A family vacation for all: Bug juice and bunk beds

Bob Miller loves summer camp - the arts and crafts, canoeing, and making new friends. "And when else can you do archery?" he asked after having spent a week at Medomak Camp in Maine for eight of the last 11 summers.

At 54, though, Miller, of Downingtown, is not your typical camper. But he is part of a growing number of parents who have discovered they don't have to head back home after dropping their kids off for the summer.

In 2014, nearly half of American Camp Association members reported offering some kind of family camp, up from 41 percent in 2011, the first year it was tracked. Its online database lists more than 850 "family camp" sessions.

Miller discovered Medomak in 2004 while searching for a family vacation he could enjoy with his wife, Loy; 8-year-old daughter, Sarah; and 5-year-old son, Dan.

In the mornings, their children played with other kids during counselor-supervised activities like swimming and fishing - Dan caught his first fish at Medomak. Meanwhile, he and his wife enjoyed grown-up time - kayaking, carving soapstone, and even relaxing with lakeside facials and pedicures using natural, homeopathic ingredients.

Come lunchtime, parents and kids reconnected and spent time with other families by sharing meals, twilight sails, and s'mores around the campfire.

Family camp - not to be confused with family resorts à la Dirty Dancing with hotel-like rooms, waiter-served meals, and entertainment - is usually held at an overnight camp, where sleeping in bunks, enjoying traditional camp meals, and drinking bug juice are all part of the shared experience. Costs can range from $300 for a weekend to $4,540 for a week of food, lodging, and activities for a family of four. The growing popularity (last summer, 78 families stayed at Medomak Camp, up more than 60 percent from the 47 who visited in 2008) can be traced to oversubscribed families looking for downtime that suits everyone's needs and won't have cruiselike costs.

"As the demands on family schedules increase, with children participating in a variety of activities or even a number of different camps, we see parents looking for opportunities where they can connect with their family and build memories," said Tom Holland, CEO of the camp association.

The setting also gives kids independence in a safe space, something the Ferretti family of Phoenixville discovered at Camp Speers in Dingmans Ferry, Pike County, in 2014.

Unlike their traditional Shore and Disney vacations, the kids could go off on their own, said Michelle Ferretti, 42, mother of Lauren and Katie. "It gives them independence, which they love, and it gives us a break."

The Ferrettis enjoyed relay races, horseback riding, and hiking through a bog.

"At Camp Speers, we interacted more as a family," said Lauren, now 13, who loved doing archery and shooting BB guns with her mom.

The four-day experience also gave insight into the kids' readiness for overnight camp. Before Camp Speers, Ferretti would have hesitated to send Lauren at 9, but off she went for two weeks alone the following summer.

For camp administrators, the family programs offer new revenue streams.

Camps that typically offer summer sessions of six, seven, or eight weeks - and that have their own facilities and staff - want to take advantage of what's called the shoulder season: pre-camp and post-camp, said Beth Goldstein, summer program consultant for Camp Experts and Teen Summers who is based in Wynnewood. For a family planning a summer vacation, "the price point is quite good as opposed to a Shore rental."

Pecometh Camp and Retreat Ministries in Centerville, Md., began offering a weekend camp in late July for families, often multiple generations, who wanted a taste of their kids' summer camp experiences. Last year, there were 50 participants, up from 26 when the program started five years ago.

"In our summer camp program, kids leave their cellphones at home, and for some parents, that's unimaginable that they wouldn't have contact," said executive director Jack Shitama. "The family camp was a way to let kids experience camp in a way that their parents felt comfortable."

Families have the option of roughing it in tents or RVs, staying in rustic (non-air-conditioned) cabins, or living hotel-style, costing $330 to $540 for the weekend.

In search of a Labor Day family activity last summer, Sharon Joshowitz, 47, discovered Camp Nah-Jee-Wah in Milford, Pike County. The kids - her son Jacob, 9, and daughter Abby, 7, and those of two other families - enjoyed morning camp activities while the grown-ups rode bikes, played tennis, and the braver ones tried the zip line, adventure course, and jet skiing. "It wasn't the Four Seasons, but I liked the all-inclusive experience," Joshowitz said. Their lodgings had a bathroom, shower, and bunk beds, and cost $300 to $400 for the long weekend.

A sense of community and needing to log off - "our cellphones don't work well there" - keeps Jennifer Beale, 36, of Wynnewood, and her extended family of 14 coming back to Deer Valley YMCA Camp in Western Pennsylvania every August. In-laws on both sides of the family will join Beale, her husband, and three kids – ages 7, 5, and 9 months – for a week in nature.

"At this stage in life, I'm just enjoying watching my kids build confidence without having to check in on them all the time," she said. "Even though we don't have cellphones, it feels scary in a good way. Everybody's watching out for each other."

It's not that the family doesn't have a taste for exotic locales; in fact, they are avid travelers who enjoy international destinations. But camp is "good, old-fashioned fun," Beale said.

They play bocce, take hayrides, ride horses, and play games in which the winner has the right to throw someone in the lake.