beach tent go outdoors
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Q. My friend and I love the outdoors, and we live right outside a small forest. We've explored all of it, and now we're getting a bit bored of the woods. Now when he comes over, he just texts or plays his iPod Touch. What is a list of things we can do over the summer when we have the woods with us?
Answer
1 Hold a Skee-Ball tournament with your pals at the arcade. At 25 cents a pop, the fun 'n' games won't break the bank. The champ gets all the prize tickets!
2 Make a summer scrapbook. Include everything--even the little stuff. The price tag from your fave sundress, amusement park ticket stubs, photo booth pics of you and the crew and vacation postcards are all awesome additions to your book. It'll be a summer you'll never forget.
3 Grow a green thumb! Purchase some packets of flower seeds--cosmo, poppy, sunflower (unsalted, of course!)--and plant them in your own garden patch. Tending to your sprouts will keep you super-busy, and it's oh-so satisfying to watch as your blooms blossom.
4 Rent a tandem bike for a day. It's a bicycle built for-two. Grab a pal, hop on and pedal off for some good laughs: Yeah, it's goofy.... So what?
5 Get a cool deck of cards, and enjoy tons of fun playing Butthead, Blitz and Blackout with your pals. Don't know how? Check out www.pagat.com to learn these and other games--and a few you can play by yourself, too.
6 Do some flower projects. Pluck a few wildflowers from a field, and press them between the pages of a phone book for about two weeks until dry. Then, use them to decorate stationery, picture frames, bookmarks, whatever. Surprise friends and family with your flower creations--just as nice as a bouquet!
7 Head for the nearest gumball machine. Now, get four gumballs for a buck for you and each of your girls, and have a contest to see who blows the biggest bubble.
8 Speaking of bubbles... Hit the kiddie section of the dollar store, and buy a few bottles of soapy bubbles. You're never too old to blow bubbles!
9 Buy some zany sunglasses, and wear them in public. They can be ultra-glam, ultra-goofy, ultra-big, ultra-anything! The trick is to find a pair that really attracts attention. You're guaranteed to have an ultra-hilarious day!
10 Play the claw machine two times for a buck. You knaw--the one in which you try to pluck prizes with a mechanical crane. Yeah, it's usually a waste of money... but it's sooo irresistible!
11 Fly a kite on a windy day. Haven't flown a kite since you were a tot? You're missing out! It's not easy to keep that thing gracefully floating up there--but that's what makes it challenging! Fly your kite on the beach or in an open field, where the wind is often at its strongest mph.
12 Turn into an expert. Pick a topic you're really interested in (like surfing, Linkin Park, Paris, butterflies... whatever) and spend a little time each week researching it online. By the end of the summer, you'll practically be an expert on the subject.
13 Go backyard camping. Call your pals, pitch a tent, grab some sleeping bags, and head out your back door. OK, you'll have to forget about the campfire, but that's no reason to forgo the traditional campfire songs and tales. Have a blast sleeping under the stars-while enjoying the indoor plumbing just steps away!
14 Become a bookworm. Make it a goal to finish off a certain number of books this summer. Pick a genre you've never tried before--biographies, sci-fl, historical fiction--and then stake out a few reading spots. Climb a tree, stretch out on the porch swing, or even curl up on the couch on a rainy day.
15 Decorate your tank top. Start with a solid-color tank, and then go all-out with glitter, beads, crystals, markers, you name it. Personalize your shirt to reflect your unique style. Think of it as a summer souvenir!
16 Have a water fight. Get all your pals together, and designate teams. Then grab your water guns, water balloons, buckets, hoses and whatever else you've got...and ATTACK
17 Catch fireflies in a jar. Make yourself an all-natural lightning-bug strobe-light lantern for the evening. Don't forget to throw in a few blades of grass and poke holes in the lid. Just be sure to let them go after a few hours!
18 Become a volunteer at your local nursing home. Your electric smile and enthusiastic personality will have folks at the local home uplifted in no time. Spending even an hour a week playing board games or just talking with residents whose families can't (or don't) visit makes a big difference in their lives. Oh, and the stories they tell!
19 Start a cool collection. It doesn't matter what you collect--just pick something you like, and go for it! Sea glass, shells and bottle caps are popular summer collectibles. Or be a collector of something totally unique, like ceramic cats, funky bandannas or vintage buttons. To get into the collecting groove, visit a local museum and check out its collections for inspiration.
20 Play tag--in the rain. Why stay indoors just because the sun's not shining? Nothing screams summer like a game of soggy tag. Running around in the rain (um, as long as there's no thunder and lightning!!!) is a great way to cool down.
You could also have a lemonade stand!
Do I need a sleeping bag when camping in Indonesia?
I'm traveling to Indonesia this January and planning on doing some camping. I'm taking my tent with me but do I also need a sleeping bag? I already have one but it would be easier to not carry it around backpacking.
Thanks
Answer
When I've traveled in tropical areas I use a sleep-sheet rather than a sleeping bag. This is like a double sheet (mine is a poly/cotton blend) that is folded ove and stiched across the bottom and halfway up one side, with a pocket at the top to insert a pillow. CampMor's online catalog has about a dozen different models, most under $30
http://www.campmor.com
I also carry a very lightweight polyester fleece sleeping bag of the same design (also available at Campmor for around $20 to $30). This is handy for traveling because you can open it out flat to use as a regular bed blanket or a beach mat, even as a bath towel in a pinch.
Both of these roll up very small. The sleep-sheet is less than the size of a can of soda and I can carry it in my purse or daypack. The fleece blanket/sleeping bag rolls up about the size of a loaf of bread. The sleep-sheet is handy when you sleep in a hotel, too -- I don't trust the cleanliness of the beds in a lot of cheap places so I use the sleep-sheet and my travel blanket on top of the hotel bed so I don't have to contact their bedding.
On hot nights camping I lie on top of the fleece bag with my body inside the sleep-sheet. If I wake up cold in the middle of the night I crawl inside the fleece bag or pull it up over me and I'm fine.
Much easier to carry and to keep clean than a sleeping bag and more versatile in a range of temperature conditions.
Campmor also sells nylon or Goretex bivouac sacks that go over your bag, including some that have light tent poles and mosquito netting over the head area. One of those would be a good idea for traveling in Indonesia if you plan on sleeping outdoors without a tent.
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