Urban Camping 101

Most you - if you know me or if you've been reading this blog for a while, know that I do not camp. As in, I hate it. There are some exceptions - I can be swayed by men I'm dating, but this is by far the exception and not the rule. Ever since I moved to my new place last April, I've been wanting to sleep out on my porch. {You know this, right? I have my own private porch that balances out the lack of square footage in my bedroom. I might not have a closet in my room, and I may have to walk through the bathroom to get into my room, but by golly, I have a porch!} I'd been unable to convince anyone to sleep out there with me during the past 9 months until a few weeks ago when my roommate and I decided to have our very own urban camping night. Our plan was to just invite some people over Friday night and sleep out on the deck in sleeping bags.

The weather in San Francisco was not good for sleeping outdoors this past Friday. At about 4pm, I emailed Kirsten and asked her what Plan B was since the weather was obviously not cooperating. She emailed me back and said "I totally rigged a canopy! You are going to love me!"

And rig a canopy she did.

With some wire hangers, she attached a tarp to the roof and then tied it down to the porch railing. We also bought another tarp to put down on the wet deck so that we could sleep in maximum comfort on my air mattress. I pretty much felt like I was sleeping in a homemade greenhouse.

Matt & Barry arrived and we made some urban s'mores over the stove.

Then we watched a movie out on the deck - we just attached some external speakers to my laptop and propped up the lappy inside my room so that everyone could see it and there was no chance of it getting wet from the drizzle. This is also where we all slept. Yep - all four of us.

I have to say that 90% of the canopy had fallen down through the night and half of our camping party was on the couch by the time the sun rose. I, however, woke up at 9:30am on Saturday morning all cozy inside my sleeping bag still laying on my tiny portion of the air mattress. We even finished off the experience by walking down the street and eating breakfast at the Crepevine. Definitely my idea of camping. I have a feeling that this won't be our last urban camping adventure; even in the rain it was a great time.