Notes on Camp

After the less than successful initial inaugural sleep-away camp experience Owen had with his friend Gabriel a few years ago (those Quaker camps are pretty hardcore and very adamant that you will eat your ration of cheesy grits), we had largely given up on our children participating in that summer ritual. But then Gabriel's mom discovered a YMCA camp that served chicken tenders and had sailing and horseback riding and non-mandated overnight hikes, that Nora was old enough to attend, we were able to convince Owen (and Gabriel) that given Nora (and Mirabel) would be there too, they should give this whole sleep-away camp thing another try (once Nora found out we could sign her up for horseback riding, no convincing was necessary).

Drop off didn't go exactly as planned. Despite numerous uploading of documents to insure that Owen could have his Advil on site, we were informed they had no record and so if we needed any he'd need to go to the infirmary (which was a pretty far hike from the "rustics" where Owen was staying and pretty much insured he would never go and just deal the pain, so we smuggled it in his backpack and told him to self-medicate as needed). And the horses were quarantined due to some health concerns which meant horseback riding might be cancelled. And there was no record of the credits for the camp store we'd been promised since they neglected to give us a sibling discount) which meant they kids couldn't buy ice cream or snacks or souvenirs. Also, we forgot shampoo and/or soap (well, I forgot, Allen maintains he thought of it but as it wasn't listed explicitly in the packing list toiletries he assumed they didn't need them). And the forecast was for rain every day. But still we wished them well and dropped them off, hoping for the best and thinking we might get a Camp Granada like note.

But we didn't (in part because despite both us us sending them emails every day to be shared with them at lunch, neither child ever wrote us). The horses recovered from a bad reaction to the their worm medicine, and Nora happily rode "Cookie" all week. Nora was able to borrow all the necessary toiletries and apparently, none of the boys bothered showering since there weren't any bathrooms in the "Rustics" (so Allen was correct in his assumption that they didn't "need" them, though for very different reasons). After an email and a couple of phone calls, the kids accounts were reconciled and they were able to buy all the Goldfish, ice cream and "stuffies" their hearts desired. And while it did indeed rain every day but the last, the rain consistently held off until the afternoon so that Nora got in all her horseback riding and Owen was able to sail every day but Friday (and that was because of too much wind).

In fact the week was so successful that both kids want to return next year (possibly even for two weeks) although Owen's friend Gabriel maintains that the personal hygiene issues were a little much for him and he's done with camp (though I think his parents are still working on him).

(To see all the pictures, click here.)