Welcome to Kennolyn

Checking out the Kennolyn forest.

One of my very favorite things to do is to take a hike with Mitchell and Grace when it's raining (which thankfully is happening often this year.)  It's a fun family activity and also gives me a chance to check out the condition of the outpost trails.  Our facilities team (Ron Teague, Mike, Jose, Juan, and Primo) do an OUTSTANDING job of managing the heavy rainfull we experience in this area and the trails looked good with a few branches down but no major trees.

Camp enrollment is ahead of last year at this time and sessions will begin to close in the next couple of weeks.  Please contact us as soon as possible to sign up.  Don't miss out on your chosen session.

Games: Mountain Biking

Post All your highest Mountain Biking Scores here!

New website launched!

Our new website will be launched in the next 24 hours and we are delighted to finally have this project complete.  The site will evolve into an information portal for families interested in learning more about Kennolyn as well as a a resource for curent and former campers and staff.  As a part of this upgrade, this blog will become active all year long rather than just during the summer.  We will use the blog to post regular updates and remind you of upcoming deadlines and events.  More to come soon...

Session 5 - Reported by Regan Estes (Photo-journalism class)

Today is the 21st August and it is the second day of activities for all of the Kennolyn campers in session 5.  Yesterday campers received bracelets to help them remember Kennolyn.  Tonight is outpost and everyone is excited.  The campers will return for a chuckwagon breakfast.

Session 4

It’s Thursday already and this session is flying by! The campers have been busy, with two activity days enjoyed already, as well as water carnival or boardwalk.  All of the campers have now returned from successful outposts and are looking forward to the prospect of tonight’s dance/movie.  We hope you enjoy looking through the online albums, which we will be updating throughout the session.      

Session 3 campers are having a blast!

Today is Beach Day and all the campers are enjoying an afternoon of fun in the sea and sand.  Beach Day is the perfect way to make the half way point of the session.  Still to come in this session we have two activity days (Monday and Thursday), Outpost, Boardwalk Day or Water Carnival, Friday Fun Day, a second 3 day backpacking trip, CILT Kayaking trip, Senior Camper Beach Day, Senior Camper BBQ, final campfire, and much more.  The weather has been perfect this week.  The really hot days of last session have been replaced by cooler, more traditional Santa Cruz weather.

We are mailing everyone a letter on Monday announcing that the week of August 5th-11th is Kennolyn Staff Appreciation Week.  We are not asking you to tip the staff but to take a moment to write a card or letter, send a small token of appreciation, or just say thank you on closing day.  The staff here work very hard indeed to make Kennolyn a special place. Look for that letter to arrive in the middle of the week.

Session 2 is off to a great start!

Despite the cool weather, this session is off to a flying start.  Campfire on Sunday was hosted by the "Kennolyn Interpretive Dance Team" and the campers were entertained by counselor skits and learned lots of camp songs.  Monday was our first activity day and everyone had a lot of fun.  Our first camper skits took place at Monday evening's campfire.  We were entertained by a couple of versions of "Kennolyn Idol", a strange (but funny) show from the Kennolyn Cooking Channel, and many more innovative skits .  The kids are really very creative.  Enjoy the first group of pictures from this session.  We will post more at least every other day.  As always, the pictures offer you a chance to look through a window into the camp experience.  We do not promise that your camper will be in front of the window when you peek! Have a great two weeks.

Beach Day and International Night

Sunday was a wonderful day.  We started the day with flag raising and a brand new ceremony where every camper received a wrist band bracelet to signify their attendance at Kennolyn in 2007.  More will be written about this by our reporters on the scene from the photojournalism activity.  Watch this space.

After a few minutes of contemplation and inspiration under the redwoods at our weekly Inspirations activity, we headed for the beach.  The weather was perfect and the ocean was cold but inviting.  We set up our own food service area down there with BBQ pits to roast hot dogs.  Over the years the wind, sand, and hot dog combination has caused this area to be known as "The Sandy Dog Cafe."  When you are hungry on the beach, a few grains of sand can't spoil a great hot dog.

Tonight, after dinner, we celebrated International Night.  Staff from Scotland, Hungary, Australia, and Slovakia entertained (and fed) the campers.  Some brave children even tried the Australian delicacy Vegemite.  See some pictures in today's album that were taken as the kids tried Vegemite for the first time. 

Activities, Activities, Activities

Friday and Saturday are activity days so the cameprs are following their daily schedule today.  We are gearing up for our big July 4th celebration next Wednesday.  Our theme this year is "4th of July in the four corners of the USA!"  Should be quite a day!  Igotocamp, our care package supplier, has let us know that they have July 4th care packages that can still be delivered in time for your camper to have red, white, and blue themed items for the celebration. This is NOT required for the campers to have fun on July 4th but parents have been asking.

Sunday is Beacg Day which is always a camper favorite.  Our trip to the beach is followed by international night where we celebrate the culture of some of the countries from which we have campers and staff.  We enjoy learning about the different countries. 

There are now three photo albums for session 1.  If you are having trouble finding them, they are to the left of the posts on this page.  You may need to scroll down to see them.  Enjoy!

Another Successful Outpost!

All the kids had a great time on outpost!  They all enjoyed some campfire food and a day in the wilderness.  Half the kids have gone off to the boardwalk today to spend time on the rides and bonding time with the other children and their counselors!  They were all very excited when they left this morning!  The weather is perfect here at the moment.  Some of the kids enjoyed the water carnival yesterday and  the Gold Rush Game in the evening had all the kids exploring the camp in their cabins trying to find pieces of gold!  The atmosphere at camp is amazing and everyone is having a really good time!