South Shore Mom

For Christmas this year, my son and I bought my husband a brand new 8 man tent. My husband and I hadn’t been camping together since we were teens. It was nice to day dream about where we would go with the tent – through the winter.  Back when we were teens- I must have had the urge to “nest” because I remember being the “Mom” of our circle of friends and being the one who carefully planned on bringing all the stuff. If anyone needed anything  - they all knew who to ask. 

We had put camping on the calendar and carefully watched the weather all week. We chose Normandy Farms in Foxboro, Mass. We had been there for a visit once before with friends and quite enjoyed it. 

http://www.normandyfarms.com/

This time around -years later –  now having the “nest” we call home…..I wanted to camp as simply as possible and not bring all our junk. We spoke with our dearest neighbors – who are veteran campers…and we got some tips. For breakfast – Pop Tarts and bananas….for sleeping – borrow an AeroBed…..to keep the bugs away – spray Raid’s Yard Guard all around the site. They also let us borrow a few items. 

We were only going overnight as our son is 3 1/2 and we weren’t sure  - as fairly new parents – how this was going to all pan out. We took the 45 minute ride to Foxboro and passed Patriot’s Place. We were tempted to check out Outdoor World…but we were too excited  - and went straight to Normandy Farms. We checked in. It took some time. Check in is anytime after 3 pm. The check in area is located in a lovely lodge. They have a gift shop with homespun type items. They have plenty of camping equipment, a mini grocery area – and lots of toys and games to keep everyone busy. 

The check in person gave us a card that gets you in and out of the camp grounds through the gate 24 hours. A ranger met us at the gate and took us to our camp site. Because our reservations were made so late in the week, we got a “field site”. We had a tree….and the rest of the site was open field (picture a football field with a few trees along the edge). It was fine for the night – but not exactly what we would call “nature”. There was a bathroom very close to our site – which was handy. There was running water in walking distance but not on our site.

It took us a good long while (an hour and a half) to set up the giant tent and get everything settled. At that point – we were hungry for dinner. We had decided to forget the whole “cooking over an open fire” thing – and eat at the Normandy Farms “restaurant”. It was more like a take out window…..but the food was good. My husband and I had fish and chips and my son had a cheeseburger. It was really good not have to contend with a cooler full of food – and a big mess….

After that – we went swimming in the indoor pool. There were also two indoor jacuzzis but they were for adults only. We enjoyed the indoor pool until someone – had a Caddy Shack accident. No….a Baby Ruth was not floating around….someone threw up. It sent everyone screaming and running just like the movie though. Thankfully – Normandy Farms has at least 4 pools. 

Once we had our fill of swimming – we went back to the campsite and started our campfire. We made s’mores and looked around for lightning bugs and marvelled at those who were patient enough to catch some. We looked at the stars and we just enjoyed being together and being unplugged (no phone, no computer – and heck, we didnt even had electricity or running water at our site!) The sun never seemed to fully go down – which made bedtime 10:30 p.m. for all of us. Because we had to electricity the Aero-bed was not an option. We slept on the ground. It was not the best night’s sleep ever. There was a screaming baby on one side of us and a screaming baby behind us. 

We slept in for us. 7 a.m. is sleeping in for us. Pop-tarts and bananas and we were off. I was really missing my coffee right then – but I held it together. We took my son fishing for the first time. Normandy Farms has a small pond and it was really quite enjoyable. The sight of my son and my husband fishing together was memorable. The campground was holding an all you can eat pancake breakfast ($4 p/p) that morning – but we skipped it. We disassembled our camp site and we went home. 

For camping – it came to $55. Normandy Farms is a very family friendly camp ground with GREAT ammenities. The playgrounds were top notch. They even had a veggie and fruit stand in the middle of the camp ground….and so many activities throughout the day for all ages (movies, BINGO, crafts, games and more). PopTarts and various camping sundries….including sleeping bags, a new lantern, batteries, etc….$80. Memorable Caddy Shack experience – free.