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We’re gearing up for our annual Ocracoke Island camping trip. Last year, we had the brilliant idea to take our 5 month old baby, our 5 month old puppy and head to Ocracoke to camp with the rest of the family. To put it lightly, it was a nightmare. We’re learning from our big mistakes and hoping that this year is a great time!
Our first mistake was that we decided to tent camp. We had two teenage boys and a toddler with us and they didn’t quite grasp the concept of zipping the tent up when they left it. As a result, our tent was a bug paradise. While I understand that bugs are going to happen when you camp, this was an entirely different story and Penny was covered in bites from her forehead down to her toes. It was heart wrenching! This year I'm drilling "the zip" into their sweet sweet little noggins!
This year we have teamed up with Outdoorsy.com and we’re taking an amazing 36' RV down to Ocracoke Island. The thing that we love about Outdoorsy is that it feels like we’re using AirBnB but it’s for recreational vehicles. We were also able to be really specific on the location that we were willing to pick up from. Amazingly, we are driving less than 5 miles from our home to pick up our weekend chariot!
You can check out Outdoorsy right here, you won’t regret it!
The top 5 things that I am doing differently for this years camping are listed below. I’m all ears for your best camping tips and tricks! Stay tuned to our Instagram stories @outerbanksmom for some of the highlights from our trip! Despite the bug bites and the stress from last year, our kiddos are so excited to hit Ocracoke this weekend!
My Top 5 Ocracoke Camping Plans:
1. Meal Plan by the Day!
I’m working on a day by day, detailed meal plan so that we are using the things that “spoil” first and saving our PB&J for the end of the weekend. We’re also packing tons of extra food because if there is one thing that I learned from last year, its that the smell of food brings half of the hungry kids that are staying on the campground!
2. Pack Extra Everything!
With the humidity of the great outdoors our towels were consistently damp. We’re packing extra towels, blankets and pillows because we are creatures of comfort!
3. Bath Station!
We’re adding an empty BPA-free storage tub to our packing list so that we can fill it up with water in the morning. Since the showers are simple cold showers, we are going to fill the tub with water in the afternoon and let it warm in the sunshine so that our littlest campers have a warm place to get cleaned up at the end of our day.
4. Activities and Crafts!
Last year I didn’t put anything crafty on our list for Ocracoke because I assumed that being in such close distance to the beach, we wouldn’t need them. But since Penny is so into art, she really loves having this quiet time to do a craft each day. This year, I am sticking to our routine and bringing some outdoorsy type crafts to do with her after dinner to help her wind down for bedtime.
5. Changing Tent!
We’re using our regular tent as a "changing tent" and a place for all of our beach toys and beach gear at the end of the day. This will keep the sand out of our RV and the morning dew off of all of our beach gear.
I’m hoping that this little bit of extra planning and our Outdoorsy RV will help us to have a better experience this year! We are looking forward to watching the sunrise each morning and the most quaint weekend getaway! Since we love the island and the slow, simple days that we spend there, we are planning to leave the campground and have dinner at one of the awesome restaurants on Saturday night and we can't wait to grab a cup of local coffee in town each morning either. Ocracoke, here we come!
