Last weekend I went camping for the first time ever!

It was my husband’s birthday, so we decided to get away from it all  & go camping in Anastasia State Park, St. Augustine, FL.

The campsites there have water, electricity, & bath houses. We were hardly going to be ‘roughing it’, so I knew I could handle it.

My husband has had many camping experiences throughout his life, so he has tons of knowledge on what to do & what to bring. I looked up camping on Pinterest. So between the two of us we came up with our list of supplies.

He let me plan the food – more on that later!

Holy moly I did not know you had to bring so much stuff! I mean, it all makes sense, I just had no frame of reference – I had never done this!

Thankfully, I have a Jeep 🙂

I was a little worried when we first got to our campsite. As soon as I opened the car door I got bit by TWO mosquitoes. I am a mosquito magnet – I got that sweet blood (probably from all the desserts).

Once we sprayed ourselves with bug spray & set up the mosquito tent, we were fine.

The mosquito tent took longer than the sleeping tent to put together – but it was SO worth it!

I feel obligated to mention that while St. Augustine is in North Florida, it’s still Florida. Meaning that even though it’s almost November, it’s still decently humid outside & there are still bugs around. Sure, the temperature has dropped from the 90s to the low 80s/high 70s, but the air still has quite a bit of moisture in it. I have been reading all these other blogs about crisp autumn air & leaves changing colors – none of that here! On the plus side, I got to walk around in a tank top in late October (though I did get a little too much sun our last day there & am a bit red as a result).

Our trip wasn’t very long, just Thursday to Saturday. Thursday night we stayed in the park & just enjoyed the great outdoors. Anastasia St. Park is beautiful! We decided to take a leisurely stroll through the nature trail about an hour before sunset. That was probably not the best idea. The mosquitoes I mentioned earlier were swarming us! They didn’t bite because we had on some really good bug spray, but it was bothersome enough to turn our leisurely stroll into a brisk walk. The good thing was we worked up an appetite, so we got to work making dinner once we got back to the campsite. Cooking outside somewhere other than the backyard is fun! We had our dinner, drank some wine, & had marshmallows by the fire.

Since the campsite had electricity, we brought one of those box fans with us. The nights were chilly, but the fan was nice to circulate the air inside the tent.

Friday morning I woke up & realized I had survived my first night sleeping outside! The only momentary panic ensued when my husband went to the bathroom around 7AM & I definitely heard something roaming around outside our tent. I didn’t think it through when I sleepily told him to go ahead without me because I wanted to sleep a little more. I was wide awake after that! I’m sure it was something harmless like a raccoon, or even a squirrel. I just had the ‘I’m sleeping outside in a plastic bag’ jitters.

The bath houses at Anastasia State Park were pretty clean! I thought it was going to be at least a little icky to shower there, but I was wrong. This park was just what this first time camper needed!

Friday after our outdoor breakfast, my husband & I headed out of the park for a day full of fun in St. Augustine. We came back to the campsite after dark, lit a fire & enjoyed our last night outside. After another yummy al fresco breakfast on Saturday, we packed the car up to go home.

There are plenty of things to do & see at Anastasia State Park. My hubby & I didn’t get to all of them! Besides our brisk walk on the nature trail, we also walked along the beach boardwalk & visited the coquina quarry during our stay.

It was a great weekend away! I think my husband made a camping lover out of me & I’m very much looking forward to going again soon!

Stay tuned to find out what else we did in St. Augustine!