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CONTACT: Mariesa Woodring, PR Specialist
6700 Azalea Garden Road
Norfolk, VA 23518-5337
(757) 441-5830, Ext. 346 Fax: (757) 853-8294
E-mail: mariesa.woodring@nbgs.org |
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BY LORRAINE EATON THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
THE FAMILY Overnighter at Norfolk Botanical Garden must be among the easiest camping trips on Earth.
Sign up for $20 a person, and the garden provides breakfast, lunch, arts and crafts and learning activities for children, campfire stories, garbage pickup, guided walks through the garden and minor first aid – if you need it.
A portable bathroom stands nearby, and porcelain is a charming 5-minute walk through the woods. About all you need to bring is a tent, sleeping bag and flashlight.
“It’s almost too easy,” said Pete Wheeler, 76, of Norfolk.
Wheeler, a repeat camper, brought his 9-year old grandson, Zackary Watson, of Virginia Beach. “Children these days miss so much – walking in the woods, picking berries, just being outdoors.”
The nonroughing it takes place at the back of the garden in an area of oak and sweet gum called the Enchanted Forest. Camping here is more communal than at, say, a KOA, partly because of the crowd size – the limit is about 80 – and partly because of the endless, optional group activities.
Those activities revolve around a theme, and each of several spring and fall overnighters offers something different. The Oct. 1 camp coincided with the ninth annual History Alive! exhibit. This year, 37 groups of re-enactors set up in the garden representing medieval times to the late 20th century. Campers made corn-husk dolls and played pioneer and Native American games behind the Butterfly Garden. Dinner was selfserve, straightforward and hearty. Good-sized dogs and burgers with all the fixings. Potato chips on the side. Veggie burgers are available with prior notice.
Camping is incomplete without s’mores. So garden staffers built a fire that was soon ringed with children toasting marshmallows and an outer ring of parents resting in chairs and on stumps chatting about schools and the weather.
Jen Buskirk, 27, the garden’s bubbly Scout camp coordinator, stood on a stump and told the tale of the wish stick. According to the story, a Native American tribe ended a drought only when the chief passed around a stick and each person made a wish.
“Make a wish that will help everyone in the whole wide world,” Buskirk said as a stick passed from hand to hand.
In the glow of the campfire, a 5-year-old boy wished that no one would ever die. A 10-year-old girl wished that it would only take one person to make the world a better place. An 11-year-old girl wished that her boyfriend would marry her.
By 10:30 p.m., most campers were in their tents being lulled to sleep by the cicadas trilling and Girl Scouts singing songs that Scouts have sung for decades.
Jets taking off at the nearby airport jolted campers awake in time for the 7:30 breakfast. After juice, bagels, cereal and fresh fruit – and a nature walk for children – tents were disassembled and loaded onto the trolley for the ride back to the parking lot.
Rachel Collins, 11, of Chesapeake thought for a moment about what she liked best about the camp.
“I like the scenery and getting away from all the people.”
“And,” added her friend, Kristin Klausmeier, 10, also of Chesapeake, “the smell of the rose garden in the morning.”
KEVIN BENEDICT/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Campers participating in a Family Overnighter at the Norfolk Botanical Garden earlier this month settle into their tents in the Enchanted Forest, an area of oak and sweet gum trees.
KEVIN BENEDICT PHOTOS/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
LEFT: Paul Gordon of Virginia Beach, a Civil War-era re-enactor, shows how the Signal Corps of the James used a flying torch and a foot torch as a means of communication. BELOW: From left, Kristin Klausmeier, 10, Rachel Collins, 11, and Taylor Bryant, 11, all members of Great Bridge Girl Scout Troop 872 and all of Chesapeake, chat during dinner.
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