Camping at Mendocino & How we turn our van into "tent"

Last August, our family went to Mendocino for our annual family camping trip.

After about 3.5 hours on the road we're finally arrived at Mendocino Campground.

Aaaah.... the trees, fresh air, scenery, quietness... the reasons why we go camping every year.


Ever since we bought our van, I have been wanting to try turning it into RV or tent, where we sleep in. My reason at night, the temperature could drop to 40 degree Fahrenheit plus it's almost always foggy in Mendocino so not only it will be cold but damp also.

After many persuasion but Chris finally agreed to give another one of his wife's "creative" ideas a try. He said, if it doesn't work we can go back sleeping in the tent.

First thing first: unload the stuffs:


Next, we built our tent to store our stuffs. We love love love our instant tent, which took about 5 minutes to set up.


Since we only use the tent to store our stuffs, the boys claimed it as their base.


The mosquitoes were happy to see us. Thankfully we're bought bug repellent and nursing cream as remedies for bug bites.


Next, the boys gathered woods for camp fire.


while I cooked dinner:


Tonight menu: fried rice with left over lunch meat seasoned with furikake:

plus warm tea


Perfection!


I was so glad when I found this small dish rack at Daiso, perfect for camping. We no longer bring any disposable/ paper utensils.




They can't wait until night time:


How we turn our van into "tent": 
We never use the middle seats in our van so we left them in the garage. All we need to do was folding the back seats.

Instead of air bed and sleeping bags, we used this folding mattress, our regular pillows, and duvet.

Of course, we didn't forget the loveys:


Oh so comfortable! I never thought the words comfortable and camping could go together but this time they do. :)


We opened the side windows so the fresh air can still come in.


This set up may not work for tall people but it works great for our family.


That's it. See you in the morning.