Summer Camp

We picked Emily up from summer camp Saturday.

This is the first time that she's been away from us for an extended period. In fact, other than an occasional slumber party, it's the first time that she's spent more than one night away from the family. We've been gone for a weekend, but she always was with her brother or her grandparents.

Needless to say, we were a bit nervous about how things would go. As for Emily, she sort of oscillated between great excitement and sheer terror. At one moment, she was talking about all of the things that she and her buddies would do. Five minutes later, she would be in tears about something on the suggested packing list that she couldn't find (this was a couple of weeks before the actual BIG DAY, so there was plenty of time to find things).

Father's Day found us driving to the camp in Eastern PA. We left church a bit early to allow a good amount of time. We figured that three hours would be plenty of time to drive 130 or so miles. Turns out we were right, but only because of delays caused by driving through a major commercial area and a loooonnnnnng delay at a tollbooth. As it turned out, it took the entire three hours.

Anyway, we finally got there, got Emily set up in her cabin, realized that we forgot the camera, gave hugs and kisses and went home.

I think I should point out here that we always realize we forgot the camera. I think it would be easier to bring the camera than have to remember to realize that we forgot it every time we go somewhere.

The drive home was a different experience from the drive up there. Since we don't have a GPS unit, we're stuck with printouts from Mapquest or one of its cousins. If we're not in a hurry to get somewhere, we'll usually just toss the instructions aside and follow our noses to get home. We've had some interesting times trying to find our way to where we're going, but we've also seen some beautiful scenery. My wife and I both derive far less stress from being slightly confused about where we are than we do from being bumper-to-bumper with NASCAR wannabes. And on this particular trip, we found a place in Lancaster with very, very tasty pizza and cheap Yuengling beer.

Well, we survived the week without our daughter. And despite our predictions to our son that he'd be getting corrected twice as much since his sister wasn't there to catch some of the fire, it turned out that he got corrected a lot less. I'm not sure if it was due to the absence of his partner in crime, or to the fact that the house was generally quieter, or simply because we missed his sister, but I can say for sure he didn't get scolded nearly as often as he usually does.

On Saturday, we got up at the crack of doom, piled into the Big Silver Bus and took off for camp. We allowed ourselves four hours to get there, figuring that we only had about 160 miles to drive and we'd get there early. Turns out we were right: we got there about ten minutes early. Wrong turns and big garage sales turned out to be our downfall.

Anyway, we picked up Emily and her friend Kate and got them home. Again following our noses, we managed to make a three-hour drive in about four and a half hours, including another stop at the pizza joint in Lancaster.

We've decided that if the finances will allow it, we all will go to camp next year. Us adults can get our chance to go by volunteering to help out as counselors. Judging from the fact that Emily continues to regale us with camp stories, I think we'd all have a lot of fun. Us parental types may have to lie still for a while once we get home ("a while" being defined as a period of several hours to several weeks) but I think it would be worth it.