Hello Everyone! Well the weather has brightened up and our internet is back on so we've got some catching up to do here!
OK, let's start with the trekkers: Although I haven't received any pictures from them yet, they have safely returned to us here at Wildwood Central with smiling, tanned faces. I heard that biking on Nantucket was among their favorite things (and who can blame them?), but they also enjoyed radio tracking box turtles, kayaking, a salt marsh study at the UMASS Field Station, and working with our ecologist, Ernie. Both of the Trip leaders, Tyler and Katie were raving about this group as well, and I know they really enjoyed their time with these teens visiting some really cool places. They'll go through their gear tonight, shower, and have some good time at the ropes course tomorrow before being picked up in the morning.
Then there's the Leaders-in-Training group. They also returned today from a three-day canoe trip on the Connecticut River. They had terrific weather each day and managed to experience some neat wildlife sightings including a Wilson's Snipe! This outing always pulls this group together as they work as a team to accomplish all aspects of the trip including preparing and packing gear, setting up and breaking down tents, developing menus and shopping for food as well as cooking and cleaning up after meals. Upon their return they put away all the equipment and washed off the boats. I think they'll sleep well tonight.
Speaking of tonight... naturally it's our closing campfire, a highly anticipated event for all our sessions. By this time campers have really become comfortable doing goofy things with staff and their friends, and so these are truly among the funnest parts of camp. It's really neat; for the opening campfire on the first night staff have do most of the performances and only a few campers are bold enough to get up there - even for a lot of the returning campers. But at the closing campfire it's mostly just campers running the show as they have really come out of their shells and want to be a big part of the celebration.
We had a special day on Wednesday, themed around space and the planets with all sorts of strange and fun activities happening all over camp. It was a lot of fun although the sun wasn't shining on us very much. Thursday and Friday have been the best two days of the session weather-wise, with lots of sunshine and warmer temperatures too. This meant we spent a lot of time at the waterfront enjoying Hubbard Pond. Two new water elements finally arrived just in time to be christened by our campers. You'll see them at the waterfront tomorrow.
Lastly, we've completed two really cool upgrades to the camp. You'll see our brand new camp store tomorrow, which will be open for your $hopping pleasure! And also our new solar hot water system at the shower house, which will pre-heat the water going into the regular hot water tanks, saving us propane and helping us reduce our carbon footprint here at camp.
So here's a bunch of pictures that have been taken over the last few days waiting to be put up onto the blog. Thanks so much to all the parents for allowing us to have such terrific fun with your campers over these past two weeks. We'll give them back to you - at least for now!
Have a good night and we'll see you all in the morning.
Best,
Bob
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