DIY Overnight Camp

My daughter was supposed to attend her very first overnight camp last summer – one week at a Girl Scout facility about two hours from here. She was nervous, and honestly was probably more relieved than disappointed when it was cancelled due to Covid. I was bummed out because I knew we were missing some key years in getting used to sleep away camp – an experience I didn’t really have but have heard positive things about from friends who felt it was an formative part of their childhood (many of them started going when they were 8 years old!)

So when the sleep away camps in our area were only offering three week stints (again, because of Covid and the health guidelines here at the time), I was doubly disappointed because I knew that was too long for my daughter. She is 11 years old, and a homebody and I just didn’t think she could handle three weeks away from home. Not after a year of being at home exclusively.

My friends were similarly bummed out. Luckily they were also proactive. In March, after a night of drinking on my friend’s deck, and hearing about how awesome this KOA in Petaluma is, my friend called me and we actually went on and booked a six person cabin. For 10 nights. I still can’t believe we did that. My friends are amazing at many things, but making a random, drinking night wouldn’t-it-be-cool plan a reality is one of the best.

Tomorrow we leave for the KOA. I’m taking the first stint, so I’m driving up four girls (plus my son), all their stuff, and a ton of food, all in my friend’s SUV. I’ll be up there with them on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday my dad will come up and collect my son, right before all the other moms arrive for the weekend. We have rented a boat on Clear Lake (which is very low yes, but still has enough water for this boat rental company to operate) on Saturday (my birthday!) and we’ll just hang out at the KOA on Sunday before three of us go back home, leaving another mom to stay with the girls. Finally, a third mom will go back up for the tail end of the trip. They come back home on Friday.

All told the girls will be up there almost two weeks (11 days/10 nights). No one is bringing phones or electronic devices (there is a TV in the cabin). The girls will be making their own meals (and cleaning up after those meals) and finding ways to entertain themselves. There is a pool and a lake, both for swimming. There is a climbing wall and an arcade. There is warm weather (for us anyway, because nothing feels colder than summer in San Francisco) and sun.

There will also be boredom and complaining. There will be squabbles and homesickness. There will be wanting to return early (I’m honestly so glad I got the first leg of the stay!). All that is to be expected. It won’t be a perfect experience, but it will definitely be one to remember. These girls spent the pandemic together, and this trip is their farewell to that sequestered existence. My daughter and one friend will be at the same middle school next year, but the other two will not. It’s definitely the beginning of the end of something – I desperately hope not their friendships.

As many of you know, I longed deeply for the community and sense of belonging I found, and this year solidified, with these women. We are so lucky to have each other and not a day goes by that I don’t pinch myself in bewilderment. Never in my wildest dreams would I have hoped to be a part of a group of amazing women like this. I’m so thankful I learned some important lessons from other friendships that went awry – I think that helped me ready for this, when I was lucky enough for it to materialize.

So much of finding friends is luck. You need to find the right people, in the right circumstances, at the right time. So many variables. I wonder sometimes if we’d be this close now if it weren’t for the pandemic. When we created our little pod, we chose each other to get through this. We chose it for our girls and for each other. And when you can’t see other people much or at all, you turn to those you can see that much more. If I have to thank the pandemic for this group of friends, it will make my relationship with last 17 months that much more complicated…

{And somehow my kids are still asleep at 8:22am. I guess when they can’t play videogames in the morning (as is the case on weekdays) that is more likely to happen. I’ll have to keep that in mind…}

We have a packed day. I’m getting my kids Covid tested, and getting my own allergy shot. We need to shop for food (so much food!) at Costco and wash my car at my parents’ house (my friend is taking my car when I take hers and it is filthy – hasn’t been washed in I don’t know how many months). And then of course, we have to pack!

Let the wild rumpus start!