Schools Out...........Yessirreeeeee..............Yippeeeee

The last bell of the year is ringing loudly. Toss your books and binders aside for frisbees and freedom. Yeehaw! Say so long to the dusty old classrooms with the lingering rank of socks and lost mittens. Give your teacher a big wave goodbye and watch their smiles grow bigger and bigger as the last bus rolls out of the parking lot! So long to classmates who will be headed in another direction for a couple of months..............Schools out for another year!

Bring on the hot weather, the hazy lazy afternoons, a cool watering hole, barefeet, flip flops, a pair of cut-offs pulled over your bathing suit, a bike with the tires blown up and ready to ride. Picnics, campfires, toasty marshmallow goo, watermelon, neverending games of scrub baseball.............anyone can play! Summer is here...............lying in the clover, finding art in the fluffy clouds, catching fireflies, paddling, kite flying, swimming, water ballooning, diving, running, and snoozing. Camping, canoeing, beach combing, crazy late nights watching the stars...........where's the big dipper? Do you see the Milky Way? Strawberry picking, raspberries and blackberries too...................yummmmmmmmmmmmm. Don't forget the blueberries. Can't forget them.

Family reunions, Bar B.Q.'s, dancing on the back deck................company from away, sleepovers, sleep-outs, sleeping in.....................lots to do, and time to diffuse on a family trip. Ah, what a relief! No more routine.

This is the time of year that I long to be in school again.........just to experience the exhilaration of finishing the year! A satisfying sense of accomplishment interspersed with the knowledge that before too long, I'd be getting on a bus heading north to summer camp. And when I was old enough, this was the week that I would be packing up my trunk with camp clothes and crazy skit paraphrenalia...............and making my way up to camp to reunite with my friends and to plan the summer.

Precamp was always exciting and nervewracking..........driving up the camp road after being away for a whole 10 months.............not knowing everyone and wondering if camp would live up to your idealistic expectations derived from a whole school year of sitting and daydreaming in a stuffy classroom. My "nerves" always subsided as soon as I stepped out of the car, inhaled the pine scent of the forest and took in the first view of the Lake where I belonged.

I had an email from a special friend today who owns his own camp now. Today is the first day of precamp............his staff arrive.............the ones he hand picked to work with, to mentor, to rely on this summer. It's showtime for him............this week is crucial because it is his one opportunity to mold this new crew into an enthusiastic and reliable team that will provide life memory events and activities to a whole gaggle of kiddies. This precamp is a little different because he has "taken on" some of the staff from Kawabi now that it has closed. Even though he himself grew up at Kawabi and has more than likely integrated many of the "traditions" associated with it, he has added his own flavourful approach to his camp.........Otterdale.

My special friend will be focused on many learning moments this week, all toward pulling together a group who are bringing their different camp perspectives..................it will be a challenge, no doubt, but if anyone's up for the challenge it's Captain Luten. I wish you well Luten! Wish I was heading up the canoeing program for you! Or, what about the craft shop? Can I run the craft program, Luten? Puuullllllleeeeeze?

This summer, my daughter will be attending a "sleepover" camp. Both she and my son will be involved in a variety of fun day camps...............from sports to drama.......as a family, we'll head to the beach as often as we can, spend some time in Nova Scotia in a special place that is part of our lives, spend a long weekend in PEI with our close friends, and take alonger trip together in August to visit family in Ontario. In between the activity, we'll just hang out and enjoy the music. I love the summer................ I love the company that arrives at our "Mayflower B&B" for the beginning of their tour of the Maritimes (a tradition for most Canucks it seems) and the spontaneity of a neighbourhood get together................. summer is for letting your hair down and hanging out. Summer is for being a kid all over again..............too much sun, too much fun, too much ice cream!

I may not be getting out of school today myself AND I may have to go to work for most of the two months.............. but I'll make the best of the time I'm out of my office!

A toast to summer. A toast to memorable times with family and friends. cue....Alice Cooper's guitar riff....................