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ESCAPE to the summer!

A final look at the year in our club…

We’ve wrapped up our 17th year of the ESCAPE Club, and are headed into the summer.  Yet again, we are grateful for the students who participated, and the relationships and experiences that we shared.  As well, we are grateful for so many teachers and volunteers who drive the kids to these fantastic destinations. Finally, for each of you, and your love, words of encouragement, prayer, finances, and support.

One of our proudest accomplishments this year was creating and distributing a memory book to each of the students and chaperones at the end of the year.  The booklet has a spread for each of our nine trips, which includes directions to, information about, and pictures from each of our destinations.  There’s even room for autographs, and it was fun to see our kids clutching them at the last meeting, laughing over the memories, and signing each others’ books.

We’ll see what developments, if any, come in our careers this summer and into the coming school year, and we’ll have to navigate an unusually high amount of teacher turnover at DeJean.  But for now, we’ll hope to be back for another year of ESCAPE Club at DeJean in the fall.

Hope you’ll take a look at the video below that shows each of the trips and all of the faces from the year.  Have a great summer, and we’ll hope to see each one of you soon!

The end of the year video. Come and see how far we went.
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ESCAPE to the Ice 2017

One final trip to Oakland Ice Center and Cerrito Vista Park…

If it feels like you just heard from me, it’s true.  You did.  We had a super quick turnaround after our camping trip in Yosemite, and scrambled to get our last trip in.  The school year is ending much earlier than it used to!

We snuck out of Richmond early, as it was a short day at school, and went down to the Oakland Ice Center.  This is a trip that many of the kids look forward to all year.  For most of them, ice skating is yet another brand new experience.  Most kids cling to the walls at the start.  But for those brave and confident enough to venture out, they learn quickly how to move on the ice.  I wish we had more time to prep in the classroom, or teach them before we go in, but that’s just not how it works out.

After a couple hours on the ice, kids are tired and hungry and ready to go.  We battled rush hour traffic, and headed back north to Cerrito Vista Park.  There, we enjoyed a little pizza supper, played catch with the softball, frisbee, and football, and took over the play structure.  It was a nice time, and a reminder that it’s just fun to be together, no matter how far from home we are.

We’ll be meeting one more time next week to say goodbye, and so you’ll hear from us one more time as well.  Enjoy the photos here, and check out the video below if you have an extra minute or two.

Last trip of the year!
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ESCAPE to Yosemite 2017

A visit to the jewel of our national parks…

Ugh.

We expect it to be crowded in Yosemite Valley. This is our 17th year doing this! And we’ve come to expect it to be more crowded each year. What we did not anticipate was the gridlock we encountered, or the utter absence of parking spots. But for the first time in a few years, the weather was warm and dry. And as usual, the kids were resilient, the adults were flexible, and it turned out to be a nice weekend.

We had a huge number this year. We brought 35 students, and our group totaled over 50. With cooperation from our principal, the DeJean staff, and some outside resources, we were all able to leave before school and head to the valley on Friday morning. Since Mariposa Grove is still under construction this year, we thought to spend an extra day in the valley, and knock out some extra activities there. Due to all the construction, and the difficulty with parking, and the park service’s lack of infrastructure and resources, that turned out to be a really poor idea. We were only able to check out the climbers on El Capitan, and take our group photo at Tunnel View. We did get to camp at a decent hour, and enjoyed setting up our tents, having dinner, and hanging out around camp.

On Saturday, we ventured back into the valley. But there was no parking. Anywhere. We thought we’d be creative, and park at the far end of the valley, near El Capitan, five miles from our trailhead. But then we waited 45 minutes for a shuttle, which took 30 minutes to go five miles. Again, ugh.

We did finally get to do the hike up the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls. Every single kid and chaperone made it to the top, about which we are very proud. It’s an accomplishment that they will always be able to keep with them. And to be clear, despite all of our struggles, Yosemite was spectacular. Thundering waterfalls, under blue skies. All the things we hope for from the park were in their prime. So there’s no minimizing the experience.

But all the delays put us well behind our normally scheduled routine, and we decided to get pizza in Half Dome (formerly “Curry”) Village. This was a great call, as it took just as long for us to get back to our cars, and we headed back to camp in the dark. It would have been rough starting our usual pasta dinner at 8:30pm!

For certain, one of the highlights was singing around the campfire. You can get a taste of it in the video below, or if you’re following us on Instagram! (Even if you’re not on Instagram, you can see our posts here: https://www.instagram.com/escape.club/ )

For Sunday, we decided it would be best not to return to the valley. We spent a leisurely morning around camp, playing games, ultimate frisbee, and singing a little more. We packed up, and headed out the south park entrance. We drove through 100-degree temperatures in the central valley, and arrived home Sunday evening to some chilly, 60-degree weather in Richmond.

We are so grateful to a fantastic group of chaperones who gave their time to this program. We also are grateful for each of you who made financial contributions to make this trip free for our kids. Also to those who donated other things, like tents, sleeping bags, firewood, and even homemade cookies!

Our final trip of the year is this week, so we’ll talk again soon! Lots of text this time–thanks for reading this far!

You know you should watch… It’s sure to brighten your day!
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ESCAPE to Alamere Falls 2017

A hike in Point Reyes to a magical waterfall right on the beach…

For the 17th year in a row, the ESCAPE Club made its annual venture up the California coast to Point Reyes, and hiked to Alamere Falls. But we’re really reconsidering an 18th trip. Once again, we are encouraged to see beautiful places outside growing in popularity. However, as we are already a large group, it is becoming more logistically difficult to enjoy this hike the way we once did.

Nevertheless, we pressed on with the hike, because after all, it is probably the most magical spot in the Bay Area. (Don’t tell anyone!) It’s a longer hike now–probably closer to eight miles round trip–since we have to park so far from the trailhead, and there aren’t nearly enough bathrooms in the parking lot! It looks like more may be being built, and they are advertising for trail docents, so something is being done about the increased popularity.

We crouched through the brambly short cut near the falls, leapt (or waded) across the stream, and scrambled down the cliff to the falls. Unfortunately, it was the peak of a high tide, so the beach itself was pretty narrow, with the seawater coming all the way up to the falls at times.  We splashed in the falls, played in the sand, and even spotted harbor seals and a few dolphins out in the distance.

The weather was warm enough to get in the falls, but cool enough so we didn’t suffer from heat on the hike back.  There weren’t as many wildflowers as we hoped to see, but the hike and views were beautiful as ever. Everyone made it the whole way, despite some minor discomfort.  We were proud of our accomplishment.  

As has become our custom, we enjoyed tamales back at the cars, with some cold drinks.  We were watched by a pair of gray foxes that have taken up residence in the parking lot, hoping for some scraps!  And we enjoyed a quick, impromptu tug of war before it was time for the drive home.

Yosemite, here we come!

Videoooooooooooooo!!!