4th of July Priceless Weekend

July 3rd-5th

Fourth of July weekend was spent without any fireworks but an enjoyable weekend all the same. Ilya and I spent the weekend at Priceless, a three day camping event with music and 500+ people in Belden (part of Plumas State Park). The drive up was really fun with lots of fruit stands and roadkill along the way. Ilya and I discovered the delicious and cheap foods of Denny's (we later learned the shockingly high calorie and sugar amounts). 

I haven't been camping in a couple years and this was Ilya's first time so I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I was surprised to see how little room there was to set up tents once we arrived but, we found a small spot that fit out tent, squeezed in with some fellow campers. I did learn on this trip what people mean when they talk about concert camping and it is very different from normal camping. I like the idea of camping much more than the actual activity but having a car nearby makes everything much easier. This is really how I like camping: wandering around the surrounding areas (towns or hiking paths), going to sleep early, waking up with the sun.
Besides the DJs there were many activities planned but since no one wore a watch and there was zero cell reception, some activities didn't happen at all. For each activity we received a merit badge and at the end we became full fledged scouts. Ilya and I both helped paint a paint-by-numbers mural of Belden and made sand castles, among other things. However, the heat and the dust made it hard not to get sleepy early and go to sleep well before everyone else. 

Regardless, we had a lot of fun exploring the neighboring lumber and mining towns, one ghost town, stopping at some yard sales, and walking along the nearby train tracks. The next town over, Quincy, is an old lumber town and absolutely adorable. We went in a few times to get dinner and wander around the quaint streets and old fashioned shops. Videos here, here, and here.