I remember being a child and wanting to go to summer camp. My friends would vanish mid July for several weeks, and come home laughing and tanned, having learned to kayak, or fish, or make baskets out of reeds, or whatever other arts and crafty, nature-y things one learns at a stayaway camp on an island for two weeks. They would have inside jokes about S’mores, campfire stories, and a batch of new friends from all over the place. It looked magical. My American cousin was a camp counsellor, naturally, at one of those very same fancy camps with the cabins in the Queen Charlotte Islands, and would tell us tales right out of a modern Treasure Island.The raft of summer camp movies out there continued this vision of the adventures out there I was missing – The Parent Trap, Ernest Goes to Camp, Treasure Island Kids…

Why did my camp dreams never make it to fruition? Money, for one – camp fees simply weren’t in the budget when I was younger, and once I turned 14, I was working during the summers. There were a million other experiences I did have, and my childhood, unlike many, was genuinely something that makes me look back and smile. But the lack of summer camp is something I still sigh about once in awhile and when she’s older, Miss K will have the opportunity to go if she wants to.

Where am I going with this? Apparently, there’s a magical (slightly belated) summer camp for bloggers, where you meet people who you only know from their writing. You get to have group meals, learn enormous amounts about new things, make friends and even have a pyjama party! The campfire stories may have wine involved, and there will likely not be a movie about it, but Blissdom looks like it’s going to be my summer camp – and I’m all set to finally make that goal happen!