Final Farwell!
July 10, 2025
Hello all and welcome to our last trip update! We spent our last day in Olema and had a fun breakfast grilling sausage, bacon, and eggs! After a hearty breakfast, we drove through the mountains down to the beach and enjoyed a day of sun at the beach. Ryan, Cici, and Teddy enjoyed tanning in the sun, while Henry, Hudson, and Hunter dug as big of a hole as they could. After a lot of relaxing and some self-imposed labor, we stopped into the actual town of Olema and got some ice cream and food for dinner. That night, we had quesadillas cooked in part by our counselor Ben, but everyone took turns grilling their own to practice! We had a quiet night at the camp and had a moonup led by Mercer and Ryan.
We woke up early to pack up camp and hit the road. After a short drive, we arrived in Sausalito, a beautiful town overlooking all of San Francisco. We spent time walking around Sausalito, where the campers were again given free rein to explore the local culture, and took the opportunity to do everything from sample the local pizza, try the island’s fudge store, and buy a few more accessories for the trip. After our time in town, we drove just down the street to the marina and got onto our boat for our trip into San Francisco Bay. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge and saw seals, and fought strong waves to soak up the beautiful views of the city. Hudson, Lily and Cici chatted with our guides, and we all caught a glimpse of Alcatraz, which everyone found alarmingly close to San Francisco. After some discussion about prison escape logistics and some more scenic vistas of the Bay, we docked and said hello to some nearby seals that found a temporary home on the dock. After sailing, we drove to our final campsite in Half Moon Bay and set up camp. We cooked a chicken and pasta dinner, and everyone took turns adding their own mix of parmesan, sea salt, and olive oil to get their dinner right. After dinner, we had moonup led by our LODs Ryan and Lily, and had some s’mores to celebrate our last night cooking.
We slept in a final time on the trip and had cinnamon rolls, bacon, and eggs to celebrate our last day! We all celebrated in the morning, before setting out for some more surfing! After crushing some more waves, namely led by Britt Marie, who was seemingly an expert in the field, we had lunch at the world’s most scenic Taco Bell along the beach, before heading to Goodwill to grab some outfits for our banquet dinner! After Goodwill, we went back to camp, cleaned ourselves up for a dinner on the town, and headed to In-N-Out. Everyone loved sampling the Californian specialty, and we enjoyed a last dinner as a group. After dinner, we returned to our campsite and had a last moonup, led by Hudson and Mercer, before ending our trip cowboy camping and staring up at the stars.
We woke up early in the morning today, and drove into San Francisco and said our final goodbyes at the airport and shed some tears as we parted ways with every friend we’ve made the last two weeks. We are incredibly grateful for the time we were able to spend with everyone this session, and for having such a great time. It was a privilege to share a part of the summer with everyone, and we all hope everyone has a great rest of the summer!
Thank you,
Ben, Folger, and Harris
Fun in the Sun!
July 6, 2025
Howdy folks!
Hope y’all have been well because we have been living in style out in the West! To catch everyone up, we made our way to Tahoe and stopped at South Tahoe on the way! We had a day of shopping throughout the city, and Hunter, Hudson, and Henry had a great time shopping their hearts out. After we finished shopping we hit the road and got to our campsite in time to set up for dinner, and our LODs Hudson and Ryan helped our counselors to cook pizza for everyone. After dinner, we grouped up for Moonup, then headed to bed.
After we slept in today and made breakfast, or I should say Cici, Mercer, Rya,n and Britt Marie made pancakes for all of us! After Teddy and Lily helped clean up camp we got on the road to Kayaking. We went kayaking out into Lake Tahoe and picnicked with our guides at a beach outlet with a beautiful scenic view of the lake. After that, we tried to catch a hike, but ended up just grabbing some Ice cream instead after we got rained out! After a fun day at the beach, and ice cream in hand, we returned to our campsite, and watched the sun set on Lake Tahoe as we filled out our postcards home (And to our friends at HQ :)), and got ready for dinner on the town! Everyone enjoyed a dinner out at Bridgetender. After dinner, we again had moonup, and an early bedtime for paddle boarding tomorrow! After a hearty breakfast, we paddle-boarded in the morning and played our Assassin game! In this game, campers must tag another camper when they aren’t holding their water bottle. After paddleboarding, the group drove back towards Camp Lotus for rafting!
We all had a wonderful two days on the American River, where Mercer and Henry led us on the first day of Rafting! We had a very full day on the river, and everyone learned to paddle and swim on a moving river. We had a lot of excitement and class 3 rapids, but no one fell out of their rafts today! We had lunch provided for us from our wonderful river guides and ate fresh pineapple and salads on the riverbank. After lunch, we packed everything back up and got back on the river. We rafted for the rest of the day and got off the river just in time to watch the sunset. We ended off our day with steaks and chicken cooked by our guides, and had the treat of brownies and milk to end dinner, before tying the day up with Moonup.
We woke up early to breakfast cooked by our guides, with potatoes, eggs, sausage, and fruit salad. After a hearty breakfast, we got onto the river again, this time led by Teddy and Hunter. We had even more excitement this time around! Today instead of finishing with the toughest rapids we started with them! The group enjoyed a combination of crazy rapids and ponds where we could swim. After even more raging rapids, and Cici and Teddy getting soaked from sitting in the front of their boats, we finally finished the river and had lunch on the side of the river again. We celebrated getting through the rest of the rapids without any more incidents, and yet again dug into fresh fruit provided by our guides. After lunch, we packed into the van and headed off to our next campsite for the 4th!
See you soon and can’t wait to make more memories to tell y’all all about!
Shoutouts!
Hudson – Hey Mom and dad, thank you so much for sending me on Moondance, I am having so much fun, we are almost done with camp but we still have the second surfing day, and sailing. Love you!
Henry- Hi mom and dad I am having so much fun on this trip thank you for sending me on this trip. I love you so much mom and dad.
Hunter – Hey mom and dad. I am having a lot of fun at camp. See you all soon. Love you
Britt Marie – hi mom and dad, I miss you guys a lot. Thank you for sending me! I’m having a lot of fun here. We have surfing and sailing left. I love you guys and I can’t wait to see you!
Cici-hey mom and dad, I miss you guys a lot and home. Thanks for sending me on Moondance, I’m having so much fun and making so many friends. All we have left is sailing and surfing. Miss you guys!
Teddy – hey mom and dad I miss you guys a lot. thanks for sending me here, I’m having so much fun, and have met some really great friends. we have sailing and surfing left which sounds like fun. I love you guys and can’t wait to see you!
Mercer- hey mom and dad I miss y’all a lot but im having the best time ever! I can’t express how thankful I am that y’all sent me here, I have made life long memories and life long friends. Tomorrow we are sailing wich sounds so fun and the next day is our last day of surfing!! I miss yall so much and can’t wait to see y’all. Love y’all sooo much!
Ryan- hi mom and dad! I miss you and hope everything’s going well at home! Thank you so much for sending me on Moondance. The activities have been so fun and we have surfing and sailing left for the rest of the trip. I can’t wait to see you in a couple days and tell you about my trip! I love y’all so much!!
Lily – hey mom and dad! I miss you guys so much, tell Arden and Ella I miss them. A couple days ago we went white water rafting and it was super fun! Only 2 days till I see you guys. Our last activity’s are sailing and surfing. Thank you guys so much for sending me on this trip, I have made many friends and memory’s. Love you both and can’t wait to see you!
Good Afternoon from California!
June 30, 2025
We have hit the ground running this summer, and after picking everyone up from the airport, we finally started on our adventure! We’ve had so much fun so far this summer and can’t wait to tell y’all all about it!
We camped at Francis Beach Campground, which was situated on a beautiful beach on the California coast. We spent the afternoon before dinner throwing the frisbee, playing spike ball, and throwing the football. After a fun afternoon, we ended our airport day with pizza, to everyone’s happiness, and started the next day with a morning full of surfing! When we got to the beach, Britt Marie was the first to stand up and hang 10! The water was cold, but we all stayed positive and enjoyed the opportunity to swim and surf! Henry in particular, took the opportunity to body surf in the waves! In the afternoon, we drove out to the John Muir monument and enjoyed getting to see some of California’s famous redwoods. For dinner, we cooked up some Mediterranean bowls, and our leaders of the day, Britt Marie and Henry, led us in moonup.
The next morning, we took off for Yosemite, and spent most of the day on the road journeying across all of California’s landscapes. We started in the fog of our coastal campsite, through the airy desert, and finished at our lush campsite just outside Yosemite itself. Teddy and Hunter led us in moonup, after a taco dinner that Mercer, Hudson, and Cici helped cook!
Our first day of climbing rocked! We drove into Yosemite early and got right into the adventure by getting measured up, and hiking up to the climbing area on foot! Our instructors showed all of us how to properly belay each other, and climb safely, and we got right into the activity. Henry was one of the first to reach the top of one of our climbs, and on one of the hardest trails! Ryan was quick to gravitate to the tallest climb, and was one of the first to brave the 70 foot ascent! As the day progressed more and more of us helped each other climb, and Cici and Hudson really showcased their prowess as leaders of the day by making sure everyone had a chance to climb. We finally packed up and headed out with our guides, back to our campsite just outside of Yosemite. We decided to take it easy for the afternoon and went down and had an afternoon at the beach! We caught some sun, swam in the lake, and generally enjoyed the hudsfreedom! We had dinner out at a local stop, and enjoyed the scenic views of Yosemite while we ate. After dinner we came back to our campsite, and Cici and Hudson led us in moonup.
The next day was our second day of climbing and we started by watching the guides climb up where we would be climbing. We finally got started on the day’s climb. Mercer took to the activity well, and after some time finished the hardest climb we could do, with some help from Henry who had done the same. Lily took her shot at different routes on the wall, cheered on by Janie and Brett. Martha displayed a love for climbing, and her and Jackson became our only two campers to be able to complete every climb! Oliver should be noted here too though, despite not completing every climb he did attempt every climb. Everyone showed a lot of resolve today, and every camper today got on the rock wall, even if they couldn’t complete every one of the routes. After climbing we descended down the mountain on smooth round cliff faces, and we had to rely on our traction to keep us steady as we looked out on the incredible view. Janie and Brett took charge in leading us down the mountain as leaders of the day, and started a fun snowball fight when we all reached safe ground! (Not kidding here, Yosemite still has a very noticeable amount of unmelted snow). That night for dinner we surprised the campers with dinner they got to pick from a local restaurant that had a blue grass band performing, and we enjoyed the performance while we ate. After the festivities we returned to our campsite where Janie and Brett led us again in Moonup, and got to sleep.
We woke up this morning to a nice slow day, and packed up our campsite while dealing with the local pest problem, chipmunks. Now unafraid of our presence the chipmunks raced around our campsite as we packed up. We spent a long day on the road, playing games in the car led by our Leaders for the day, Lachlan and Margaret, and looked out the windows at the beautiful vistas of Northern California. We got to our camp at the river for rafting, and set up camp and prepared for our days on the river tomorrow! We can’t wait to get started and make some more memories to tell y’all all about!
Shoutouts!
Henry: Hi mom,dad I love you I can’t wait to see you after Moondance. How is lucky and Baker. I cannot wait to eat your food dad. Love Henry.
Hunter: Hey fam. Camp has been fun. Can’t wait to see y’all.
Hudson: Hello Father and Mother, I am having an excellent time at the dance of moon. It’s really fun and I’ve met some cool people. I hope ur having fun in the ATL. I can’t wait to see y’all. Coming home to a new dog would be tuff. Love y’all.
Cici: Hey mom and dad and Luke and Jack! I miss y’all so much. Tell the dogs I say hi. I can’t wait to come home in a week! Time has gone by really fast here. I’ve made so really good friends here and we’re making a plan to meet up in Atl. We’ve surfed and camped and rock climbed. We’re otw to Lake Tahoe right now and I’m excited to go white water rafting. My group is super fun and everyone is so nice and funny. That’s it, bye love y’all!
Mercer: hey mom,dad,and walker! I miss y’all so much and I can’t wait to tell you everything and more!! I can’t wait to see you in a week! I’m having the best time and made so many friends! The water we’ve swam in so far has been freezing but so worth it! We haven’t even had the activities I am most excited for and I’m having the best time ever! Okay that’s it love y’all!
Ryan: Hi mom and dad, I miss you guys so much!! Tell Cole and the dogs I say hi. It has been fun meeting new people and making friends. It was really fun swimming at our campsite in Yosemite. We’re on the way to Tahoe and I’m excited because the lake there is supposed to be really pretty. I can’t wait to see you in a week and tell you about everything! I love you both so much!
Lily: Hi mom and dad, I miss you guys so much! I’m really glad I switched groups and I’m having a ton of fun. I have made many friends. My favorite thing we have done so far was probably swimming in the lake at one of our campsites. Love you both so much and can’t wait to see you both !
Britt Marie: hey mom and dad I miss you guys. Say hi to Kiki Brad and max for me. I am having a really fun time and I have made really good friends. I miss the dogs too. We did surfing first and it was really fun but the water was super cold. I can’t wait to see you and tell you about everything. Love you guys
Teddy: hi mom and dad I miss you guys. say hi to gray for me. me and lily are in the same group now and we are having a really good time together. thank you guys for sending me here I’m having a really fun time. I’ve made really good friends. my favorite thing so far has probably been surfing at Pacifica. Love you guys and can’t wait to see you soon.
Let the Fun Begin!
June 25, 2025
Hello California Families!
We heard from our leaders that the group has landed safely in San Francisco! The trip is off to a great start, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventure! Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips, but we will be posting trip updates throughout the next week! This will allow you to follow along with the trip. You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to!
-Moondance HQ
