat, wade in the lake, and sit around the campfire.  Or, we could just hang out in our hammocks.  It was very relaxing and low-key all the way around.  

Paddle boating was a lot of fun.

Lots of ducks on the water.  Our son loved them!

This bunch of monkeys loves their hammocks!  Great way to relax!

The only drawback to this location is that the bathroom facilities were in serious need of updating.  No ventilation or air conditioning to be found anywhere.  It was like a giant sweat box to shower or use the restroom.  Then, there was no hand soap in the restrooms either.  We had plenty of hand soap and hand sanitizer with us, but I would have liked to have seen this actually in the restrooms installed in dispensers.  Plus the HEAT of those bath houses.  The weather was only in the 80s while we were there, but I do pity the campers that come in the months ahead in high heat!  Wow!

We did contact the park facilities manager about this, and he said that they were addressing these things.  If you live in this area, I would recommend checking with the park on these items before reserving a spot.  It might prompt them to make these changes more quickly.  

What I love best about camping is just the large community it draws.  Our friends and our family had a great time together.  We saw lots of other families and groups of friends doing the same thing.  Each group had their own activities that they were enjoying.  

Breakfast at our wooded spot.

Happy campers!  Josh, Bryan and Christy are a lot of fun to camp with!  Can't wait to do it again!

On our first afternoon, I heard a scream outside of our camper.  I came outside to find a little girl face down on the road after a fall off of her bike.  As I approached, another man and his wife came running to check on her as well.  I grabbed our first aid kit and we helped her get cleaned up while a sibling went for her parents.  Thankfully, she was okay.  And, it is reassuring to know that there are people in this world that will drop what they are doing and help a complete stranger.  

Again, I stress getting a first aid kit for your camper if you don't already have one.  We have a Surviveware Small First Aid Kit.  It is organized so well that when I handed off this kit to our neighbors so that I could run back for damp paper towels, she easily found the items that she needed and commented several times on how well organized and stocked it was.

Also, stock up on good bug spray and keep supplies for ticks in your kit.  We were eaten up by ticks on this trip.  Having little winter weather is having a vengeance now that the true spring and summer months are coming.  There are LOTS of bugs.  

Overall, this trip was a winner.  We enjoyed good food with good friends.  We relaxed and enjoyed lots of time outdoors in the fresh air.  And, that is one more camping trip in the books.  Time to plan the next one.  We are gearing up for a Memorial Day weekend trip.  I can't wait.  

Patiently waiting for dinner.

Singing and playing before dinner!  Best entertainment!

Easter Peep S'mores

These memories will last a lifetime.  And I hope to instill the love of camping in our son.  I think he already loves it.  Who doesn't love sitting around the campfire eating, singing and talking with friends and family?  I'm only sad that we can't camp more often with this crew.  They are so fun.  And, I'm already excited about our trip altogether months from now in the fall!

Even if you aren't camping, you could always incorporate a fire in your own backyard.  Build or buy a firepit and make some memories together with friends and family.  What are some of your favorite camping memories?  Comment and share what you love most about your time around a fire or in a campground.  Happy camping!

A campfire is the best way to end the day!

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