Scenes from Camp Indianola

We're in the middle of a marathon series of trips and visitors these days -- no sooner had Mikala returned from Austin when Andrew's mother came for a wonderful visit, which we'll tell you more about soon (keywords: landscape painting, olive fig tapenade, & cricket). Then Simon's class went to Camp Indianola and Mikala went with them, returning just in time to bid farewell to Andrew, who was headed for Spokane. Next up: Yosemite for Grandma Woodward's 90th birthday, and then Andrew's high school reunion. Whew! So you'll have to forgive us if we're a little slow with the reportage.

Camp Indianola was sunny and hot all three days -- in marked contrast to last year's soggy experience -- and aside from getting woken up at six by the kids after staying up 'til midnight at the grown-ups' campfire, it really was a fantastic trip. Here are just a few of the highlights.

Giant sand castles with complex irrigation systems:

Massage class with Lenore:



Miss Supaydah and Maidi having what they described as the longest conversation they've had all year. We felt a little guilty interrupting it to take their picture!


The food at Indianola is pretty good, for camp food. They always make these little round smiley-face tater tots for lunch on the second day. For some reason I got the one that looked like Voldemort:


The most ancient basketball in the world, with which a fairly evenly matched game was played between eight eight-year-olds and three moms:


Amado at the campfire:

Music from Ryan, solo:


And accompanied:


Henry brought his guitar too, and it was lovely to sit on the deck at 6:15 am waiting for Beth's lifesaving coffee to finish brewing, feeling the day heating up though it was still cool yet, listening to Henry practicing classical guitar. By getting the few kids who were awake to keep their voices to a whisper, while holding firm on the recommendation that they not go down to the beach in their pajamas, we were able to extend this peaceful part of the day further than you might think.

As more and more kids woke up, Henry packed away his instrument, and the sounds of bouncing basketballs and happily bickering Uno players took over. By the time Navi started shouting his sun salutations out to sea from the top of the driftwood fort, the coffee had kicked in and we were ready to peel ourselves up off the Adirondack chair and face breakfast.