Hey, Camp Folks!

We love talking about a wide array of topics on this Blog, but one of our most frequent and consistent topics is to feature one of the many summer camps with whom we have the joy of working. We’re swinging our Everything Summer Camp camp spotlight over to Southeastern Texas, near Houston where we find Camp Allen.

Camp Allen campers are treated to an immersive experience of being out in nature! Situated on 1,100 acres in the serenity of the abounding piney woods of the Navasota area, Camp Allen provides campers with the space to escape and rediscover themselves in a whole new and remote environment.

Have lots of fun there with the options to practice your Archery, Canoeing, Challenge Courses, Skeet Shooting, Paddleboarding, Golfing, Horseback Riding, and more (all available with extra fee). They also offer activities with no extra expense such as Basketball, Biking, Disc Golf, Fishing, Fitness, Lawn Games, Ping Pong, Soccer, Swimming, and more.

​​Located in the heart of the pine woods of Camp Allen, the campsites make the perfect locations for summer campers. Camp Allen cabins offer bunk bed lodging with heat and air conditioning along with easy access to restrooms and shower facilities.

Enjoy meals prepared in the Camp Allen commercial kitchen as you take comfortable seating in the dining hall which boasts a beautiful fireplace. There are outdoor meeting areas with seating included as well as a park, a pavilion, a pool, a woodsy trail, and an outdoor chapel by the lake—not to mention the awesome stone chapel. 

If you’re interested in spending a summer at Camp Allen, give them a closer look—hop over to their website by clicking right here. Maybe you’ll be staying at Camp Allen for your next summer camp experience! Have a blast and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hello, Fellow Outdoor Fans!

Letters sent and received through the post office is one of the oldest means of long-distance communication preceded only by homing pigeons (birds trained and used to deliver letters and other small items). Today is designated to celebrate this old means of connecting with folks far away. Today is Letter Writing Day!

While writing letters is a big part of summer camp, Winter is a great time to flex your writing muscle for this therapeutic indoor activity and great way to spread some cheer as we venture into the holiday season! Here are some great reasons to sit yourself down today and write a letter or two to some of the people you have in your life.

Ain’t Nothing like the Real Thing, Baby
A letter is not an electronic message; it’s something corporeal that the recipient can hold and keep in their home. It exemplifies effort and thoughtfulness. It’s sure to bring a smile to that somebody when they receive your letter in the mail—a hundred times more joy than any text, email, social media message, or even a phone call could ever bring.

Great Mental Exercise
Writing a letter is an excellent way to keep your brain sharp. The wintertime especially can hold us sort of spellbound with what some refer to as ‘the blahs’. Articulating your thoughts through the written word gives you and the recipient clarity. It can feel a little bit like cleaning out your head! I feel better just writing this post!

The Power of the Pen
As I alluded to in a post I wrote years ago about Letter Writing Day, letters give a writer the space to really take the time to articulate their thoughts. You’ll find the opportunity in a letter to express yourself like you maybe never otherwise would. Use a letter to let somebody know what they mean to you.

These are just a few of the many benefits there are to writing letters to people. Make the connection and spread some cheer as we venture into the holiday season! Put your pen to some paper and see what comes out! Happy Letter Writing Day and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

The amount of celebrities that have attended summer camp is staggering! Coming from all across the country and different walks of life, plenty of big names started their claim to fame in their visits to summer camp. Some names are bigger than others. I’ve covered folks like Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Lisa Loeb, and Chris Farley. For today’s post, however, I’d like to highlight a former summer camper whose name you maybe haven’t heard of…yet.

Brett Michael Dennen is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter of the folk music variety who both attended and worked at Camp Jack Hazard in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of San Francisco. It was there that he learned to play the guitar at a very young age. Brett’s camp counselors played lots of Neil Young and John Denver songs—the music he was raised on at home by his parents.

Growing up in a small farm town of California, Brett’s parents opted to homeschool him. They gave him plenty of creative freedom throughout his education and he spent a lot of his time learning music. Between his home life and summers at camp, it didn’t take long for Brett to develop his skills on the guitar which compelled him to start writing his own songs.   

He attended Oakdale High School in the late 90’s. Brett went on to study sociology and philosophy at Kresge College and within just a year of his graduation, he launched his music career with his first album at the young age of 25.

Amidst his adult education and musical career, Brett’s connection to his camp never diminished. After the release of his fourth studio album, Brett performed at a fundraiser for the Jack and Buena Foundation which currently operates Camp Jack Hazard.  

Since his start in 2004, Brett has released six studio albums with no signs of slowing down! Check out this ‘Wild Child’ if you’re a fan of folk music or just good music in general. And be sure to check out Camp Jack Hazard for your own summer camp experience. You’re sure to have a blast and you may even learn to play guitar! As always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Camping Cooks!

Food is an essential part of everyday living and that doesn’t change when you’re camping out in the great outdoors! Like the history of summer camp itself, cookware history calls back to primitive roots that turned domestic. So, before there were pots and pans—much less stovetops or ovens—how did people cook their food? Let’s dive into the past to see how things got started!

Long before anyone ever heard of a place such as the kitchen, cooking was done outside the way it’s done when we’re out on a camping expedition: right over a good ol’ campfire. Boiling water was just as essential of a process back then as it is now. And some extremely resourceful minds realized that turtle shells were a perfect waterproof cooking pot.

Of course, while turtle shells got the job done just fine, turtles weren’t always handy. Stones, on the other hand, are plentiful. Instead, people would carve out from large stones to create big bowls that would become permanent fixtures in the hearths of early homesteads.

Stone worked well for cooking, but it took lots of time and work to fashion bowls out of rock. A much simpler option called pottery was on the rise. Pottery, made from the clay of the earth, was developed to create earthen cookware. Ceramic pots were easy to transport and much easier to fashion than its stone predecessor.

Ceramic cookware still had its drawbacks, though. It was a poor conductor of heat and would crack in too high of temperatures. This led to long cook times over a low degree of heat. Yet, this was the primary means of cooking until the 1600s when metalworking skills were developed and introduced to the kitchen scene of medieval days.

Though extremely heavy, cast-iron is hailed as one of the best materials to cook with (even today). It does not, however, lend itself well to the camp life. More modern developments in cookware have produced much more camp-friendly means of cooking materials.

The Bugaboo Mess Kit from GSI Outdoors, for instance—and available here at Everything Summer Camp—is made of non-stick coated aluminum for a lightweight, efficient means of cooking! Enjoy our modern means of cooking over an open fire and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Online Shoppers!

We’re happy to see you as we approach the close of Black Friday weekend. We hope you’ve been blown away at the prices of all your shopping endeavors throughout the weekend. But we aim to surprise you the most. If you’re still looking for great deals on quality camping gear from Everything Summer Camp you’re certainly not too late! The sales have been going on at Everything Summer Camp since mid-November and we’re not planning on stopping them any time soon.

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday and there are no changes among discounts and deals on our site. Our Black Friday Sale is simply extended through the weekend, through tomorrow, and well beyond into weeks of December.

If you have yet to take full advantage of the amazing deals we have to offer this year, take a good look at some of this sale’s highlights and then, get shopping! The Deal of the Day today is a quarter of the regular price on the Everything Summer Camp Gear Bag. It’s going from $39.99, knocked down to $9.99!

Tomorrow’s Deal of the Day for Cyber Monday is nearly cutting a price in half for a very nice product. Starting tomorrow, get the Flannel Sherpa Throw for $13.99 instead of $24.99!

After Cyber Monday, we’re having three more ‘Deal of the Day’ deals in the first three days of December. And, even after ‘Deal of the Day’ is done, our sales continue on for a few more weeks!

Have fun finding these fantastic deals all over our shop! They’re here to stay for a while yet, but the earlier you order, the earlier you have it ready to go for summer camp! Enjoy yourself and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John