Family Camp #1 for 2013 Begins

We drove to San Pedro in the early afternoon to ride the 3:00 o'clock boat with approximately 200+ family campers to Campus By the Sea on Catalina Island. It's 26 miles across the water.

Our family has been attending family camp since the summer of 1980, when our son was a young teenager and our daughter was in 5th grade. Today our son-in-law and his two kids, our grandkids, Ashly (24) and Emerson (21), are coming with us, and our son's daughter, Desiree, has come to camp with us several times in the past few years with her son, our great-grandson, Tristan (6). Having him along allows each of us to experience camp through the perspective of a child. Tristan loves camp. Desiree, who lives in San Diego, has to work this week so she won't be with us. :-(

Even though it would be appropriate to post a photo of Tristan or our entire group on the first evening at camp, I thought the sight of this Jacaranda tree on the main fairway through camp was so lovely, it wins my vote. We've watched this tree grow from a very small sapling that needed to be protected with chicken-wire so the deer would not eat it, to the beauty it is today. It is immensely healthy.

Over the years we've watched much of camp change and improve with new dining hall, new library, new bookstore, new meeting rooms, new playground, new cabins, a pier, new recreation places, new recreation equipment, and on and on.

Arriving at family camp is always exciting. We've attended enough times to know that it will be a quality week. Our first meal, supper, the six of us shared a table with a rather large family who are new to camp. We thought they had seven children. We learned later they had traveled from Colorado, somewhere near Denver, and they actually have eleven children. Watching them was amazing!

My stepdad brought me up in the Lutheran Church and taught me to reverence God. There was a time in my life when I rebelled against that. Then I discovered the Bible. What I read made so much sense. I know that many here in Blipfoto don't think the Bible makes sense. I think it is wonderful that this Blip family is tolerant and realizes the diversity that is represented here. Because of this site, I have friends of all faiths all around the globe and that is immensely meaningful to me.

And so the week begins at Campus By the Sea at Gallagher's Cove on Catalina Island.

Good night from here,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun and various family members), aka Carol