Life at the Bay

Dear Mom and Dad,      I'm a little sad. It's the last week of camp. I've made a lot of new friends, learned how to Stand Up Paddle Board, and over come my fear for hights by doing the High Ropes Course and Climbing Wall. I miss both of you a lot but I wish camp would last forever. See you Sunday. Love,         Jennifer If this is the letter you hope to receive at the end of your child's stay at camp then now is the time to begin planning. You ask yourself how can you plan for the hot, hazy days of summer when rain drops are falling everywhere? Yes, this is the time. The majority of summer camps are filling up quickly. You don't want your child to go on a waiting list and miss the best possible summer of his or her life! If you are ready to begin, you want to be sure that you have time for you and your child to make a well considered

By NANCY GIBBS Thursday, July 03, 2008 - Time Magazine I never went away to camp, even though--or maybe because--my father became president of the American Camping Association (ACA) when I was a kid. He liked to joke that my idea of camping was room service. I might have resented this had it been any less true. I suspected it was time to send my daughter off to camp even before the day the power went out in our neighborhood and she and a hungry friend tried to roast a hot dog over a candle. Absent electricity, they spent the days making ankle bracelets and playing board games and writing a play together because no power means no screens, no iChat, no Sims. So I wasn't looking for some fancy culinary camp or robotics camp or whatever is fashionable now, just for someplace that teaches the appropriate interactions of sticks, weenies and flame. With no plugs.