CampOut December 31 - January 2, 2010

CampOut December 31 - January 2, 2010 Troop 355 went to New Brighton Beach in Santa Cruz for the new year. What a blast. Scouts included Sam Stewart, Logan Mattson, Drew Childs, Ben Redfern, Trenton Mattson, Cole Younger, Hunter Childs, and Joe Armstrong.After arrival and camp set up by the first wave being lead by Ron Kloepfer and Steve Hymas, Mike Childs brought in the trailers in the evening arriving about 8pm. Let the fun begin. We went for a walk on the beach which turned into a bit more than a walk. Capture the flag was immediately marked off and teams were formed. The next several hours were had in sneaking across enemy lines and then being chased back to home turf. Commonly the chase included a run through the surf as an attempt to evade the predator on the attack hoping that they would not want to get wet. Soon everyone wanted to get in the water and have a little bit of the waves crashing on the shore. By 11pm the leaders were able to pull the drenched boys from the undertow and make their way back to camp for campfire, stories, warming, and spiritual thoughts as the new year came in.
Day 2 – January 1, 2010
Rise and shine for breakfast at 7am (Pancakes, bacon, and apple juice)
Clean up and a trip to “Ponto de Ano Nuevo” We had to visit the name sake of our trip and see the elephant seals. A nice boyscout hike under partly cloudy skies with only a sprinkle of rain hear and there was perfect for the day. We watched intently as the Bull elephants came ashore and even bounced chests with each other a bit. Otherwise they looked like large slugs on the beach.
Back to camp for Chili dogs. Logan was the master chef barking out orders on how to make the chili just right and wanting to put an orange spritz into it as well. He was met with a bit of resistance but he did continue to make a rather nice dip for the nacho chips. Everyone was excited to get back to the beach.
After several hours of fun in the sun (no wind, 65 degrees, no clouds, and a perfect glass pacific ocean bay), the boys made sand castles, played in the surf, and enjoyed the weather. We recognized that one of our new scouts coming up was about to be baptized on our next day. A emergency meeting was held amongst the boys with the question… should we get back for the baptism or send our congratulations when we get back later that day. Consensus was achieved after a vote 6 out of 8 decided that it was important to support our young friend that would be joining us soon.
We quickly went back to camp, broke up and put things away and hit the road. A quick bite of pizza on the beach and we were off by about 8pm arriving home at 10:30.

It was a great time and we all enjoyed one another and the time together. Looking forward now to the next camp in just 2 weeks in the cooler weather of camp Nauvoo in Placerville.