We are extremely fortunate to live in an area with many, many families with children from China. We belong to our local FCC chapter and have had a blast participating in many of their yearly events...marching in parades, celebrating Chinese New Year, and hooking up with play groups. Until now, we held off on joining in on one of their biggest gatherings: Chinese Heritage Camp. Every year hundreds (my guess) of families travel to Whidbey Island and descend upon Camp Casey in a mighty swarm of excited parents and frothing girls (there may have been 3 boys in the whole area that weekend). Young teen girls bunk in the barracks en masse giggling through the night. Parents attempt to catch some sleep nearby. Families with younger kids vie for the smallish but quite adequate "private rooms" with shared baths in neighboring barracks. Families in the know scramble for a spot in the officer's housing nearby. This being our first year in attendance and no clear understanding of the what culture camp might entail, we opted to rent a house with a hot tub nearby so we could pop in and out for naps, down time, blender drinks or whatever. Joining us were our intrepid neighbors, the Pritchards. This was our idea of camping:)
As for the Chinese Heritage part...how can I describe the warm feeling that welled up as I watched a teenage girl and her mother holding hands as they boarded the ferry to Whidbey? Watching them walk away from us it struck me how related they appeared. Similar body type, similar gait, similar mannerisms. One with short greying hair, the other with long glossy black hair.
We went to a potluck dinner the first night, scoped out the camp and visited with a few families we knew. Then we proceeded to spend most of the rest of the weekend hanging out at the officer's housing with friends who managed to get digs there. For us, the Chinese Heritage part of the trip pretty much meant hanging out with the delightful families who were staying in that part of the camp, watching our kids ride bikes and run around together, and sharing stories. We found it nearly impossible to adhere to the schedule of the camp, missing activities due to our kids' sleep schedules, parents' need to run and grab a latte, trouble getting riders off their bikes, and losing track of time while in enjoyable conversation. We had a great weekend but hardly stepped foot in the camp proper. As we were leaving, Julia began making a list of all the things she hoped to do next year...the parade of provinces, a flashlight hunt, crafts, a play...There's always next year!
Here are some random pics from the weekend. Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge and view captions.
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