Memories Make the Best Souvenirs

We made our exit last Sunday afternoon (Father's Day) for a week of family camp on Catalina Island. I told blippers back here that we'd be going, but TV reporters have said since then not to put on the Internet when you'll be going on vacation (so I got a bit scared). Stupid, huh!

Four of us went--Mr. Fun, myself, our granddaughter, Desiree, and her son, our adorable great-grandson, Tristan. We've had a week that I'll cherish for the remainder of my life. I'll try my best to explain it in the backblips that I'll do tomorrow and the next few days, but honestly putting it into words will be a tremendous challenge.

We've been going to family camp at Campus By the Sea on Catalina Island since summer of 1980 when our son and our daughter were youngsters. Almost every summer since then we've gone back--even with our adult children and their children. Even though neither of our two kids could go with us this week, our son's daughter, our granddaughter, expressed a desire to go and we knew the bonus blessing would be that her little guy, 2 year-old Tristan, would accompany her. What a joy.

The four of us spent the week sleeping in a rustic open-air cabin--the two of us on a double-bunk (with a double sleeping bag), and Des on a top bunk, and Tristan on a bottom bunk. It was tight quarters, but what a great way to get really close.

The middle of one night we woke with Tristan awake standing between our double bunk and his bunk--so I picked him up, hugged his little body, and put him between me and Mr. Fun and he was immediately asleep. Wow!

We were invited into the dining room 10 minutes early each meal to get Tristan into a high chair and ready for the meal. The nursery workers loved Tristan. Well, everyone at camp did. He never cried when it was time to go to an age-graded activity. He went willingly and eagerly. He loved being with other children.

So today was one of life's sweet 'n sour moments -- I have always loved coming home when a vacation is over, but leaving camp is so difficult because it is such a good and wonderful place. It's a safe place for kids. There are no roads into camp; it is only accessible by boat or hiking from the only city, Avalon, which is three miles away and it is an extreme up-hill hike to get out of camp. There are no TVs. No cell phone reception. No Internet. It's families spending time together in such a healthy environment. The camp directors have watched our family grow-up and increase as our kids have married and had children, and now to have gone there with our first great-grandchild. Wow!

The camp is NOT a resort, but it has improved tremendously since we first arrived there in 1980. The directors refer to Catalina as a desert island. The camp is on the leeward side of the island and all afternoon is recreation time - swimming, kayaking, snorkling, sunbathing, reading, kids playing in the play yard, napping, browsing through the snack shop/bookstore, making crafts in the craft shack, just whatever each person wants to do.

We are fed three wonderfully delicious meals a day and about 2 times a week we get to help with OTS (opportunity to serve -- most people call it KP). There's lots of singing in the mornings or evening campfire and just making friends with lots of other families. This year there were lots of families with handicapped children and lots of people with adopted children and that added to the special quality of "family-ness." Children, and raising them in love, are a high priority at Campus By the Sea.

So leaving today was tough. The entire staff gathered at the end of the pier (after carrying our luggage onto the boat) to wave and sing goodbye to us. So I am full and over-flowing with the wonder of a family vacation.

I've missed Blipfoto and ALL of you. I'll be back to commenting in a day or two when I catch my breath and get all the laundry done
;-) !!!

Thank YOU to everyone for the comments. What a joy to come home to comments--wow!

So for this Saturday night in Southern California, please know that I've had a great week way, and that I am so glad to be home and that I'm looking forward to see all that I have missed here on Blip!

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol

P.S. In the coming back-blips, I'll show some of the camp and its wonder. So I'll let you know when I've back-blipped. Now it's time to get into bed, in the privacy of our own bedroom--no grandkids, no great-grandkids. There's no place like home!