As August is about to leave us with the flip (or click) of a calendar page, we are facing the irony that we had the least amount of time to blog about camp during the summer itself. With all good intentions, we had hoped to blog along all summer and then, whoosh, we were so caught up in the constant fun of camp that we didn't sit down in front of our computers enough to pull it off. That's probably good, actually.
So you don't feel totally let down, however, I want to point out that the you could have been following our summer fun in great detail if you had looked at any of the following:
72 WEB PHOTO JOURNALS. Our terrific "Team D" staff assistants faithfully posted photo journals throughout the summer, covering all kinds of camp topics, both the expected and the unexpected. Here's the web photo journal index. Pick any article and you'll have a good time.
40+ DAILY PHOTO GALLERIES. Also from those same staff assistants, along with Stu and Jeremy, we have posted photos for every single day of camp and every Weekend Adventure trip. If, as they say, one photograph is worth a thousand words, then we've got millions of words here to explain the major awesomeness of our 2011 summer.
85 STAFF INTERVIEWS. Team D also managed to post a quick interview page for every staff member. Here's the index. This staff was awesome.
8 "SUNDIAL" NEWSLETTERS. Published at the end of every camp week, these issues are a great retrospective of our "outer space" summer.
So even though we experienced that unfortunate affliction called "blog lag", I think we did a more than okay job telling everyone in the CK World and beyond about our 21st summer camp season.
If you're a die hard camper, you probably are still experiencing that sense of loss that comes at the end of camp. It's so abrupt; we're suddenly without all those friends and activities that last from morning to night. Camp is a world without pause, and definitely without boredom, and some of us truly have a hard time getting back on our feet when it ends. Most frustrating can be the attempt to explain to other folks what camp was like. They listen and smile and they want to understand, but they don't seem to quite get it, and they definitely don't understand the crying and the non-stop camp stories.
It's at this time -- about two weeks after camp ends -- that I wish we all could get back together just to talk and share our favorite memories of the summer. A few hours of camp stories would make us feel great, wouldn't it?
We will be talking about our 2011 summer for a long time, but here at the camp office we've already begun planning for 2012 if you can believe it. So after a little bit of rest we'll be sharing with you the beginning of our new camp year and all that goes into planning for the 22nd summer of CK-NJ.
In the meantime, enjoy these final moments of your summer, don't forget to finish up your summer reading, have fun starting the new school year, and please put the December 4th reunion on your calendar (and your parents' calendar too!).
We'll talk to you soon.
Tom
