Gazing at the Stars – Spirited Away

On Saturday our family packed our jackets into the car and headed to the great outdoors to be able to do some star-gazing with our telescope.  We left at about 8pm.  We headed to a park up in the hills which we have nicknamed the “Ninja Park.”  Once we got to the “Ninja Park” we discovered that even though the park was closed  there were too many lights still lit to be able to do star-gazing.  Not willing to give up we headed to where we knew there was a vending machine out in the middle of nowhere.  To get there we took a drive through the countryside of Japan.  It was a nice drive on small country roads.  The roads get really narrow at times.  We have driven in this area  a few times and knew that some roads were so small and windy that all you want to do is hustle and hope no on coming traffic comes our way.   When we approached the vending machine in the middle of nowhere we saw a sign for the a  campground that we had been hiking near before so we headed for the campground instead of stopping at the vending machine.  We figured this would not take much longer than the vending machine out in the middle of nowhere.  We pressed forward thinking this place would be easy to find because we had been there before.  We drove for a long while keeping an eye out for the campground.  Then we saw the bridge that lead to the campground only to find that it was a town! WHAT!  A TOWN!  STRANGE!  We started to feel like we were in a Japanese Cartoon show (anyone know what those are like?).  In particular we felt like we were in the Japanese cartoon movie called Spirited Away.  I mentioned to my husband that if we did not find the campground that would be a bit creepy.  We wandered by car for a little longer.  STRANGE!  We know we went to a campground near here before.  Where is the bridge to the campground?!?!  My husband was pretty determined to find this campground.  Every time we went through a tunnel the kids acted like we were being eaten by a worm.  Finally we found the campground.  While the boys and I rested in the car my husband set up the telescope.  We only brought cellphone lights to use to light things up a bit to setup the telescope.  Next time we hope to remember the flashlight.  We all had some fun looking at the stars.  We hope we can go star-gazing again.  Stars are neat.  Adventures are fun.  We are glad we found the campground.

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