My Thoughts as a Mom on Seacamp!

Kids Sea Camp vacation money well spent

I had been debating on whether to put down my deposit for the 2005 Kids Sea Camp in Curacao. We couldn’t decide whether we wanted to try a new location or take a year off. But after speaking with Emily at Caribbean Adventures/formerly of Kids Sea Camp, and found out what a special alumni week they had planned for us “oldtimers” how could I not put in our reservations!

We had such a wonderful time at Curacao last year, we had learned from our first year that one week was not enough and we signed up for a two-week stay. We enrolled our daughter, Corley, in the Dolphin Training Program the first week. It was such an incredible experience watching as she put “her” dolphin, Teresa, thru her paces. The way those beautiful animals interact with people is so amazing. I highly recommend any family going to camp, take time to have their own dolphin swim. My swim will always be a treasured memory. Our second week of camp was the diving week. Corley began her junior open-water certification. Getting to dive with her on the final day on the Tugboat dive was such a thrill, seeing how she had learned to operate her equipment and be a responsible diver made me realize what a wonderful teaching crew they have from Ocean Encounters. All these experiences and so many more from taking a day trip to Klein Curacao, diving the Mushroom Forest, meeting new friends and renewing friendships made the year before, and of course golfing with Nolo makes it easy to come back.

On another note, it’s amazing what a small world we live in. Part of our vacation plans was to bring my older daughter, Sara along with us. She was certified 6 months before she was sent overseas to do a tour in Afghanistan and then Iraq, and she had never gotten to dive into the ocean yet. While we were waiting for her to arrive, my husband, Jon overheard a diver talking about her dive buddy who was a paratrooper. Sara is a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, and of course, it made me curious. I introduced myself to him and asked where he was stationed, to make a long story short, his name was Rick MacIntosh and he and Sara had been in Ramadi, Iraq together. This made for quite a reunion later that week when she arrived and an interesting “you’ll never guess who I ran into while on vacation” story. The beautiful waters of Curacao made for a very memorable first ocean dive experience for her and she now understands why we are so hooked on Kidsseacamp!

Trish Worthman (daughter Corley Clark age 11)
Alliance, Nebraska