More about camp...

So my name is Kelly. Rather unconvenient since 4 of us at camp are named Kelly. I didn't realize it was such a popular name. In fact, my roommate is named Kelly. We are the Kelly house - house of Sycamore. It's awesome.
I found camp when I was 14. A woman from my mom's work sent her daughter there and recommended it to my mom since I loved marine biology (read: I loved dolphins). The first year I went for the science. The next 3 years I went for the social aspect. Then when I graduated high school I worked at camp during summer every summer until I graduated college. With a degree in biology, I became a year-round instructor at camp and still haven't progressed into the real world.
I'm realize more and more what a great connector camp is. We don't work from American Thanksgiving until after New Years (in fact, I go back there 9 days from now) and people travel all over the country, Canada, and even Puerto Rico to visit each other. I recently had a pseudo boss call me saying she has no where to stay for a night, can she come stay with me. That was the best thing that's happened to me all of break!
Whenever we travel, we have places to stay literally all over the country. Oregon, up and down the California coast, I'm in Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, and don't even get me started on how many places in the Northeast. And those connections will last for a long time after we stop working at CIMI.

The seasons at camp are fall, spring, and summer. Summer is a whole new ball game since individual kids come to camp as oppose to school groups. Plus they stay for 3 weeks at a time. It's awesome and I highly recommend to kids everywhere to start saving money and take a trip out there.
Now fall and spring. Fall is 11 weeks long, warm, clear water, but nothing really alive in the water. This is because the major marine habitat in Southern Cali is kelp forests. Kelp is a brown algae that likes to grow in cold water, so come hot summer, it starts to die. This leads to most of the animals either dying or moving to colder, deeper waters. This makes our snorkel with kids uneventful and difficult since it's hard to find cool things like Giant Black Sea Hares.
Spring, on the other hand, is 20 weeks long, cold air, freezing and often murky water, yet full of life. The island gets a bit of rain in spring and that's all it takes for grass and wildflower to spring up everywhere. Not to mention the ocean is full of life again. The kelp engulfs you when you scuba dive and snorkel - it's great! Plus all the invertebrates come back to play.
So that's what I have to look forward to in 9 days. I'll be meeting up with a good friend of mine at the airport (his flight gets in 1/2 hour before mine), we'll take a shuttle to the boat terminal, take the hour long ferry to the island, then it's only a short boat ride or 30 minute car ride back to home sweet home. That should be the next post - after the big reunion party.