We took our 11 month old son on his first camping trip this past weekend, something I've been looking forward to since he was born last summer.  Green Bay is one of my favorite spots in the area.  Its just a 20 minute drive from Sandpoint, just a few miles past Garfield Bay.  There are some great campsites off the beach, with incredible views of the Green Monarchs across Lake Pend Oreille.  The well known Mineral Point trails start here, offering some of the best hiking and mountain biking in the region.

We met up with several other couples with young kids, and ended up connecting with other friends that happened to be camping next to us. 

Friday afternoon the guys and I reserved our camp sites (Green Bay is completely free, first come for sites).  We ended up with way more space than we needed, so it was nice to spread out.  A few of us went mountain biking which is always a blast on these trails which literally start from the campground and wind up and down along the Lake.

Friday evening was spent enjoying a great sunset, hanging out around the fire and cooking some fantastic dinner (almost anything tastes great when you are outside somehow).  My wife rigged a great high-chair for Trace, setting him up on top of our cooler to eat, which he loved.  All the kids stayed up well past their normal bedtimes, but we actually got our little guy to sleep about as good as he does at home.  We bought the big tent and set up his pac-n-play next to us, which worked great.

Saturday was probably the warmest and nicest day of the year, and we spent all of it just hanging out and playing on the beach.  One of our friends brought paddle boats which were perfect for the little kids.  Another brought his canoe, which I took out for an hour paddle to Garfield Bay and back.  ANother buddy had his ski boat and took turns pulling everyone on the ski and wakeboard.  A rarety at this big part of the Lake, the winds completely died down and we had glassy water in front of Green Bay.

The coolest part of this weekend was seeing how much fun my son had living outdoors for a couple days.  Green Bay is a stone beach (most of which are too big to swallow fortunately).  So Trace and all the kids had endless entertainment just tossing the stones around.  Believe it or not - noone got hurt!  We put Trace in his raft and pushed him around in the Lake, which he also loved.  Basically our kid had a grin on his face for two days straight.  What more can a Dad ask for!

For more photos of Green Bay and Mineral Point, visit www.SandpointResortRealty.com and view the photo links from the Sandpoint section.  Or email Rick@SandpointResortRealty.com and I'll forward you links.