1 post tagged “camp popo”

Last weekend I took a 3 hour train ride to Ventura, Ca to go to a family reunion. It was called Camp Popo. Popo is what my Great Uncle's grandkid called him. He passed away shortly after I moved to California but Uncle Ray was one of those people who you ALWAYS knew if you were with him there was going to be an adventure of some sort. Anyhoo, his wife (my Aunt Nancy) set up this HUGE family reunion and called it Camp Popo. It is actually still going on. It's a week long but I could only make it for the weekend.

My mom called me on the train and asked if I remembered the address of the Amtrak station so she could pick me up. LOL! I'm said "Aren't you calling from your iPhone? Use the internet!" She found me and her and my cousin picked me up. We drove to my Aunt's house and my brother was just arriving with another one of my cousins. Hugs all around. We went into the house (an absoloutly amazing house right by the beach!) and dolled out more hugs and hello's to the rest of the family. Everyone was there from all over. California, Oregon, Washington, Georga and New York. (The Georgians have such cute accents. LOL)

We all walked down to the beach. Josh (my brother) and I decided to go swimming. We were pretty funny. We were raised in Oregon and Washington. To us the ocean is something you look at safetly from the beach beause its way too cold to go into. We looked at each other as we approached the ocean. "How do we do it?" I asked him. "I don't know!" he said. I mean I have been swimming in the ocean a few times but that was even before Josh was born... so over 21 years ago. We followed our little cousins out who obviously had been practicing because they knew what they wrer doing. When the first wave came I nearly lost my bathing suit bottoms. LOL! My Aunt Mary laughed at me as I pulled them back up and tied them tighter into place. She bemoaned the fact that she hadn't got it on film to put on YouTube.

 

We say my mom way out there with our second cousin Peter. He's maybe 6 or so. And he was having a great time. OF course he lives right there so he always comes out surfing with his dad. We made our way over to them to get lessons on how to dive under the waves. LOL! Josh and I finally got the hang of it and had a great time... and I didn't lose any more articles of clothing. We were out there for several hours before heading back to the house for lunch.

I visited with my grandma and everyone. THe kids played Wii Sports and then we went back to the beach to build sandcastles. After several more hours at the beach we went back to the house and we all sat in the back yard eating chips and salsa and drinking beer. My poor cousin Kayla just turned 21 and my grandma kept taking her beer away and giving it to my brother who doesn't turn 21 until next week. She finally was able to drink a few.

There were so many of us that dinner was held over three huge tables. We each had to pull a number from a bowl to determine if we were sitting at table 1, 2 or 3. And then we piled food on our plates. YUM! A vegetarian burrito for me. THose assigned to kitchen duty cleaned up while others of us signed squares for a surprise quilt we were making for my Aunt for putting this all together. We all met back up in the backyard for marshmallows and scary stories. When the stories started my little cousin Wyatt was sitting on our Aunts lap. My mom was telling a story about a woman who always wore a red ribbon around her neck and never took it off. At the end of the story someone unties it and... her head falls off. Poor Wyatt screamed bloody murder. LMAO! He covered his face and screamed. Poor kid. Being the good family that we are we tried to comfort him between our hysterical laughter.

There were so many of us that we couldn't all sleep in one house so everyone left to their respective home away from home. As my Aunt Kelly (in her 40's) was leaving she saw me staying at the house. "Aren't you coming to the kid house with me?" She asked "No Kelly... I'm adult. I get to stay in the adult house." LOL! I'm not sure how that happened but I was so exhausted that I was very happy to not be with all the kids who I'm sure where going to be talking all night. I visited with every one staying there for a bit before taking a shower, finding sand in odd places and falling right asleep in the room I was sharing with my mom.

The next morning I was up early. I helped my Aunt get breakfast ready for all 35 of us and then as the rest of the family arrived we all filled up our plates. I made my mom taste the egg cassarol dish for me because I couldn't tell if the brown crunchies on top were cheese or bacon. It was cheese. YEAH! After breakfast we all went down to the beach again for surf school. Josh and I both had to leave early in the afternoon so we didn't get in the water this time. Who wants to be wet, salty and sandy while stuck in seat for 3 hours? So we got shaved ice instead. Soon it was time to leave and we said our goodbyes. My mom took Josh to the airport and I was driven to the train station by my aunt. My train was 2 hours late and the AC broke but I finally made it home. It was a fun trip.

As always all my pictures from my trip are at my Flickr.