Friday Five~Summer camp

1. Did you go to sleep away camp, or day camp, as a child? Wish you could? Or sometimes wish you hadn't?

~Never went as a child or teen but always wanted to. The one summer my mother had signed me up for church camp we ended up moving so I couldn't go.

2. How about camping out? Dream vacation, nightmare, or somewhere in between?

~My experiences with camping out are limited to one summer in Iceland. Lots of people camp there --or at least they did 30 years ago--and there were campgrounds all over. We had never been camping but we could rent camping gear so we went first on a weekend trip to Thingvellir, the site of the original Icelandic Parliament (circa 960 or something like that). It's a beautiful site, but it was a cold and rainy weekend and we went home early. Later that summer we took a week long camping trip to northern Iceland which I wrote about here . Although it was a wonderful trip in many ways, I think I decided then that camping outside might not be for me.

3. Have you ever worked as a camp counselor, or been to a camp for your denomination for either work or pleasure?

For three summers I was part of the volunteer staff for our diocesan camp in Vermont for a week. The camp there is a wonderful place--I can't say enough good things about it--and I loved doing it. Volunteer staff were in charge of the morning program--the thematic activities--while the counselors did everything else, so I mostly had afternoons free and two of those summers the Kid was one of the campers so I was truly on my own. Very relaxing to be able to do that. I'd love to be on staff at camp for a week now, but the way vacations fall I can't do it unless I use vacation time (and as much as I love it, I'm not using vacation time to do it).

Those same three summers the Kid and I went to "family camp"--a week at the end of the summer for families of all sorts which were great fun.

4. Most dramatic memory of camp, or camping out?

I'm not sure that I have memories that classify as "dramatic." Two of the summers I went to camp in Vermont I was in the discernment process for priesthood. The camp there is very much "holy ground" to me--a thin space--and I found a great deal of peace there, sitting by the lake, at the outdoor chapel (where NSLS later was married) and in the small chapel looking over the lake. It was a good place for me to be in those times and moving--but not necessarily dramatic

5. What is your favorite camp song or songs? Bonus points if you link to a recording or video.

There is a wonderful song stuck in the back of my head that I can't quite retrieve so until I do, I'll just give you this old camp favorite: