4th Annual Doyle Family Campout

Once again the Doyle clan converged at Confluence State Park in Wenatchee for our 4th Annual reunion camping trip. This year's memorable feature was the wind--seems like there's something every year... Year 1 at Sun Lakes: oppressive 105+ degree heat and puking children. Year 2 at Fort Worden: RAIN and Jeff and Andrea forgetting the key to the camper at home... Year 3 at Wenatchee: hot (seems like paradise in hind sight). This year it was the WIND that wouldn't let up--we thought we might lose the tents and/or small children to it. Of course the kids didn't notice any of the challenges, and had a wonderful time playing together--which is what it's all about, right?

My favorite photo of the trip is this one of Steve and Tiffany, pretending to enjoy the river, which was SO frigid it was hard to even wade in.
















We definitely ate well on the trip, thanks to Steve's fabulous smoked ribs on Friday night, Jeff's tenderloin steak and Mary's to-die-for salads on Saturday night, and a Father's Day dutch oven egg casserole for Sunday brunch.



This last picture deserves some explanation... Jeff made the decision that we didn't need to get gas before heading over Blewett Pass on the way home. About halfway up the pass he realized the error of his ways, and we sweated bullets all the way to the summit, watching the gauge drop precariously low, then coasted down the other side until we saw this life-saver of a little gas station at the Mineral Springs campground, where they let people buy two gallons of gas to make it to a real gas station. Phew! THAT was a close call--according to the on-board computer we had LESS than one mile of range left in the gas tank when we got here. Imagine how embarrassing it would have been for Jeff if he'd actually run out of gas...