4th of July Campout 2009

A whole year has gone by since we attended our church's first ever 4th of July Campout at Rancho La Scherpa. You can read about last year's details, including my missives on camping and the outdoors in general, here.

Photos from last year are here.

Photos from this year are here.

As you can tell from the group shots on the stairs, last year was a pretty small group. We'd only been going to this church for about a month and a half when we went on the campout, and it was where we met many of the people we now see on a regular basis, especially the photographer, Matt, and his wife Erin.

This year we decided not to bring Todd. Not only would it have been cumbersome to schedule time to drive down to LA and pick him up, but I remembered that last year was kind of boring for him-- there weren't many kid-friendly activities. Moreover, there weren't many kids his age, period.

We departed work early on Thursday evening, driving up a surprisingly-traffic-free highway to the campsite and arriving just in time for dinner. The evening began with a slideshow highlighting last year's photos, and then the games began-- we played Taboo, followed by Fishbowl (aka Celebrity, a sort of combination between Taboo, Password and Charades). Lots of fun-- and the older kids enjoyed playing, too.

We retired in the exact same bunk beds we held last year, with the exact same cabin mates as last year, too.

The next morning (Friday) brought a slew of activities: short hike to the archery site, where I sat it out and played Bocce Ball instead. Then we drove to the zip line site, where it looked much faster from the ground than it actually is. The zip line harness brought back memories of rappelling and rope bridge exercises from my Army days. Alas, the instructors didn't tell us until later (after I'd already gone, so it was too late for me to try) that we could swing our legs up to cruise upside down (as you can see in some of the later photos), that looked like so much fun! We returned for lunch and I got a chance to cool off and rinse the dust off my body and hair by partaking of the makeshift slip-n-slide, which was just a giant tarp laid down on the sloping grass. Detergent was added for more lubrication. This was my first time on any sort of slip 'n' slide, period, and it was just the ticket for cooling and rinsing off.

After a short nap, Allan and I joined part of the group for paintball. I wouldn't have participated, except for the fact that it was just hitting targets in an orderly fashion. Our group was small enough that each person was able to navigate the course twice, so I got plenty of practice. I needed it, too, as it took me a while to hone my technique (I ended up applying some of the same rifle-shooting principles from the military) and finally HIT some targets. It was a lot of fun.

That night brought singing around a campfire and roasting S'mores (I left after the singing, as I didn't feel like getting too close to a fire and smelling like smoke afterward, especially since I'd already showered), but Allan stayed to roast and enjoy his first-ever S'more (did you catch the photo of him eating it, mouth covered in marshmallow goo?) Later that night we played another game, called Loaded Questions, which elicited some pretty hilarious answers.

The next day (Saturday) I was SORE! The uphill hike, the body-slamming from the slip 'n' slide, and 2 hours of heavy-paintball-helmet wearing had taken its toll. I was sore in places I couldn't even understand WHY they were sore! My stomach, for instance-- I chalk that up to too much laughter from the day before ;-)

I did go on the "official" paintball run (yesterday's was just practice) in the morning with everyone, but decided to rest in the cabin instead of participating in the geocaching treasure hunt, where everyone used GPS and a series of clues to unearth the treasure: cookies!

One last delicious meal at lunchtime and that was it-- the camping trip was over. We packed our stuff and headed home by 2pm. Since it was 4th of July, I had intended to go to the SB Courthouse and listen to the Symphony play patriotic songs. Alas, I was too beat, and actually napped for 3 hours. I forced myself to do laundry, since we needed to wash the bedding we used in the cabin, so we could sleep tonight. It was just about all I was able to do, though, and Allan and I simply lounged around the apartment, resting and watching a movie. We did step outside to watch the fireworks originating from a nearby park. One of the coolest fireworks? Smiley faces! :) (:

All in all, a fun weekend. It took me all week to recover-- I was so sore (and playing Wii on Wednesday night didn't help) that I didn't go swimming at all until last night. That helped loosen up some of the still-tight muscles, so I'm finally starting to feel normal again :-) Well, physically, anyway! ;-P