Change of Pace

Back-blipped on Tuesday, July 7

Wednesday at camp is a complete break in schedule -- a change of pace day -- for campers and I am sure a much more relaxed day for the camp staff.

This photo shows:
our view of camp from the boat (top left corner)
the California sea lions at the end of the Catalina Island
Hamilton Cove, a ritzy resort-like condominium gated-community
Avalon's famous casino building (which is now no longer a casino)

On Wednesday everyone is given three options:
1). Those who want to can hike into Avalon. I think it is about a 5 mile journey. The hikers all leave at 7 o'clock in the cool of the morning. It takes anywhere from 2 to 6 hours to get to Avalon (depending on the fitness of the hiker). Mr. Fun once made it into Avalon in approx. 1 hour. That was back in his slender and jogging days. He was a maniac for running then and ran with a couple of buddies all the way to town.

2). For those who don't want to hike, a boat arrived at 9:30 to take all who wanted to into Avalon. Everyone is given a sack lunch and a there are two options to return to camp. A 2 o'clock boat and a 3 o'clock boat leave from Avalon's Pleasure Pier back to camp. If a camper misses the boat, well that doesn't happen. We all know it is a 3 mile swim back to camp. So we all heed the warning not to miss the return boat.

3). Campers can stay in camp and enjoy the quietness. The waterfront opens at 9:30 with a lifeguard on-duty. This is truly a pleasant way to spend the day, but in all of our years of going to camp, I think I have only once or twice stayed in camp on Wednesday.

This year everyone was also offered an extra that was completely new to us. For a fee of $5.00 each, once it docked at Avalon, we could stay on the boat for a tour (anyone who wanted to could get off and hikers could get on), and then the boat headed for the southeastern end of the island--a place the two of us had never seen. So Mr. Fun, Desiree, Tristan, and I all stayed on the boat for the tour.

On the journey to the end of the island we went past the recycling center, the rock quarry, and the water desalinatrion plant, and finally veering east around the end of the island. We were suddenly in the most turquoise water we had ever seen, such a lovely shade. The tour guide's focus was on the large gathering of California sea lions and their social habits, which was quite fascinating. Once everyone had seen the sea lions and heard their "barking" it was time to get the passengers back to Avalon for a few hours of exploring this little coastal tourist town. It was a much nicer day there because for the first time in quite a while, we did not share the area with passengers from one or two large cruise ships, which was very nice.

We rode the 2 o'clock boat back to camp and spent the late afternoon enjoying the shore front for the remainder of the afternoon until the waterfront closed. After dinner the meeting room was cleared of all chairs and everyone was invited to square dancing, line dancing, and I think some of the teens did swing dancing. Mid-way through the evening everyone was invited to walk over to the outdoor section of the dining hall for an ice cream sundae dessert.

Wednesday was a very good day.

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol