Camp Casa

During the summer, between my 7th and 8th grade, my family and my cousin's decided to all go to Camp Casa in Sonoma together! On Thursday morning we left, and we arrived at the camp site in the afternoon. Even at a first glance, I could tell this place was MASSIVE. The 2 acre grounds boasted a gym, a field consisting of two sets of swings, a pool and hot-tub, a trampoline, an old-fashioned swing attached to a tall tree, a bean-bag chair lounge, a play area, and five different buildings.

(picture of one part of backyard)

We mainly spent that afternoon playing around in the backyard and exploring the large place. In the evening, we all got in the hot tub and relaxed for an hour before taking our showers and having dinner. That night, my cousin, sister and I played a rigorous game of Sorry® (where I won of course).

The next morning, we all divided ourselves into two mini groups and had a small competition to see who would win in darts, bean bag toss, and horseshoe. In darts, my team (my mom, aunt, and I) beat the other team (my dad, cousin, and sister). Then in bean bag toss, the other team beat us. Welp.

Instead of doing horseshoe, we all went back inside the main house building to have lunch, and after that, we all went to the beach. Before reaching the beach though, we stopped at a famous bakery and got two types of bread (they both tasted super good but I forgot the names). We then visited a church with a grave of a woman next to it. The church is also known for being the location of one of the scenes in the movie "The Birds", a horror movie, so it has a certain sinister reputation.

We then arrived at North Salmon Creek Beach which is where we played at the shores. The water was freezing, as usual, and a couple big waves almost completely drenched me.

(me explaining to my sister my elaborate plan about who knows what)

After walking around and getting drenched at the beach for around an hour, we got back in the car drove back to the camp. Before reaching the place though, we stopped one last time at Jenner, and looked out from a look-out point on the highway to see hundreds of seal, big and small, sunbathing on a peninsula edge. We then drove straight back home and relaxed in the house for the rest of the evening and night.

The next morning, on Saturday, we packed up and got ready to leave. We didn't drive straight home at all, and instead took multiple fun stops on the way. First, we stopped at this neighborhood that was known for having a creation made from random scrap material parts in front of every house.

After walking through the street, we continued driving and stopped at Santa Rosa - Railroad Square. There we got to see a statue of Charlie Brown, the main character in the Peanuts comics, since that was the area where Charles M. Schulz, the Peanuts creator, was born.

We then all walked down through downtown and stopped at many thrift and antique stores. From one of the thrift stores I got a bracelet, and from an antique store I got 1938 and 1959 prints of car ads.

(old LIFE magazines and ads from early to mid 1900s)

We then stopped at a mall there to get lunch. It was pretty fun for me, because since quarantine began, I hadn't been to a mall yet. After having lunch there, we then drove straight back home to the Bay Area.

Even though our trip was only three days, we were able to do a lot of different, fun activities in Sonoma.