OK, this is actually your Fearless Leader hugging a lion cub on vacation. But at Camp GetAway, we also keep a sharp eye out for Mother Nature's creatures. We've seen deer, coyote, raccoons, squirrels, chipmonks, owls, blue jays (plus Dakota, the camp boxer dog) and have heard on-site director Janet's stories of bear sightings. WOW, wilderness! What a concept!
Showing posts with label Campers Experiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Campers Experiences. Show all posts
Are There Really Critters at Camp?
Addicted to Archery
Maybe it is the ability to visualize the face of an ex-husband on that archery target that makes our campers clamor to shoot arrows. It isn't willy-nilly here, however. Certified instructor David ensures campers learn the proper and safe way to take out their aggressions. Ready, aim, shoot and you are ADDICTED to the power behind that archery bow. Hang on there, we'll make sure you get your turn!
Why We Absolutely LOVE Camp Coffee
Besides the fact that our Camp Coffee is brewed with cold, delicious mountain water, the real reason we love a steaming cup o' Joe here is the fact that someone else has made it before we get up, the fireplace is roaring, the pile of magazines is gigantic and absolutely NOBODY needs anything from us. Is this heaven, or what?
FAQs - We Get Asked Every Camp:
Q. When do registrations sell out?
A. We honestly never know. Every Camp is different; some book up earlier than others.
Q. Can I make a deposit to hold a space?
A. Sorry, only full payment secures a spot.
Q. How many campers in a cabin?
A. Cabins have several configurations, averaging 4 to 6 bunkrooms. Bunkrooms sleep up to 8 campers. We use a secret formula to do cabin assignments that only Fearless Leader is privy to. Believe us, you spend very little time inside cabins, everything FUN is happening throughout Camp. The bathrooms ARE indoors, the showers ARE private and the water IS hot.
Q. I'm lactose-intollerant, will I have a problem?
A. Your registration form asks campers to list any food issues, so that we can accommodate. For "weight loss" focused campers, there are plenty of healthy food choices at each meal.
Q. I don't have anyone to join me, will I fit in attending solo?
A. We always have solo travelers, no worries. And to be honest, once groups get here, they often split in several directions, too.
Q. Can I book spa treatments closer to the Camp date?
A. Sure. Registered campers receive materials in the mail that allow you to add spa treatments later, if available. We add spa staff based on pre-paid appointments.
Q. I have special needs due to a disability. Can you accommodate?
A. Yes, we can. Contact Patti directly at 310-471-3138 x 105 to discuss so the proper cabin, parking, etc. can be assigned.
Q. Are there discounts for groups?
A. Everyone pays the same rate. Keep an eye on the Early Bird Discount deadline.
Q. I'm a brand new mommy, still pumping. Advice?
A. All bunkrooms have electrical outlets, and the lodge has a camper 'fridge, so you can store until time to go home.
Q. We have friends who want to attend, but cannot pay yet. Can we save spaces?
A. Bunks are reserved by paid registration. However, your registration form does ask for a list of requested bunkmates, so we can watch for named campers' anticipated registration to keep groups together.
Q. Our group wants to funnel everything through one contact, how do we do this?
A. Each camper MUST submit her own online registration, for liability reasons. If one person wants to submit payment for the group, have her email Patti@CampGetAway.com for a special invoice. Each paid camper receives her registration packet in the mail.
Q. How can I "surprise" my sister with a gift of Camp GetAway weekend?
A. Every camp, we have a few surprise attendances (last camp, we had THREE). Email Patti@CampGetAway.com to arrange submission of her registration form, and where to mail her registration packet.
Q. When do we know the day and time of our spa appointments?
A. Campers with FRIDAY appointments are emailed a week before Camp. All other appointments are in your welcome envelope.
Q. Can I bring my dog?
A. Only service animals may attend.
Q. What happens if I need to cancel?
A. Our website posts the cancellation and refund policy.
Camp Offers Getaway for Marine Wives
GUEST POST
By Brigid Brett for the North County Times, San Diego, CA, 10-7-08
Me-Time Ahead. No stress. No makeup. No men. The handpainted signs leading through the pine forest to the lodge in the San Bernardino Mountains make the mission of Camp Getaway clear to each of the 85 women arriving for the weekend. They’ve come from all over the state and as far away as Chicago. Some are there to celebrate decades of being Best Friends Forever, others have been given the weekend as a surprise gift from their husbands. Determined to savor every moment of me-time are six members of Camp Pendleton’s Enlisted Wives Club.
Veronica Duran grins as she reads the list of activities. Canoeing. Tie Dye Clinic. Cinematherapy Chick Flicks. Belly dance class. “I’m just looking forward to that facial, to closing my eyes and doing nothing,” she says.
Veronica isn’t used to doing nothing. An active volunteer and board member of the EWC, she has a five-year old daughter and works full time. “I work and I work and I work. That’s how I do it, that’s how I hold onto my sanity. When your husband is gone so much you have to keep busy or you’ll go crazy.”
She and her husband, Staff Sgt. Carlos Duran, were neighbors when they were kids in South Central LA. He teased her, she hated him and their parents joked that one day they’d fall in love and get married. They did. Twelve years later they’re still together, at least when he’s not deployed.
"People keep asking if it gets easier each time he has to go away. No. It gets harder. Each time it hurts more,” she says.
Veronica’s husband has been deployed five times since their daughter was born: once to Japan, once to Egypt and three times to Iraq, where he was injured by shrapnel when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb and then again when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his campsite.
“It’s been hard, very hard. But the good thing about living on base is that you can always find somebody who’s been through what you’re going through – whatever it is.”
When their daughter was a toddler Veronica bought a cardboard playhouse and plastered it with photos of her dad. “Whenever he came home I took millions of pictures so she’d have something to remember him by. But still she’d go up to strange men and say ‘Daddy!’ It was embarrassing.”
Veronica uses the word grateful a lot – she is grateful to be living on base, grateful for the support of the EWC. And she keeps repeating how grateful she is to have been given the gift of this weekend.
For the second time this year, Patti Londre, Camp Getaway’s “Fearless Leader” has made it possible for a group of Camp Pendleton spouses to attend the camp free of charge.
“They are the unsung heroes. They do so much for others and so little for themselves,” she says. “A weekend of fun and relaxation is almost unheard of for the wives of deployed soldiers.”
When the camp’s yoga teacher Jennifer Mumford saw Patti’s email requesting donations to bring another group of military wives to camp, she forwarded it to her mother, Florence Patrick.
“I know what they’re going through,” Florence said to her daughter. Her husband had served in Vietnam and the memories of worrying about him when he was away at war and having to take care of her home and family on her own are still fresh. She was glad she could do something to support this new generation of military wives.
Campers chat in front of the crackling fireplace, their feet up on a huge coffee table that spills over with magazines. Others sit around tables playing Monopoly and sipping Mad Housewife wine. “Oh baby baby it’s a wild world,” Cat Stevens croons in the background.
During dinner Ann Marie Brysiak calls home to check on her three kids. Her 15 year old son assures her all is well – that he’s even bathed his little brother. Ann’s jaw drops. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s used to being the man of the house. I feel guilty because I count on him way more than I should.”
Ann Marie’s husband, Gunnery Sgt. Ed Brysiak, has been deployed to Iraq since January. He has four more months to go until he’s back home. In 2007 he was deployed to Mongolia for six months and to Djibouti Africa from July 2004 until February 2005.
There isn’t a day that her five year old doesn’t wake up and ask if his dad’s coming home, but it’s CJ, her 15 year old she worries about the most. She worries about all the teenage sons of deployed fathers.
“They are growing up without strong male role models. There’s so little for the teenagers on Camp Pendleton to do. I took CJ go-carting but of course it wasn’t the same.”
Like Veronica, Ann’s speech is peppered with the word “grateful” and she says she never takes any of the privileges of living on base for granted. Right before camp she flew to Washington DC where she was recognized by Marine Headquarters Group for her volunteer work with military families. Her next project, she says, is to create programs for the teenage boys of deployed fathers.
After dinner everyone belts out songs from their pink Super Duper Singalong books, followed by a funny-and-embarrassing- story-telling competition. Two of the Enlisted Wives, Jennifer Dipper and Ann Martinez, have the other campers shrieking with laughter.
“Woo, she’s good. She should think about doing stand-up,” one of the campers comments when Jennifer delivers her punch-line.
Jennifer's husband Sgt. Erik Dipper was an aircraft mechanic before going into Camp Pendleton’s Wounded Warrior Battalion where he is being treated for post traumatic stress disorder and possible traumatic brain injury. He served in Okinawa for 13 months and was then deployed twice to Iraq for seven months each time.
Jennifer says her husband takes great pride knowing that each Huey and Cobra he worked on was ‘Mission Capable.’ Now medically non-deployable, Sgt. Dipper wants to be an advocate and support other injured Marines.
“The service and sacrifice doesn’t end when a Marine comes home,” she says. “The whole family must readjust to the changes and affects that have occurred as a result of the last deployment. Support is key to our families surviving the physical, mental and emotional challenges.”
Jennifer is an artist and has brought two tiny t-shirts to camp so she can tie-dye them for their one year old daughter.
“You look so relaxed. Your skin is glowing,” Brandi Porter tells Elizabeth Sparks who has just come back from her facial. One of the campers donated a facial treatment to each of the Enlisted Wives.
“Really?” Liz blushes and touches her cheek.
They’re sitting at a table with other campers making beaded key chains. Liz’s keychain says SEMPER FIESTY and Brandi’s PROUD USMC WIFE.
Brandi, who has a smile as broad as her Texas accent, is the only Enlisted Wives Club member who doesn’t live at Camp Pendleton. Her husband is stationed at Miramar Airbase where she teaches ‘Marine Corps 101’ – to other Marines spouses.
Most people are aware that deployments are hard on a marriage, she says, but few realize that recruiting duty can be even harder. Brandi has survived both scenarios and doesn’t know what she would have done if she hadn’t been able to call her mother and wail into the phone for the three years that her husband was a recruiter and left for work at 5 a.m. and only got home after 10 pm – six days a week.
She has a plaque on her living room wall that reads, “Home is where your Marine is.”
Liz’s husband is home on base, watching their two young sons. Before his seven month deployment to Iraq – their older son was two at the time -- they were stationed in Japan for three years. He was deployed for one and a half years of that time while she remained in Japan.
Liz makes and sells clothes to the other Marine wives on base. “I have been sewing since I was about four years old. I used to watch my momma sew and then I would make a copy for my dolls,” she writes on her MySpace blog. “In Japan it was difficult for the other wives to find ball gowns in their size (for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball) so I started making them dresses…. and here I am with Littlebits Fashions.”
Late that night, flashlights in hand, the Marine wives crunch their way across a bed of pine needles to their cabin.
“It’s so quiet,” whispers Veronica as she crawls into her wooden bunk. “I hope I’ll be able to sleep.”
By the closing ceremony on Sunday the six women have canoed, belly-danced, re-connected with their inner smore-makers, soaked in the hot tub and giggled in their bunks until the early hours of the morning. They’ve won the TV Land Fun Dinner costume contest as Gilligan’s Island and tied for first place with another group in the Scavenger Hunt competition. When Brandi gets the Camp Cheerleader award, the other Marine wives yell “Oorah!”
Then, one by one they stand and fight back tears as they express their gratitude to Patti and the other staff and campers.
“I cannot thank you enough. This weekend has made me feel like a child again,” says Ann Martinez. Her husband, Lance Cpl. Martinez is returning from Iraq in a week.
“My husband called from Iraq this morning,” says Ann Brysiak. “He wants me to thank all of you for this weekend.” Tears roll down her cheeks. “He says that when he knows I’m being appreciated and taken care of it makes it so much easier to do his job. He wants you all to know how thankful he is.”
For more information on Camp Getaway go to www.campgetaway.com and for more information on Camp Pendleton’s Enlisted Wives Club go to www.enlistedwivesclub.com
Click here to read the online version of this article. Thank you, Brigid!
Just Sit Right Back and You'll Hear The Tale
The tale of how an inspiring group of Camp Pendleton Enlisted Wives Club members were treated to a weekend away from their busy, stressful lives. Thanks to our wonderful campers and their families, this boat-load of delightful women not only experienced a peaceful respite, they were treated to facials and special goodies to tie-dye as mementos. THANK YOU CAMPERS for your generosity. ("Gilligan's Island" was the theme of their group's costume for our Saturday night party.) PS -- during our weekend, TWO deployed husbands called FROM IRAQ to wish their wives a "great time" here. Imagine!!
Shook Our Grove Thing
BELLY DANCIN'!! Baby, those hips and arms were swaying at our most recent Camp weekend. We can only bet the "significant others" back home got a nice performance after this special dance class. We mix it up a bit each camp so you can come home with a NEW dance skill. This one was especially groovy. Thank you, instructors MARLENA and TAJI, who also gave us solo performances of their special dance styles. Mesmerizing!
We Luv Our Sponsor, Mad Housewife Wines
Camp GetAway never looks a gift horse in the mouth (strange saying, but we know what it means), so we're always grateful when we can host another Meet & Greet wine tasting at Camp by Mad Housewife Wines. Besides being downright excellent wines (Patti will vouch for that), there's something quite trendy ('specially to Republicans) about that fun label. Click the photo for a closer look. Registered campers will enjoy their generosity Friday evening. THANK YOU, MAD HOUSEWIFE WINES (and visit their website to find their products in your neighborhood).
Why Try Yoga at Camp
Camp's mission is to be a place for women to relax and rejuvenate! The practice of yoga embodies this. For many campers, it's their first yoga session ever (out of the watchful eyes of your neighborhood gym); for others it is part of their routine. Yoga Guru, Jennifer, consistently receives high camper points for her sessions. Beyond the stretches and poses, she teaches how to be in-the-moment, admittedly a very difficult skill for busy women to master. Sign up early on-site, classes fill up! P.S., our yoga sessions are INDOORS in a serene, carpeted room. This pix of Jen and two campers just looks cool.
April Camp Photos Now Posted
From our wonderful Photo Helen, CLICK HERE to her website, then go to the link: Camp GetAway 4.08. If you see photos you wish to purchase from Helen, go for it! Her phone is 951-272-8700, too. (Camp GetAway makes no profit from this; we appreciate Helen's tremendous contributions to Camp).
The Rest of the Story
When I attended my first Camp GetAway in 2000, I discovered that women SNORE! Pretty darn loudly, too. Reporting this to my husband after my fun camp weekend, he replied, "I've been telling you that for years." MOI??? Moral of the story... I snore, you snore, we all snore. Besides EAR PLUGS, bring nose strips, too, especially if YOUR family claims you snore.
Final Registration Call! CLICK to our Registration Link.
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