First Camping Trip

We treated ourselves to some new camping gear a while back and realized we'd not even opened the tent to set it up.  Since we have plans to visit the Keramas this month, we thought we should cut our teeth on a camping trip closer to home before taking a ferry out and using our stuff for the very first time.  Backpacker and REI and a whole host of other outdoors-y websites all say, "Test your gear at home BEFORE you use it."  I remember camping in the middle of a bunch of Cub Scouts once, and more than one father was reading the instructions on the tent, at dusk, with a frustrated boy nearby.  One dad even needed to borrow my lantern because he and his son arrived just after dusk, with a new tent, and their flashlight didn't work.  At any rate, we agreed that using our stuff on Okinawa and having it fail there was better than being stranded on another island and being forced to look for a hotel with our feeble Japanese skills.

So, we drove to Okuma, and read the instructions together once we arrived.

The weather was HORRIBLE: winds with gusts between 20-25 mph, temperatures in the mid-50s.  We watched a family struggle with their campfire and decided that tonight would NOT be a night for hanging around a fire with a stogie and our e-readers.  Instead, we ordered a pizza (there is a restaurant on Okuma!), ate and drank in our tent, and then matched wits on various sudoku difficulty levels.  Roughing it, we were.

On the positive, we loved our gear.  The tent proved sturdy in the winds, which was surprising considering we only staked the tent and not the rain fly.  Our sleeping bags were cozy and roomy, probably the most comfortable sleeping bag I've ever used.  We opted for the Big Agnes sleep system, where the sleeping bag pad fits inside a sleeve on the bottom.  I was able to move around and switch from sleeping on my sides to my back without anything bunching up or me sliding off the pad.  A good night's sleep, despite the howling winds and flapping rain fly.  

It doesn't look like unpleasant weather, but looking out on the water...

After we packed up, we went in search of some water activity.  We weren't sure WHERE we would end up, but knew that the west side of the island, or the East China Sea, was a little choppier than we would have liked.  We drove to the Pacific side and hoped for calmer waters.  Thanks to Google Maps and Ryan's iPhone, we found a quiet bay with some rocks for scenery.  We didn't catch anything, but it was nice to be on the water for the first time in a long while.