Move & Explore
Just being a kid
7-12
How this first-time camper learned to stop worrying and commune with nature ... and sand crabs
Photo and reporting by
Los Angeles Times
Elyie, 7, had been asking to go camping for years before her mom finally booked a site at Refugio State Beach. She and some kids she'd just met dug a lagoon in the sand and called her mother over to see what was living in it: sand crabs, which ended her mom's beach wading for the day.
The parent picked up a hammer too
Her mom's part was mostly showing up unprepared, forgetting towels, forgetting cups, spending an hour on a tent that should've taken twenty minutes, but she kept the one thing her daughter asked for: the phone stayed locked in the car the whole trip.
Why we picked this one
Nobody in this story is the expert. The mom had never camped, didn't know to pack the cold cuts in plastic, needed a coworker's cheat sheet just to book the site. The kid had been asking for years and got a lagoon of sand crabs and one night away from a mother who checks her phone. You don't need Refugio State Beach for this. You need a tent, a promise to leave the phone somewhere else, and a backyard.
Pitch it in the yard, zip the flap, and mean the rule: no coming inside, not for the bathroom, not for a bad dream, not because someone forgot their phone charger. Breakfast happens out there too. Cereal gone soggy in the dew still counts.
Read the full story at
Los Angeles Times
Where it happened:
Goleta, CA
Somewhere in your house is a kid who's been asking for a campout longer than you want to admit, and a phone charger you could just not pack.