La Jolla YMCA Adventure Clubs invite membership

Opinion / Guest Commentary / Our Readers Write:

Do you aspire to spend quality time with family and friends exploring the natural beauty of Southern California’s beaches, deserts, forests, fields, islands and mountains? The La Jolla YMCA Aloha Adventure Clubs are recruiting for campouts in all these places and more for the 2018-19 season!

The La Jolla YMCA Aloha Expedition has more than 400 participants, including fathers organized into circles with sons or daughters. The Lakota and Locomoco sibling circles met recently to celebrate summer and reminisce about a fulfilling year of campouts with just one event remaining, the capital campout on Catalina Island.

Concluding an afternoon of sunshine and pool play, the kids shared some of their favorite camp-out memories:

bouldering at Joshua Tree National Park;

beachside (salt) watergun battles with friends;

learning to build a fire … responsibly;

feeding and petting horses on a farmland hike;

fast-paced Gaga ball matches at Camp Marston;

campfire conversations and s’mores;

the 40-foot egg drop contest for Tina Tiki and the Fist of Victory, our circle trophies

kayaking around the islets in Emerald Bay at the west end of Catalina;

finding Saturn, Jupiter and the North Star in the clear night skies at Mt. Palomar.

Inspired, the fathers expressed gratitude for:

unstructured time roaming nature with children;

teaching the kids new skills, like whittling with a pocket knife;

breaking out of daily routines to have fun, explore nature and make new friends;

profound, distraction-free conversations with children in the tent before falling asleep.

The 2018-19 Adventure Club schedules start with a September Induction at Indian Hills followed by a weekend beach campout at Camp Pendleton in October. For registration information, contact Adventure Clubs coordinator Lauren Gregg at (858) 535-2928 or lgregg@ymca.org