After 14 months of being (mostly) trapped indoors, working from home for hours on end, and cancelling all our travel plans, Zach and I decided it was time to take the indoors outdoors. He wanted to go camping. There was no way I was going to survive that, so glamping it was! We chose a location nearby home for ours and Milo’s first glamping trip. Coincidentally, we also ended up choosing the warmest weekend of May.
This was my first glamping trip and I certainly didn’t know what to expect. Obviously it is nowhere near as difficult or complicated as what I would consider a true camping trip, but tents are new to me (and Milo)! We opted for a place nearby a town with great restaurants. I wasn’t quite ready for the cooking portion and was really excited to try some of the food in Healdsburg.
Checking in at Wildhaven Sonoma was extremely easy. We drove right up to their check-in stall. They handed us a parking permit to display in our car, provided us with our tent number and easy instructions on how to get to our tent. We were assigned a tent in the back row, close to the community baths and cooking space. I thought about booking one of the premium tents, but decided against it since this was just a short trip. Our tent was about 15 feet away from the other tents on each side and each row of tents had a driving lane between them. Each had its own picnic bench and fire pit. Every tent felt far enough away that we were still in our own little bubble, but close enough that we could still hear quite a bit of others’ conversation and music. Milo spent a lot of time reminding us that there were “people outside!!” with his little woofs. I saw the row of premium tents had more space in between as well as a hammock and more space in front of the tent. 100% considering that for our next visit! I feel like it will be well worth the small price increase per night.
Restrooms were community style with stalls. Showers were private but were in a separate building. They also had a “family” bathroom that was handicap accessible. Everything was neat, clean, and tidy. The cooking area had fire buckets we could easily fill up to put out our fire.
The only thing we “cooked” was s’mores. Because what’s a little glamping trip without s’mores? We didn’t bring our own firewood or fire-starters this time around, but I’m thinking that’ll be one of our must-pack items for next trip. We bought a firewood set from the front kiosk. Zach hadn’t started a fire in years and me in… never. I was a little surprised that cardboard was a lot more difficult to light on fire than I thought.
S’mores aside, we really stressed the “glam” part of the glamping experience by getting takeout. 
Downtown Healdsburg was less than a 10 minute drive away and I couldn’t help myself when I saw the restaurant selections! We only visited a handful of restaurants on our list and still have so much more to try on our next visit.
Summer’s Market & Deli (Yelp) – Picked up a couple of sandwiches on the way in for a late lunch. My thoughts on sandwiches in general? You can (almost) never go wrong with dutch crunch bread. We both opted for “The Kevin” cold sandwich and let me just say, I was too hungry and it was too delicious for me to stop and take a picture. That should say a lot about good the sandwich was.
Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar (Yelp) – After much, much debate, we opted to get takeout from Willi’s for dinner. To be honest, I was just craving some oysters. We had a bit of difficulty with their online order screen and weren’t able to get an order placed online for pick up so we just walked in to place an order. We snagged ourselves a dozen oysters, fish tacos, crispy pork belly tacos, fried calamari, and bread. If that sounds like a lot of food for two people, then yes, it was. The oysters and tacos were amazing, but their warmed sourdough bread and garlic parsley butter was the winning choice that night. It’s either that or I might just have a thing for warm bread.
Costeaux French Bakery (Yelp) – Camping, glamping, whatever it is- I need coffee. Visited this delightfully busy and crowded bakery in downtown Healdsburg. We called in our order from afar and Zach, my personal food delivery person, squeezed his way in to pick up some coffee and pastries for us. If it wasn’t so busy, I would have loved to try a sit-down meal here and try out their full breakfast dishes. And cake. I also wanted cake and lots of it.
KINSMOKE (Yelp) – I didn’t think any trip, glamping or camping, would be complete without some sort of BBQ meal. We both got a 2×2 with prime brisket and KINsmoke sausage. Let’s just say I wasn’t sure why we waited until the second day to eat this when we could have been enjoying KINSMOKE all weekend long. Definitely on my list for a re-visit with our next trip, whether we are planning to cook or not. Each of us getting a 2×2 was a bit much… I probably could’ve gotten away with the 1×1, but I didn’t want to miss out on more food.
Plank Coffee (Yelp) – Did I mention the coffee thing yet? Had to give another coffee place a shot and I’m happy I did. We stopped here on our way back home. Zach swears that Plank Coffee has the best biscuits he’s had in a while. I got myself avocado toast because why not? The toast had greens piled on. For a second, I was worried they forgot the toast. Coffee was as delicious as ever. I’m not very picky about my coffee. I did prefer Plank’s coffee over Costeaux’s coffee.
For someone who loves taking photos of food, I’m really bad at it. In my defense, I’m out of practice. I haven’t eaten out in over a year! 
Other than indulging in the weekend of takeout, I did enjoy the slower pace. I have always been one to feel like I have to be doing something productive to make my time worthwhile. It would be accurate to say that my anxiety is constantly through the roof. Over our glamping weekend, though, we both wound down and took the time to just walk around, explore the area, and start getting into the habit of reading again.
Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about Milo. How could I ever? His eventful weekend was spending time in the Russian River! Milo was always scared of moving water as a puppy, but after his aqua-therapy sessions, he’s been more brave when it comes to bodies of water. He surprised us by jumping into the river and had lots of fun dragging Zach around while he hopped in the water and stared at the little fishes. Note: appropriate footwear for the river is very much something I never thought about before. Walking barefoot on rocks hurts. Definitely don’t do what I did.
About five minutes after we reached our assigned tent the first day, I had already been planning to come back for another visit. It truly felt nice not to have WiFi or data signals easily accessible. Zach really tried to browse Reddit. I couldn’t check my work emails even if I wanted to and social media posts and stories were just not loading. I thought it would bother me but I quickly realized I didn’t mind. It felt amazing to not have those options at my fingertips. I’m someone who is always sitting in front of a screen and most of my hobbies are screen-centric, so I was a little scared. I quickly realized I was foolish to have waited so long to take a trip like this! We already have our next glamping trip planned out – somewhere with a little more “glam” but equally as detached from the rest of the world.
I’m sure Milo enjoyed the extra attention and nature too. He had a lot to say that weekend but I could tell he felt relaxed and comfortable where we were. I certainly was and want to always consistently incorporate that “downtime” into my regular days at home.