Camp Casey

Last year, Aubree went on a three-day, fifth grade science field trip to Camp Casey, an outdoor education camp located on Whidbey Island.  In typical Aubree fashion, she loved the whole experience.

This year, our Parent Partnership Program offered a family field trip option to the same location.  Aubree insisted we attend; she couldn't wait to show us all her favorite places and activities. So, for better or for worse, I signed us up and tried not to think too much ahead of time about spending three days at a camp with five kids, on my own (Mark was slammed at work and is saving vacation days for this summer).

Getting to camp is part of the adventure because it involves a short ferry ride to the island.  It's so short, we only had enough time to park our car, have a potty break, and take a quick picture before it was time to run back down to our car to prepare for departure. 

Once at Camp we were assigned to our room and had a little bit of time to set up before lunch. Likely because we had Nellie, we got to have our own large room in the "Quartermasters" building. Our room consisted of two sets of bunk beds, one full size bed, and an extra twin. 

There was plenty of space, but there were also 5 other families who had similar rooms in the building, so I spent a LOT of time "reminding" the kids to BE QUIET!

Being "statues" in front of the Quartermaster building

We were attending camp with an enormous group of other homeschool families, but we didn't know anyone ahead of time.  This was both a benefit and a drawback. It would have been wonderful to have friends with whom to share the experience, but it was good for all of us to have to leave our comfort zones and reach out to strangers. It was also really interesting to see how the personalities of each of my kids became apparent and how they all reacted differently to the situation.

After lunch, Aubree and Bryce went to a class about Orca Whales, while Thane, Graham, Nellie and I went to a class about birds sponsored by the local Audubon Society. The first half of the class was a fairly dry power point presentation during which Graham could not stop talking (this became a common theme). For the second half, we went outside for a bird hunt.  

The Audubon ladies had hidden realistic bird models around the property, and the kids got to search them out and mark them off on their papers.  Such a fun idea! Thane found all his birds quickly (he does everything quickly) and then went around trying to help all the kids who were still missing birds.  

Can you see the bird?

After the classes was a couple hours of free time.  We used that time to let Nellie have a short nap.  That wasn't super exciting for the bigger kids, but I guess that's the downside of having a baby sister and it was necessary to allow us to survive the trip! Graham stayed with me in the room, while Aubree, Bryce, and Thane took their books into the lobby area of our building.  When Nellie woke up, I discovered they'd made their first new friend - Rachel.  Rachel was just a couple months younger than Aubree, and they shared so many common interests (like reading and writing), that they decided they'd be best friends on this trip.

We had a little bit of time before dinner to go play outside, but the boys refused to use their quiet voices inside, and earned themselves some extra quiet time in their bunks instead. Whoops.

We had seven cafeteria-style meals during our time at Camp Casey, and every one of them had so much food! Most of it was solidly mediocre, but that's better than I expected. I was quite impressed with the kitchen staff - they were fantastic.  Not having to cook or clean up for seven meals just might have been my favorite part of the field trip!

After dinner the first night, we made our way to the campfire (after exploring the beach for a few minutes), met some new friends, and enjoyed s'mores. The big four did a reasonable job falling asleep that night after I promised them that the quietest would get an extra s'more or treat the next day (all four earned the privilege). Nellie, on the other hand, didn't get the "go-to-sleep-easily" memo.  She flat out refused to go in the pack-n-play, and couldn't/wouldn't fall asleep in bed next to me.  It was 11pm when she finally passed out, and she tossed and turned all night long. I began to question the wisdom of attempting this trip.

The next morning we were up and ready early for a 7:30 am breakfast.  Following breakfast, we had a full day of classes scheduled.  We totally lucked out with weather for our field trip - it was sunny and pleasant and downright gorgeous.  

 

Our first scheduled "class" was a tour of Fort Casey. In my experience, tour guides are notorious for talking too much, despite having a young audience, and this was no exception.  It took us a while to get moving and out to see the actual fort. Once we did, we all enjoyed seeing the enormous guns hidden behind the embankments and learning a bit about how and why they were operated.

Our next class took us to the infamous Sea Lab.  Here, the hilarious instructor pulls out sea creatures he's collected from the island from his classroom tanks and tells the kids all about them.  Unfortunately, Thane, Graham, Nellie and I missed most of this class because we needed to change a diaper and take boys to the bathroom.  Not an easy task when everything is so spread out and we're traveling at 4 year old speed.

The next class was probably my favorite.  We went down to the beach and were instructed to get into two lines.  A small boat went out in the ocean and spread out a large net.  Then our two lines helped haul the net back to the beach, pulling in sea creatures as we did so.

As soon as the net was on shore, the workers quickly pulled out all ocean life and put them in buckets.

Then the Sea Lab expert pulled out each creature and talked about what it was and what was interesting about it.  We saw crabs (one of which had molted in the previous 24 hours and so was soft and rubbery), shrimp, and all kinds of fish. Fascinating!

Nellie did not appreciate being stuck on my back.  She wanted DOWN (which was sure to be a disaster in that environment) and made her displeasure abundantly clear.  Aubree saved the day by giving Nellie a rock to hold in each hand. Whatever works!

 

Thane clambered on top of a fort made of driftwood.  I wasn't sure as to the sturdiness of the structure, so I made him get down right after taking a picture.  He assured me it was perfectly safe and was quite annoyed that he couldn't stay on top.

After lunch, Aubree and Bryce went to a class about plankton.  Nellie desperately needed a nap, so I took her and the two younger boys back to our room.  Thankfully, Nellie conked out quickly, and woke up much improved in demeanor.  

We met back up with Aubree and Bryce for a class on taking care of the ocean and environment, then had our last "class" of the day, a tour of the island's light house. Again, the tour guide talked too much.  

Graham, aka Mr. Gregarious, could not stop talking. Really, I'm not sure he stopped talking the entire three days we were there! He's no respecter of persons; he made friends with everyone - old, young, black, white, boy, girl... I lost count of the number of times he declared, "I'm four and a half!"  

While the sweet old tour guide yammered, I kept having to try to keep Graham quiet.  "But Mom!" he objected, "I'm trying to talk to my friend!"

Eventually, we did make it inside the lighthouse, and were even able to climb up the steep steps to the top (a task made more challenging with a baby on my back).

We had a small window of free time before dinner, so we hurried to our van and made quick trip to Coupeville.  Aubree had been filling the boys' heads with stories of the Coupeville candy and ice cream shops for months.  When we got to the candy shop, I laughed inwardly.  I was expecting a big store full of candy, but this shop just had a couple rows of candy.  The kids, however, thought they were in heaven.  They'd all brought their money, and managed to put a dent in their spending envelopes.

I even splurged and got them an ice-cream at the famous ice-cream shop.  Aubree was disappointed that the worker was different than the one she'd encountered the previous year, because this one didn't give a complimentary second scoop to kids who were polite.

We made it back to camp in time for dinner, a little time to play outside, and an evening campfire program.

By this time, the kids had made some friends, and really enjoyed getting to spend time playing outside with their new buddies. Of course, they didn't mind a second night of eating s'mores either.

This second night, Nellie had no trouble falling asleep - she was completely wiped out.  A full day spent in the sun left us all a bit burnt, and quite exhausted.

Wednesday morning we still had to be up and ready early.  Aubree, who had stayed up later than the rest of the kids the previous night (attending an evening Native American performance), was not the happiest of campers.  "I am not a morning person," she grumbled. She gets that from me.

After breakfast, we cleaned and packed up our room, then headed out for our final camp activity - a guided hike.

Our tour guide kept a brisk pace, which Bryce appreciated.  His explanations and teachings were great.  One highlight was an old tree he pointed out that grew in unique and marvelous ways as a result of the harsh weather conditions it regularly experiences. I'm sure there are some good life lessons to be learned here...

Our experience at Camp Casey was marvelous.  Sure, having a toddler made the whole thing a lot harder, but even Nellie loved it - being outside is totally her element.  There wasn't one particular thing that made it great; I think it was just the chance to spend time together in a beautiful environment.  I'm sure it helped that the weather was perfect all three days we were there.  I'd probably be singing a different tune if we'd had to spend three days outside in the rain and cold!