Father's Day at Jane's Island

My Father's Day present this year was a weekend camping with the family. We like to pick state parks when we go camping, due to the grounds maintenance, playgrounds and the convenience of having bath houses with showers nearby! We used to do it the good ol' fashioned way, picking a spot in the woods somewhere, but that was before children.. when the campfire and the hours relaxing int eh hammock were a win. These days we have to fill our time with entertaining activities to keep the wee ones from getting bored.

This time we chose Janes Island. We went online and reserved a spot, the closest tent spot to the water. It looked amazing from the pics, however once we got there we realized we were more or less camping right at the boat ramp. Zero privacy here, nor much for the dozen or so neighboring spots between the main ranger station / camp store and the boat ramp parking lot.This campground is definitely more of a community based experience and not a "get away from it all" kind of trip.

We rented a slip in the marina to tie up the boat. As it turned out, this was only a few dozen feet away from our camp spot! This high traffic area being our camp spot had been a little worrying at first, but turned out to be a positive

With trails in the woods for bike riding, trails in the marshes for Canoe and Kayak exploration and 3 ways to get out into the Chesapeake Bay with it's glorious white sand beaches and tidal marsh wetlands, we kept rather busy. We did some boating, some fishing, some swimming, some marshmallow roasting over the campfire, watched boats of all shapes and sizes, appear or disappear from the boat ramp and marina. We sat on the dock and fished out the sunset while watching the dozens of turtle heads popping up as they headed out toward the bay for the evening.

It was a great time, and we have already picked out the camp site we want to get next time!