there's always a lot of energy and the festivals and street fairs can expose you to sights and experiences that you never thought you'd see, like a party that stretches for blocks under a disco ball the size of a building, for example.
what i've described was over the course of a few days time, and there was plenty of activity in between.
so every so often, a boy and 11 of his closest chums needs a break from all of the city's offerings.
camping!
a napkin filled with car shifts and an hour or two of packing later we children drove to guerneville to get away from it all and celebrate francisco and nakhter's birthdays.
i was one of the first to arrive, so i helped set up camp and accepted the idea of "roughing it" for the weekend.
i soon learned how californians camped...
1. seating is limited
2. the lack of seating leaves plenty of space for tents, however it is best to conserve warmth by convincing everyone that sleeping in one of the many available tents is the best idea
there were 12 of us in that pile, somehow...i'm not sure i was in the corner
3. always camp five minutes away from town, so that swimming pools and frozen beverages are plentiful.
4. sunglasses... a necessity for small town travel, sunny days,.....
...and the perfect accessory for swimwear...keep in mind we were camping
5. food ...
...
wait
....
no one ate anything. nevermind, californians don't camp with food. that's what beer is for.
beerbeerbeervodkabeerbeerbeerwaterforhydrationbeer
5. when the camp owner says, "zip line's fixed, i think."... ALWAYS be the first one down the line... it's as empowering as much as it is a death wish
i survived!
so i did it another 9 or 10 times, of course
once the crash test dummy successfully returned, everyone else made it up and over
... wait a minute, i'm not letting natalie get away with this. sure, she made it down, but it took a bit of encouragement from her friends aka yelling at her for ten minutes while she debated whether she could do it at the top of the ladder
she did make it down... on the next day once ratalie, some 13 year old with the worst name in the world successfully zipped...and after another few minutes of shouting from her friends, of course
we barely slept, we barely ate...we barely camped.
we definitely laughed.
we most certainly enjoyed each other's company.
of course, we all gave a fond farewell to guerneville and hoped to see it's campy self in the near future.
loved every second of it.
o wait!
6. always make sure b.b. buckles his seat belt, even on the ride home.
love and loyalty
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