The Last Full Day of Camp

We have experienced an enormous privilege to not only be in the big community of all the camp families, but to have a unique little community within our own cabin. When we come to camp we leave behind so much of what we think brings us comfort -- our "stuff" -- we come with a sleeping bag, a suitcase of clothes, a cosmetic bag of soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and lotions -- the things we think we value -- then together we learn the value of one another and the other campers here with us.

The two of us have so enjoyed listening to both Des and Tristan fall asleep at night, just hearing their breathing is a joy that we so seldom get to experience. Listening to the morning, afternoon, and evening chatter amongst the two of them and their casual banter is fun and funny.

I don't know that I've ever experience a little boy who chatters more than little Tristan. He's a constant verbal machine. That is the definite evidence that he is in the lineage of Great Grandpa Fun -- because Mr. Fun doesn't know the concept of "quiet."

The family connection that has happened in the close quarters of our little cabin in the six nights and seven days we have spent together is a treasure the two of us will savor for the remainder of our lives. Yes, it is just a wink of time, but what a precious wink it is. We've viewed it as an ocean and tried to drink it dry -- to take as many memories from this week as we can because it might possibly be another year before we can live and play and dine with these two precious ones.

When this week comes to an end, when Des and Tristan must return to the airport to fly back to Oklahoma, our hearts will hurt more than we can express; our home and our lives will feel as though the air has been sucked out. But we will have shared a week that cannot be erased.

From the very first week we spent at camp in September 1980, we have recognized the community that develops among a group of people who have all come to this tiny cove on this fairly barren island just 26 miles off the coast of southern California.

During that first week so long ago, our kids were both still in elementary school. How can it be that our son, Shawn, is now a grandpa and his beautiful daughter, Desiree, and Shawn's grandson, Tristan, are here with us?

I wish our son could have come with us this week. I wish our daughter's family could have come with us. There have been times, years past, when they have all come to camp to experience something that cannot be experienced anywhere else. It's pricey to take the four of us, but what we get is priceless.

That's it from summer camp 2010.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka

P.S. The sunrise over Saddleback Mountain was our reward for getting up before most others in camp to get to the shore to see the awarding presentation! And . . .

On this final day of camp there is always lots of kayaking. We've included some of it here because Desiree is NOT a water person and when her team leader got her to go on a kayak ride we were both surprised and pleased. Then Tristan wanted to go, so Great-Grandpa Fun got Tristan a life-jacket and into a kayak they went. A little side-note is that Tristan cried the whole time and kept asking to go back to shore, like his mom, he doesn't like water. And . . .

Late in the afternoon is the annual boat race -- all campers are encouraged to make a boat with leftover milk cartons, plastic bags for sails, sticks, twigs, whatever. Desiree and Tristan built his boat the "S.S. Tristanator" -- and his boat came in second place. In all the years we have attended camp, our family has never won anything in the boat race. Amazing!

At the end of the afternoon everyone "dresses up" for the camp banquet. It is always a magnificent moment--excellent elegant meal, special music, and stories from the week we've all lived.