One bright Summer day when I was 10, I was sleeping blissfully under my covers in my

comfy bed that I didn’t want to leave when suddenly the peace was broken.

“Get up,” my dad said, “We're going camping.”

“Wha-What? Why?” I stammered.

“Because it's fun,” he said with a sigh.

“Is it though?” I asked.

“Get dressed.”

I packed up my essentials. Water bottle, snacks, sunscreen, etc. And most importantly,

my laptop to play games. But when my dad saw me trying to fit it in there he grabbed it and

said, “Nope. This is a no electronics trip. It's just going to be us and nature.”

“But I need it to do homework,” I lied.

“It's Summer!” he yelled,

“Aw shoot. But you're bringing your phone,” I countered.

“That’s different” he said,

“And why is that?” I asked.

“Because we need to know how to get there. Now get in the car!”

With a great urge to punch my dad in the face(even though I never would), I trudged to

the car, my backpack filled with things that weren’t electronics. We drove all the way down to

Yosemite, which lasted 6 hours! And all I had to do was read. I was basically dead when we

finally made it. But when we got there it wasn’t much better. In fact, I almost wanted to just stay

in the car but my dad wouldn’t have let me so I just got out and was immediately bombarded by

mosquitoes.

“Ah, get out of here” I yelled in annoyance.

“That's why we got bug spray” my mom said, and she pulled out a can of bug spray from

her purse and sprayed it all over us.

One thing about my mother is that she always had everything inside of her purse, but I

guess that was a good thing because the mosquitoes immediately flew off to find easier victims

that didn’t have bug spray. Then my mom, dad, sister, and I trudged along to where my dad said

the campsite was. While we were walking, I saw many cool things including trees, trees, some

more trees, and, look! Some more trees. I also heard a lot of rustling and chirping from the

animals within the dark, eerie, forest though. Though I couldn’t see them in the shadows so

there might have even been a bear.

After almost 2 hours, when I was about to start complaining that my feet were as sore as

if I had run 5000 miles, my dad said, “Oh yes, we're on the right path,” while looking at the map

of the park.

And that's how we got lost. Just kidding. We actually did find the campsite in the end,

but it took longer than I felt it should’ve. I guess that was probably because of my mom stopping

every 5 seconds to take photos.

“Oh look at these beautiful plants,” she would say, “I need a photo.”

“No you don’t, mom” I responded with a groan.

But she always took time to get her phone out and take one anyway. When we finally did

get to the campsite, all I wanted to do was sit down. But no, we just had to get our backpacks,

take out the tents, and set them up. It was very complicated and we spent almost an hour

figuring out where to put the stakes that went in the floor. When we were done setting up our

two tents, I was finally able to relax on the hard forest floor that the tent did not cushion at all.

After we set all of our stuff down in the tents, we (A.K.A my mom and dad) decided to go

explore the forest. Since my Dad had reserved this camping site, there weren’t many people

around there, but when we decided to go hiking, there were many people passing by, which

made up for the fact that there was nobody near our camping site. I guess Yosemite is a popular

spot. Now, by then, I was beginning to wonder if I had been lied to when google told me there

were a bunch of wild animals roaming around the park. Why hadn’t we spotted any? Just then, I

spotted a deer munching on some grass.

“Look!” I whispered to my family.

“Where?” Dad said in the loudest voice ever, which scared the deer away.

I could tell he didn’t mean to but I still said, “Dad! Come on.”

“Oops” he said, but he didn’t sound too sorry about it.

We trudged on for a while until me and my sister started complaining that her feet hurt.

We stopped to sit on a bench next to a river and eat some sandwiches. After resting, my sister

and I tried to walk across a log that led to the other side of the river but it was very wobbly so my

sister almost fell off.

“Ah!” She yelped as she barely saved herself from falling into the river.

“What's wrong, honey?” my dad shouted from around the corner.

“Oh, nothing, Dad” she said in that sarcastic tone of hers, “I just almost died!”

“Ok.” he said, knowing she was being dramatic.

When my parents FINALLY finished their sandwiches, we trudged across the river and

along the path. Getting farther and farther away from the campsite with each step. Which meant

more walking in order to get back. That is why I tried doing all of our feet a favor by pestering

my parents by saying, “Can we turn back now?” every 5 seconds.

Then the sun started to go down and they finally realized that we probably should turn

back. But the thing is, they realized this way too late because by the time we had started

walking back it was already dark. Thankfully, we managed to make it back but it was just

because of my parent’s phone lights which only allowed us to see 2 ft in front of us.

It was about 2 AM by the time we got back to the campsite and even though I was

tremendously tired I still wasn’t able to sleep for so long because the sleeping bag did not

cushion the floor at all and there were definitely crickets planted directly outside of our tents

seeing who could chirp the loudest because apparently it wasn’t possible for them to be

anywhere else. But as soon as I felt like I was about to fall asleep there was a sound of rustling

and then there was a voice, “Wake up! We're going hiking.” My dad said.

“But we just went hiking!”

“You can never hike too much in Yosemite”

“You definitely can!” I said.

“Well we’re going anyway.”

“Fine! Just let me go to the bathroom.”

Even though I could barely keep my eyes open and I felt like I was carrying two whole

elephants, I sleepily trudged out of the tent and made my way into the forest. I had just found a

bush when suddenly I heard something loud rustling in the bushes. I saw a glimpse of black fur.

My heart flew out of my body, and I started sweating profusely as I imagined many possibilities

that included bears and the afterlife. My body was frozen by fear. I couldn’t leave so I just

waited, my heart beating out of my chest, while a black, furry, figure came out of the bushes and

it was a... baby bear? I was so relieved I could feel a thousand pounds of weight lifted off my

shoulders and I could finally move again. The baby bear had pitch-black eyes, stubby little

paws, and really soft black fur. It was really cute and I wanted to pet it really badly. But my eyes

widened as I saw a cave close by with sounds coming from inside. I then sprinted out of there

as fast as humanly possible, leaving the cub in my dust. When I made it to the campsite I was

out of breath.

“There is literally a bear right outside the campsite!”

“Oh my gosh did you see it?” my sister gasped.

“No, I smelt it. Of course I saw it.” I said.

“Was it huge?” “Well no, it was a baby.”

“Why did you leave?” My sister said with excitement, “Let’s go back.”

“No because I’m pretty sure the mother is right next to it in a cave.”

“Then we cannot go back there.” my dad said in a serious tone,“Was it really close?” “

“Yeah it was like 2 mins away”

“Well then we must cut our trip short because we can’t have them that close while we

are sleeping.”

“What noooo. I want to stay, this has been so fun” my mom and sister were saying while

I whispered “Yess "

"What was that?” my dad challenged.

“What? Oh I was just saying that I’m really bummed that we have to leave so soon.”

“That’s what I thought. Now everybody pack up your things,” He ordered.

“Are you sure there aren’t any more campsites around?” my mom said

“Yes this one was the only one that I saw available, sorry guys”

So we all packed up our things while my mom and sister were saying, “I really would’ve

loved to stay longer,” to each other.

When we finally finished stuffing all of our items into our backpacks, we started the

descent back to the car. But halfway through my sister asked, “I feel like this is the third time I’ve

seen this exact tree. Are you sure we're going the right way, Dad?”

“Yes honey, we are. A lot of trees just look the same.”

But sure enough when he checked the map again we discovered that we had been

walking in a circle for 20 mins. So this time we went the other way and endured another hour of

walking until we saw a miracle appear.

“The car!” I yelled as I ran towards it.

Sadly, I couldn’t sit down because we had to pack all the stuff in the trunk. Seems like a

great way to end the trip.