Family Camping Creates Lasting Memories

Growing up, we camped quite a bit as kids. We did everything from tent camping at state parks to camping in log cabins to camping in my grandparents Airstream in places like the beach. Often we’d go with more than just our immediate family and go with grandparents, aunts, cousins, and uncles. I have so many wonderful memories from camping as a family. Thanks to GoRVing and Thousand Trails campground for hosting me and my girls and giving us an opportunity to make some family camping memories of our own.

While camping comes in all shapes and sizes, tent camping is what we end up doing most of the time as a family. But tent camping, albeit fun, includes quite a bit of gear and set up time. WIth four kids and a slew of activities, sometimes we have the ability to split up and do different activities on the weekend, but that means the parents divide and conquer. Dividing and conquering means that there is less man (or woman) power for setting up gear and the like.

The option to camp in a park model RV at a campsite is a great way to camp without lugging all of your gear and needing another set of hands to pitch a tent and tear down when it’s time to pack up and go home. I love the simplicity of camping this way. It’s fun without all of the hassles of packing up the gear and cleaning up afterward.

I took advantage of the last few days of summer with my three girls to squeeze in one last camping trip. My husband still had work and was running out of vacation days, but the rest of us were footloose and fancy free. We packed up for a few days of fun at Pacific City RV Campground & Resort, a scenic Thousand Trails TV campground on the Oregon Coast. One of the beautiful aspects of this trip was that because we only had one adult, the ability to stay in one of their Park Model RVs was convenient in that we had all the comforts of home, and I didn’t have to lug everything on my own or set up and tear down with only one adult set of hands.

The Park Model RV is like a small cabin with two bedrooms and a bathroom. The kitchen is fully stocked and even includes a microwave, so there is no need to bring along any extra kitchen equipment. If you want to, you are able to rent linens for a nominal fee, and the units are equipped with heat and AC, TV and a DVD player. The campgrounds are very family friendly and offer amenities like a swimming pool, mini golf, and a lounge building with games and activities for kids and families. My kids loved spending some leisure time at the pool and in the activity lounge playing with the puppet theatre and trying to beat each other at mini golf. You can buy food and snacks as well and small necessities at the store onsite.

Pacific City RV Camping is located moments from Pacific City where you can find unlimited outdoor activities like nature trails, beachcombing, fishing, clamming, crabbing, tide pools, surfing, sand dunes, and whale watching, clam chowder. We loved our time in Pacific City. We had some incredible clam chowder at the brewpub. We played at the beach and looked for shells and critters. We hiked around the Nestucca Bay National Wildflife Refuge and took in the view. And of course, no camping trip is complete without making s’mores in your personal fire pit.