Whenever I introduce new people to Kittamaqund, I see it in a new way. At summer camp open houses, little girls see magic in a curiously bent tree in the woods or in the cool tents that will be their homes. Adults with outdoorsy backgrounds gasp at the natural beauty that I long since took for granted. A 30-ish woman taking this weekend's training course said she'd worked at a camp in Idaho for several years, and had spent time at 8 or 10 Girl Scout camps in her life. While a particular camp she worked at remains her Favorite, she dubbed CK the Most Beautiful.

Thank you. We like it, too. It's a nice weekend and summer river place for all 17,000 girls and adults in our council.

The weather, of course, can enhance the experience. Even as of 6:30 a.m. Saturday, as I got ready to drive east, the weather forecast prepared me for clouds and maybe 55 degrees. What a treat, then, to see nothing but blue skies and fresh leaves the whole way out there. Sure, most of us felt cold overnight, but it must have reached 70 both days. And you know what? Little April leaves in the Hollow do not make shade: I got a little sunburned.

Okay, maybe lunch on the Cove dock on Saturday contributed to that. Clear sky, clear water -- lots of glare. You get the picture.

The usual mixed bag of adults took our training class this weekend: from the happy former camp counselor to the very reluctant outdoorswomen (and men). I got a great surprise at the end when one participant, whom I had read as "reluctant," came up to thank me with a hug, look me in the eye and say, "We'll be back, the girls are going to love this." Well, hot damn. Mission accomplished.

Mission accomplished, D. and I went off duty with the new camp ranger to see camp in yet another new way. His clearning of the old roads out to Outlook's cove and Hidden Cove offer breathtaking vistas of Home I'd never before seen. The teens are going to love rambling out that way. And as if that weren't enough, he took us in the motor boat to the local marina restaurant (Pyro: "It's not a bar"), then the Chesapeake Bay. I have added another sparkling bright day to my mental snapshot album of the Great Wicomico. That fresh, fresh April Sunday will join a July (?) day on the downriver side of the bridge with great wind and P's sailors; a trip homeward at a run about 20 years ago when I first fell in love with sailing; and any number of good, sparkly afternoons just outside the Cove. At 30 or so miles an hour, Kittamaqund looks both massive (with many McMansions going up - O. called them million dollar homes - it's a big blank spot) and suddenly tiny. I have never in my life seen the Cove jump up so fast! Thanks to both of you for a swell afternoon.

M., I am so sorry that it was grey while you were out there. I know you would have loved to see the clear, bright afternoon light (in contrast to the humidity-heavy air of most summer days) on the houses on our side of the bridge. Those older houses, neatly painted, with well-established fruit trees and whatnot blooming and leafing around them is how you should have seen your first Virginia spring. Ah, well. If I've learned anything in 25 or so years of growing up at CK, it's that there will always be another spring, another summer: another trip out, another chance to see the old place in a new way.