My book report on KOA 2005 …
KOA is, for the uninitiated, a Kleerup Organized Activity, a huge gourmet camping trip that takes place at the end of June each year, and has now for over twenty years. The attendees have gotten into the 80s at times, but this year we were around 40.
As noted previously, it is, indeed, “camping,” since one sleeps in a tent at a campground. Aside from that, it is distinctly uncampinglike. We’ve been at Lake San Antonio now for, what, four years? Which gives us, at the group campsite, running water, flush toilets, showers, and electricity.
But, beyond that, the main differentiator is the food. Lots of food. Glorious food. Tasty food. Drink, yes. But also very enjoyable food. And the equipment and talent to produce it.
Triffic stuff. It is indeed nothing resembling “camping” from my Boy Scout days …
Pictures for this year are here (and linked to at various places below).
Noteworthy elements from this year (vs 2004 or 2003 or 2002):
- It was a cool time. No, literally. Usual temps up there are in the 90s, and we’ve had it go up into the 100s. This year — 70s. It didn’t get too cold at night, but the daytime temps were incredibly clement. Not just there, but on the trip up and down. Indeed, the most uncomfortable heat was when we got back to SoCal to unpack.
Very nice.
As a result, this was the first year in memory when we haven’t set up a little mini-pool for the kidlings.
- The bridge to the little county park we usually visit on the way up for lunch was still washed out from the rains, so we ended up doing some quick maneuvering to go over to Gaviota State Beach. Which, by coincidence, was the first time Katherine’s been to an ocean beach. Much fun.
- Katherine remained “my daughter, the otter.” She did inner-tubing (with Mom) out on the lake (eschewing the over-arching arm), rode (with Craig) on a jet-ski, and, oh, yeah, got up on water skis.
Yes, my 5-year-old did the water ski thing. Not straight-legged, and with “beginner” skis (bound together at the front), but a damned sight better than you might have expected — or than I’ve done, to be perfectly honest. She was scared (the water spraying in her face was daunting) but proud.
- Speaking of kids, it was a fairly limited number. Katherine and her cousin Alex hit it right off, and she was very sad that he had to go home early. Nicholas, being some years older, enjoyed being the “oldest kid” of the pack, but not so much being the one that the parents held responsible. Jon joined the crowd on occasion, too. Little Nicholette (sp?), at 2-and-change, was too young, though Katherine played with her some after Alex and Nicholas went home.
Anyway, it was good seeing Katherine fully engaged with the other young’uns.
- We had a new sleeping device — not just an inflatable mattress, but one up on a collapsable stand. On the up side, it was definitely nice to be up off the ground (both for getting in and out of bed, and to have an off-the-ground platform to put things on during the day). On the down side, you can’t tuck sheets under it (the pad is connected to the platform), and the curvature of the tents made standing to either side of the bed a bit of a challenge. Net, though, it worked nicely.
As an added bonus, when we opened the zippered package for the first time, we found — camera memory. Four 128Mb Olympus XD chips, and one 128Mb Sony memory stick. None of which fits our cameras, of course. Consensus was it was a shoplifting scheme gone south. Alas, not sure where we got the mattress from last year …
- Saturday I went wine-tasting in the area with my folks, while Margie and Katherine spent time on the boat. Sunday, a somewhat larger group went wine-tasting, while Katherine did more boat time with Ginger.
- Saturday’s dinner was Paso Robles wine-tasting in camp — several different whites, several different reds, and heavy hors d’oeuvres. Yummy stuff. Didn’t much care for the whites (Bonny Doon Pacific Dry Rieslings (2003, 2002), an EOS Chardonnay, another Chenin Blanc), but the reds were generally yummy (two different years of Peachy Canyon Incredible Red Zins, a very nice Peach Canyon Westside Zin, a not-very-nice Bonny Doon Syrah, an EOS Cab, and a Cotes de Tablas Red). For dessert there was a Mastantuono (?) Muscat, a Bonny Doon Framboise, and Margie had me pick up a bottle of Peachy Canyon Port. Yummers.
All very successful.
The original plan had been to invite up some local vintners, but we never quite got that organized. Still, much fun.
- Less wildlife visiting the camp than before. We did have deer come through, but no wild pigs or turkeys. One night we had raccoons visit after everyone was down.
- Katherine was very impressive for her ability to do stuff, to function self-directed. She helped with the packing, in camp she went right to sleep, she got up and got dressed on her own, she handled night time visits to the potty just fine, she helped with the camp setup, she helped with the breakdown, and she helped with the clean-up back home.
I was very proud of her.
Good trip. Expect next year’s to be even better.