Forest Preserves of Cook County 2024 Summer Brochure

40 First Timers Learnthe Fun of Camping, continued from page 14. campout in Indiana last August. “I knew what kind of stuff to bring and buy. I told my husband, ‘We’re doing this.’ He was skeptical at first,” she says. “We brought hot dogs and s’mores and did all of that. We brought grills and knew what kind of foods to prepare, and to keep them refrigerated. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed that one.” Jackson and her family plan to camp again this summer. “The grandkids are constantly asking me, ‘When we are going camping?’” she says. “That warms my heart.” Other than that, the experience was wonderful.” Among other tips, Jackson learned what kinds of foods to bring and how to keep them refrigerated in a cooler, which she hadn’t been certain would guard against spoilage into the morning hours. “What do you do? What do you bring?” she says. “You can make pancakes—oh, wow, I didn’t know you could do that!” Jackson and her family members went on evening and morning trail walks and toured the Sand Ridge Nature Center on site, which she hadn’t known about before. “The kids enjoyed the interactions they had with the staff there,” she says. The experience gave Jackson the confidence to recruit her husband and son to go with her and her grandchildren on a two-night