Recently, a group of gappers went on a camping adventure in the Laguna Mountains, east of San Diego. We gappers do enjoy getting together outside of the office, and we do love our pets! We’ve petitioned for a doggie day care on site, but unfortunately that has not come to fruition – something about it being against the building code, pesky codes.
S'mores by the campfire
This camping trip was the perfect excuse to get our 4-legged counterparts together for a barking good time! We ended up with 8 dogs, roughly half the number of humans, ranging from a huge Lab all the way down to a tiny Pekingese. All in all, the dogs got along very well and they reveled in the extra attention all weekend! The two biggest, Jack and Bryce, absolutely loved chasing their balls and anyone who braved the slime and threw them. Maya and BoShek, two beautiful Shiba Inus, enjoyed running around the campsite tethered to each other. Riley, the Pekingese, was spoiled all weekend, hardly putting a paw to the dirt. Penny, an adorable cocker spaniel/dachshund mix, enjoyed a bit of spoiling herself. The two remaining, cocker spaniel brothers PB and Barca, reveled in their first camping trip. All the dogs thoroughly enjoyed having mostly free reign around the campsite and gobbling up any bit of errant food.
Hiking to Big Laguna Lake
As for the humans, we enjoyed ourselves also! After everyone arrived and settled in, Scott gave us some tips for awesome nighttime photography and we indulged in s’mores (and a beer or two) by the campfire. In the morning I demonstrated how to make “boil in a bag” omelets for breakfast and Jackson led us on a hike out to Big Laguna Lake, which is of course dry from our 4-year-long drought in southern California. We took in some beautiful scenery along the way and Sarah’s dad gave us some lessons in local geology. The rest of our day entailed playing games and being entertained by the dogs and our CEO’s adorable toddlers, my teenagers enjoyed being the big kids at camp for a change! As afternoon morphed into evening, we settled around the campfire, enjoyed a classic campfire dinner, and caught the tail end of a meteor shower.
Nighttime photography
Julia, the dog whisperer
As we packed up after another morning of games and fun at the campsite, I reflected on how well we gappers juggle the work/life balance and how we all like to share our unique talents with the group. It’s one of the biggest reasons why being a gapper is so special! We and our loved ones like to work hard and play hard, and find that balance in between. We all learned something new about the others and enjoyed getting to know each other outside of the office. I can’t wait for the next gapper adventure, to see what lies ahead for us here at gap intelligence!
The whole gapper camper crew
