Today’s Gimme 5 is about family camps and why they are fabulous and should not be missed! We go to the Lair of the Bear every summer after school gets out. It is a fabulous break between the craziness of school, sports, and exams and the slower pace of summer. We are Second Week, Camp Gold Campers. Although both Greg and I are Cal grads, you don’t need to be a Cal grad to go to the Lair – you just need to be an alumni association member, which doesn’t require actual graduation, just a love for Cal 🙂 There are many reasons we love the Lair but my top 5 reasons are explained in today’s post!

Cooks – there is a Dining Hall staff that cooks all of your meals. That means you eat better than if you were tent/car camping. You definitely won’t go hungry at the Lair – in fact you have to do a lot of activities so that you don’t gain 5 pounds from all of the food! It also means that you have several more hours EACH DAY to lounge around, play with your kids, play horse shoes or shuffleboard, etc. You get the idea. The food is good – the quality varies with the head chef. This year’s Head Cook is Austin, who looks like he walked out of the 70’s with that crazy village people mustache. But his kitchen ran well and produced great food! I love the Burger Shack which produces Lair Burgers (a double double) and the Golden Burger (a regular cheeseburger) and is open until 10 pm, so if you have the late night munchies you can get your fix! Mostly, this means that the kids can get more ice cream late at night!

Cocktails – I love that we have cocktails every night and celebrate with friends, mostly the same ones who keep coming back year after year. It is a chance to play games (we played a lot of Phase 10 and Scrabble, but not so much Boggle this time around) and reconnect with everyone. During our week, we have an informal rotation of cocktail parties and some more formal ones after Men’s softball on Thursday and the Dregs party on Friday, before a fabulous tri-tip dinner. We started out originally hosting a wine tasting of Guilliams wine throughout the years but since we worked our way through most of that wine, I always try to bring a signature cocktail to make and share. This year, I was going to make ginger mojitos but I left the ginger/basil simple syrup at home… so we had regular mojitos and cherry-tinis.

Talent Show – there is a talent show on Wednesday evenings called the Golden Review which features kids and adult campers showing off their many talents – from dancing and singing to joke telling to signing a song and teaching us sign language (thank you Claire!). All of the kiddy age groups get up there and do a skit which is always funny and entertaining. I mostly love that the kids get on stage and put themselves out there singing or dancing or playing an instrument. This year our 9 year old played Secret Agent Man on the guitar. We couldn’t talk the other two on stage. Greg and I play in the Outhouse 5, which was either 4 or 6 this year but we still called ourselves the Outhouse 5. I have no idea where that name even came from… you can see our Bohemian Rhapsody rendition from this year. You can also see the Hot Lair Momma’s from 2009. On other nights there are lectures (Sunday and Tuesday) which are always informative. On Saturday night there is the “Saturday Night” show introducing the staffers and their roles. Thursday night is the Hootenanny and Friday Night there is the show that the Program Director writes and produces. This year it was based on toy story and Oski – great job Emily. Needless to say, the talent show is a good outlet for kids and adults. It makes for a fun time.

Kiddie Age Group Activities – the age groups (Kub Korral (2-4), 5,6,&7s, 8&9s, Pre-teens, and Teens) all have a variety of activities throughout the week, usually 3-4 activities every day (and most evenings) – from going to the lake for paddle boating to making masks to tie-dying to playing capture the flag with Camp Blue to pool parties. What this means is that your kids have an opportunity to make friends (often, for life) and that you get a bit more free time to read, take a nap, play sports, make a lanyard, paint pottery, etc. This year we had kids in three different age groups, which was fun. My kids count down the days until we go to the Lair again and this starts the moment we come back – how many days ’til we go to the Lair again???

The Great Outdoors – I love being outdoors. In fact, I wish I had a job where I could be outdoors most of the time (I know, it’s kind of the antithesis to being a lawyer), but I can plan and dream… At the Lair – you can be outside almost all day long (in the dirt, getting a Lair tan). You can hike, lounge around your cabin, play softball, volley ball, tennis, hang out in the Art Arbor or on the Lodge deck, go to the lake, go to yoga or pilates everyday (several times a day even), or get a massage – there are many, many choices. We are lucky enough to be in a big cabin with a flat area big enough for a picnic table. This makes our cabin a good gathering area (see cocktails above) for games and music rehearsals. We end up spending all of our time outdoors except when we are sleeping and this is a great thing!

You don’t have to go to the Lair of the Bear to enjoy family camp  – there are many choices available. Check your own college or town – many towns also have family camps that they encourage their residents to attend. For example, San Francisco promotes Camp Mather. All in all, it is a ton of fun for everyone!

Added Note: I love, love, love that the Lair of the Bear was featured in the Wall Street Journal August 13, 2011. Leave a comment about your favorite family camp or Lair memory!