Camping with the Grandkids at Raleigh Oaks

The kids woke up at 7:30 am and said they were cold. I turned the furnace on right away when we got there the night before and it ran intermittently all night, including a couple of times in the morning. I was not cold.

The rain stopped before 4 am. It was still cloudy, but the sun was poking out a little. We got dressed (a real challenge) and drove to Four Oaks Restaurant for breakfast. Naima and I had the 2 egg breakfast. Nasir had a bologna, egg, and cheese sandwich. The bologna was thick and home-made. He ate all of it, except the toast. And he also ate too much of Naima’s grits – according to Naima. The waiter later told me it was Smithfield bologna, so I bought some when we went to the grocery store after breakfast. Naima said Mommy & Daddy should take them here (Four Oaks) for a vacation, so I don't know how to explain the forlorn look on her face in this photo.

Back at the campground, I put some clothes in the laundry and the kids went to the tot lot. When I got to the tot lot 10 minutes later, they were already prepared to go swimming. We changed into yesterday’s underwear and T-shirts and went swimming. Raleigh Oaks has a hot tub (which Naima likes but Nasir did not), and a large pool with a decent sized shallow bubbling end and then steps from there into a 3.5 and 4 foot kidney shaped pool. Even the 4 foot end of the pool had a sitting bench all around it. They played in the shallow pool and the hot tub. I did for a little while, then sat down to work on my computer. Facebook still not working. But the blog does.

The kids wanted to learn how to play table tennis (ping pong), so we did that for a while. Naima was getting pretty good and we had a little volley going for a while. Nasir does not get the point. He wants to hit the ball as hard as he can so it goes out of bounds. Luckily, he thinks it is great fun to chase the ball down and bring it back.

Naima was hungry for lunch, so we went back to the campsite and cooked up the Ramen noodles she wanted to buy at the grocery store – shrimp flavor. Nasir picked lime shrimp and he wanted green onions in his. He ate over half of that (I had the other half) and about a third of Naima’s. He was hungry.

Naima did dishes while Nasir and I put the laundry in the dryer. It was close to time to get them back home (Daddy had said to return at 3 pm). We called Daddy on the phone and he gave us until 5 pm. Naima came up with a plan. We could get dressed, pack all their stuff in the car, and then play mini-golf until it was time to go. I agreed, but then the kids fooled around getting dressed so we only had 20 minutes to play mini-golf. So we did. I picked my laundry out of the dryer and headed back to Raleigh – and did not get lost.

Oooh, forgot to mention that I painted half of Nasir’s race car blue while the kids were getting dressed in the most fun way possible –getting dressed, not painting.

When we got to Rolesville, the front door was open but the screen door was locked, and the garage door was open, but the door into the house was locked. Grant wasn’t answering his phone or texts. So, we went into the back yard. I painted the other half of Nasir’s car, while the kids played on the swing set. Daddy finally woke up and let us in.

We baked Naima’s tea set in the oven and then goofed around in the sun room until Mommy work up. We all drove to a shopping center they like

– an outdoor mall – and ate at a specialty beer place called the Yard House. My beer, a milk stout, was excellent. This was the only meal Grant let me pay for on the whole trip. When I said good-bye to the kids, Naima clung on for a while and said she wished I could stay longer. I told her that I did too. But I have reservations and tickets.

It was late again before I got back to the camper that night, so I did not pack up like I usually do. I also ran out of propane gas in the middle of the night, so it was chilly sleeping – temps in the high 40s overnight. I’m glad the kids were not there that night.