The Receiving End PDF Print E-mail
Monday, 03 April 2006 16:00

When we owned Grandview Lodge Resort, we were always on an emotional rollercoaster; from month to month our affection for it would change. In the spring, we anxiously prepared the resort for its official mid-May opening, looking forward to the spring cleaning, the landscape preparations and the new staff coming in. (It was a seasonal resort open from May to October) We would work seven days a week until school was over and our student-staff were all in place.

Once the end of June arrived along with all of our staff, the guest-families would arrive and things would run like a finely tuned machine. We had full staffing in all departments so we could start having one day off a week, and the summer flew by. (Of course by then, we were sick of being surrogate parents to 40+ staff all summer.) Soon it was autumn, the students went back to school, and our guest population changed to a crowd of mainly couples or groups who returned year after year. The summer was busy, we were exhausted, but we basked in the peacefulness of the fall. Our Canadian Thanksgiving, held on the second Monday in October, was when we looked forward to the summer staff returning (enough time had passed that we had forgotten how hard they partied) to help with our final weekend attended by large families (including our own). It was also a chance to say our final goodbyes for the year to the staff, the guests and the resort until the following spring when the cycle would begin all over again.

Catalina Spa RV Park is going through a similar cycle right now, though the seasons are the opposite of Grandview’s and they remain open year round. The clientele here changes in the summer because it becomes so hot and the park attracts weekend ATVer’s. The volunteer staff is leaving, the guests are becoming fewer and the planned activities are coming to an end. Though we are saying goodbye to our friends, we are enjoying the peacefulness that has settled in and we are reminded of how our fall guests at Grandview must have felt. It is nice to be on the receiving end at last.