Noyo

I had the chance to take Walt to possibly my favorite place on earth recently - Camp Noyo - a former logging camp in the redwoods of Mendocino County which became a boy scout camp in the early 1930's.  Our family has been coming there for, after Walt's visit with his cousins, five generations now.  We didn't do much traveling as a family growing up (perhaps that's why the travel bug bit me so badly when it did) but we did drive up to Noyo and spend a few days on a fairly regular basis.  Our times there as a family are some of the happiest that I can recall - when it was clear the we all felt content and at home.  It was fun to see Walt's joy in experiencing it all for the first time.

He ran, played, and let his imagination run wild for two days.  His cousins were endlessly patient and generous in indulging his enthusiasm.  He was fascinated by the fire circle and wanted to build a theater there.  He waited for the Skunk Train to go by and carefully hunted for the flattened remains of the pennies that we'd left on the tracks.  He was fascinated by the schools of trout visible from the footbridge hanging over the river.  He collected rocks for throwing and whacking with a bat fashioned from a redwood branch.  The first thing he said when he woke up the first morning we were there was,"Daddy - can we come back Camp Noyo boy scout camp?"