Family Summer Camp

This day came with lots of blessings and I'm not sure that one of them rated higher than the others. Our son-in-law let us know Saturday evening that he would be available if we'd like him to drive us to the boat terminal in San Pedro in his 4-door pick-up truck, which would be so much easier for carrying all our luggage. Trying to load all luggage and a stroller into Grandpa Fun's sedan would have taken some immense creativity and possibly one of us to run along side because we sure weren't going to all fit.

Seeing the view through Tristan's eyes is always a blessing. As I carried him down the ramp and onto the boat, he said with great certainty, "I do not want to go swimming!" I thought to myself with my laptop bag slung over my shoulder, "Yeah, I don't want to either!" and thankfully we walked across the ramp (which did have sides) and entered the boat just fine.

We left the Port at San Pedro and our great grandson Tristan thoroughly enjoyed the 1 hour boat ride. The time passed quickly and we arrived on Catalina Island. The island is 26 miles from the mainland of southern California

Arriving at camp, we wondered if little Tristan would remember camp. He was so young when we were there a year ago, but honestly, we never figured-out if he remembered the place of not. Tristan immediately found the rocks. Campus By the Sea is famous for their lovely "rock" beach. Actually most of Catalina Island has rocky shore. It's really no big deal; we all sit in beach chairs. So I instructed Tristan that "we do not throw rocks, except at the rock jetty" and he understood and even though he wanted to toss a few of them, he did not.

We were all given a wonderful "Welcome" and the announcement regarding which cabin was ours. So we took our belongings to "Cormorant's Corner" (our cabin name), unpacked our things, and at 5:30 the dinner bell rang. This year's camp cook is a chef, who formerly worked at the lovely Mission Inn resort in Riverside (near our home and I have blipped from there previously). The meal consisted of a delicious Caesar salad, garlic bread, and spaghetti.

The evening group gathering included singing, especially singing with hand motions for the little kids, getting to meet the camp staff, and then some interesting "get-to-know-one-another" games with candy rewards for everyone, and the kiddos loved that. Des thought she and Tristan might win the prize for coming from the furthest distance, but there were several exchange students -- one from Europe and one from Asia. So no prize for our family.

At the end of the evening, we crawled into our double-sleeping bag with Tristan just a few feet from us in his sleeping bag, while his mom was out at an evening gathering for college-age singles and young adults. Grandpa Fun was first asleep, while Tristan had to work off his excess energy tossing about in his sleeping bag, so I wore him out with getting him to sing with me. Together we sang a little of the "Butterfly Song," "Jesus Loves Me," and the "Spiderman Song." What fun!

From family camp on Catalina Island,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol