Chocolate fountain!

Hey there, HVC-ers! Special Reporter Olive Oyl here with your Packing Day update!

First off, we finished Fair Day off right with a fabulous outdoor dance! We hung out in the backyard, got our groove on, and jammed out to Don’t Stop Believin’, our favorite final song of the evening. We then headed to bed for a lovely night’s sleep, thanks to a late breakfast this morning.

After enjoying delicious hash browns and the egg bar, we had our epic camp meeting! We got the run-down on packing tips and a preview of what our busy day and tomorrow morning look like. We also had our usual (although final) meeting standards, like Thought du Jour and Spirit Animal, where they summoned the spirit of packing, and even placed a camper in a trunk briefly. Hilarious as always! We also picked up our valuables, art projects, and lost and found items to be packed away. After collecting all that we’ve created over the summer, we headed over to our cabins for packing and super cleaning. After we found millions of missing socks under bunks, aired out our mattresses, and cleaned our cubbies, we headed over to lunch. We filled up on sausage, mac and cheese, onion rings, and salad bar.

This afternoon we enjoyed a final cabin activity, where we got one last chance to bond and reminisce with our cabin mates and counselors. Wombles did an egg drop at the Tree House and Avalon teamed up with Chateau Fiasco for a creek walk (while serenaded by guitar!). LCH decorated t-shirts and Loons played water polo down at the lake. Bermuda Triangle had fun at the ropes course, doing the cargo net and zip line. Wabanaki played around with the famous potato canon and sling shot in Deer Meadows field. Forbidden Planet got to voyage off camp for a little ice cream down at the Cool Spot in Belfast. Down Under girlies decorated t-shirts and went on Tipi Zip and the Burrow worked on their very on HVC activity book. Paquatahnee had a dance party and French Quarter made dream catchers. Fiddler’s Green got their groove on, at cupcakes, and had a yarn circle. Shangri-La signed plates and decorated pillow cases. Camelot, Der Meadows, Halley’s Comet, and Taj all did warm photos, where each person in the cabin signs and then gets to keep a cabin photo.

We’re currently doing the big luggage move, where trunks and duffels are moved from cabins onto tarps organized based on travel plans tomorrow so that we’re all set to load up bright and early tomorrow morning! While packing and moving is not the most fun, we have a lot to look forward to this evening. After evening meeting we’ll have our very famous lobster banquet, complete with fresh seafood (of course), and chicken and vegetarian options for our non-fish-loving friends. To top it all off, we’ll have pints upon pints of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream! Yum, yum, yum! We’ll then head up to Pine Grove where we’ll share stories, songs, and poems to commemorate and conclude our amazing month here at Hidden Valley. It’s truly been a fantastic summer full of smiles, goofiness, creativity, friendship, and kindness. We’re sad to see many go, but so happy of all we’ve accomplished in just four short weeks.

With the session winding down, it’s time for me and the Lady of the Lake to take a brief hiatus as we enjoy some time off as camp transitions to second session. It’s been a pleasure being your correspondants this summer and we look forward to another busy session of awesome news and photos!

Until we meet again,

Olive

The whole Matilda cast!

Hey world!

It’s finally fair day! But wait, I’m getting way ahead of myself. Yesterday, after our super relaxing pool time and delicious assortment of pizzas, we gathered for the musical, Matilda. Our campers were absolutely fantastic. They sang the catchy tunes so magnificently, and their acting was phenomenal. The sets and the costumes were absolutely to die for. All of camp was in such great spirits after watching the fabulous heart-warming performance.

This morning, after a superb breakfast of cinnamon buns (a fair day classic), morning meeting, and booth set up, we headed over to the horse barn to watch the Brumby Horse Show. The eight Brumby campers have been working hard over the last 4 weeks, not only preparing for this horse show, but getting up every morning extra early to clean and ready the horses for all the lessons later that day and then untacking and cleaning them once more at the end of the day. It was amazing getting to see these campers show some of the skills they’ve been learning. We saw drills, dressage, jumps, and vaulting. The Brumby kids made everything they did seem absolutely effortless, which is saying a lot when you’re talking about taming an a thousand pound beast.

After all that jazz, the fair began! Boy oh boy is fair day amazing. Each cabin set up a booth, and campers got to venture to all the different activities.The food was just absolutely the yummiest. Forbidden Planet made enticing fried dough, while the AWACs dispensed pretzels to us all. Camelot served delectable ice cream, and Deer Meadows kept us hydrated with a selection of tasty drinks. Paquatahnee had a hit station – the chocolate fountain, where we dipped various fruits into a fondue fountain. My mouth is still watering at the thought of it! On the savory side, we had a hot dog stand from the kitchen staff, Loons ran the pizza oven (we sure have gotten great use out of that this summer!), and Wabanaki served us cheesy, warm mozzarella sticks.

We couldn’t just eat for 3 hours straight (well, some of us would have been quite happy to), so we had some fantastic activities to entertain us in between tasting one zesty treat and another. Taj hosted Kiss-O-Grams, where campers could send Hershey kisses to anyone on camp. Those will be delivered later on. There’s nothing better than getting sweet messages that someone loves you! It’s a great way to let people know that you care about them and how much they impacted you right before the end of camp. Bermuda Triangle was our DJ for the day, keeping us dancing with melodious songs. Valhalla hosted the marriage booth. So many marriages, so much love!  LCH hosted pillow jousting and Chateau Fiasco had sumo wrestling so that we could have some active fun – and work up an appetite for more food! Avalon and Fiddler’s Green kept us cooled off with their dunk booth and slip-n-slide, while Wombles had a truly fun moon bounce. French Quarter painted our faces, Down Under held a jelly bean counting contest, and the Burrow had us changing our names. Halley’s Comet led us around on pony rides, and we even had a horse drawn cart! By the end of the day, we were a married, name-changed, horse-ridden, paint-wearing tuckered out crew!

To wrap up fair day, we had a massive slide show. We got to see all sorts of funny and awesome photos from the past month. We also got to see what HVC looks like in the winter, and I can now tell you that it is spectacularly beautiful covered in snow. Then, we saw the last segment of HVC T.V., where campers investigated office staff, wheel mysteries, and a ukelele class. The slide show was a great way to recap everything that’s happened over the past several weeks!

Tonight, we’ll have a final dance, this one outside by the gazebo. It’s sure to be a jolly time!

Check out the photos of Matilda and Birthday Day and of course, stay posted for more tomorrow!

Lady of the Lake

Hello all! Lady of the Lake here, with news about more performances and our amazing lazy day today!

Last night was Sharing Night, where campers in all different classes showed off what they’ve been working on for the past two weeks. There was highly talented cheer and tumbling to start us off on the right foot (and at some points, no feet at all!). Of course, there was plenty of spectacular dance performances throughout the night, too. We were privy to a tap dance to Thriller, complete with the dancers dressed up as pink zombies. We saw spunky jazz, sleek modern, and graceful ballet. In addition, we saw (and participated in!) exercise dance classes like Zumba and Aerobic Dance. Those classes got the entire Rec Hall up and dancing away to the contagious music.

We also heard quite the amazing selection of music. The ukelele class treated us to splendid renditions of both I’m Yours, by Jason Mraz, and You and I by Ingrid Michaelson. The HVC band, an experimental musical crew, performed a skit with jungle noises and spooky carnival noises. The Songwriting class, announcing that their band name was “We’re Awesome, Whatever,” performed their new song, “I’m a Carnivore.”

Our video classes (and Community) all showed off incredible cinematographic and editing skills, including a clay-mation video!  An archery class even joined in with an exciting video of their own.

We also had some other very notable performances last night. Blind art demonstrated their blind artistic abilities with blind face painting. Theater games hosted a zany dinner party improv game that incorporated members from the audience. That sure got all of camp involved! Campers from the creative writing class, with bongos to accompany them, read out poems about all sorts of crazy and thoughtful things – our ropes director, llamas, counselors, and thinking about your words. Liquid Smoke, arguably the most mysterious class on camp, gave an elusive look into their class. We got zero answers, and now have so many more questions!  We also had knittin’ with kittens, which modeled their knitted designs – including a sweater vest and cape – on the cutest models of all – kittens!

Really, it was such a fabulous night of performance and art, wackiness and entertainment.

Today, we had a birthday party themed lazy day for the older half and roller skating for the younger half. The birthday party had all sorts of festive celebratory activities, including a photo booth, karaoke to lots of great pop tunes, birthday basketball and tag, party hat creating and decorating, and perhaps the biggest hit of all, cookie decorating. We all got to partake in one big, massive, birthday party on this fine day!

There will be more news and pictures to come of the birthday party and rollerskating, in addition to pictures from tonight’s performance, the musical!

Soon, everyone will be headed to enjoy some relaxing time in the sun at pool activities. Be sure to check back in tomorrow and take a look at all the pictures from yesterday!

Later,

Lady of the Lake

Heyo guys! Lady of the Lake here on the last day of classes!

Yesterday during interest groups, we had the soccer game, where both campers and counselors played on mixed teams! To celebrate this monumentous event, there was an extra special snack of hotdogs. Then, the game began! It was an extremely close match – the World Cup has nothing on the Hidden Valley soccer players! In the very final moments, the colored team pulled ahead with a goal, snatching the win. It was so amazing to see all of camp out cheering for their cabin-mates on the field. There wasn’t a quiet moment the entire game! The whole experience was just so, so much fun for all.

Last night, after a superbly fantastic meal of hamburgers, fries, and arguably the best veggie burgers in the world, we had the first of our closing performances – the play. The play, Alice in Wonderland, was unbelievable. The campers starred in their various roles – as the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, Alice and Alyse, The Cheshire Cat, and all the other fabulous roles. The campers performed flawlessly, and it was incredible to see the culmination of all the hard work they’ve been doing since the beginning of camp. Not only was the acting phenomenal, but the sets and costumes were also fantastic. Backstage ninjas, which was a class campers could take, made the incredible props and backdrop. Their hard work sure paid off. The set was absolutely gorgeous. There were hundreds of flowers in the garden and flamingos for the Queen to play croquet with. Everyone in the audience was utterly spellbound.

After the play, the middle and older half cabins were treated to a secret dance! Our D.J. blasted one amazing tune after the next. Everyone was up and dancing, truly enjoying one of our last nights together. It was the best dance of the summer because everyone was so excited for it. There’s nothing like thinking you’re getting dismissed for bed and then having music blare over the sound system. Of course a new bedtime was announced after it was all over, and the cabins walked back to their cabins with contented sighs. It was the perfect end to a perfect night.

Today is dress in the dark day! Campers and counselors alike are sporting all sorts of zany, ridiculous outfits. We’ve seen shoes on backwards, miss-matched socks, bright neon clothing paired with other even more colorful and patterned clothing. It’s great that we’re dressed in such an odd, funky manner to commemorate the last day of classes!

That’s the news for now – check out the awesome photos, and of course be sure to check back tomorrow for news on sharing night (which is tonight) and the last trip / lazy day (tomorrow)!

Yours,

Lady of the Lake

Pancake bar at breakfast!

Hello Hidden Valley Friends! Olive Oyl here with some news just for you!

We started off this beautiful morning right with a delicious pancake breakfast complete with fresh blueberry sauce! Yum! We had a pretty silly morning meeting after breakfast, with Loons performing some Crazy Creek chariot races for Spirit Animal, and the Dynamos doing their best Moose impressions.

Now that we’re all fueled on pancake-y goodness, we’re ready to head into the home stretch of our amazing classes! We’ve had an awesome bunch of new classes these past two weeks, such Zumba, Extreme Art, and Liquid Smoke. Our Zumba group doesn’t only bust a move during class, but last two weeks they even got the whole camp to get up and move during sharing night! We can only hope for more funky dancing next sharing night, which is tomorrow night! Extreme Art has also been getting their hands dirty with some crazy stuff around camp. They did splatter paint down the Tipi Zip and painted rock sculptures at the creek. They also used their hands and feet to paint a giant canvas, even doing cartwheels to make some art. Finally, they did some geometric face painting using masking tape. Liquid Smoke is a mysterious new class where the campers complete a series of puzzles all to determine what the whole class is about, which will be revealed on the final day. So far, they’ve done a giant sudoku puzzle (see pictures from yesterday) and other logic and problem-solving puzzles as a group. We can’t wait to discover the true meaning of Liquid Smoke!

Some more details about yesterday…

After a busy day of roller skating and spy day activities, we enjoyed our classic lazy day fare of Mexican food, complete with guacamole, salsa, beef, cheese, and all the other fillings! Mmmm! We  then relaxed with two movie options last night. We played both Epic and The (Original) Parent Trap, so campers had a choice between a new animated adventure or an old classic. Also, our Korean campers went on a white water rafting trip and had a blast! Be sure to check out the photos.

As camp is winding down, we’ve been signing white books and reflecting on our incredible summer at Hidden Valley so far. We’ve really been able to foster a loving and nurturing community of campers, counselors, and staff. The basketball game the other day was an amazing moment of the community feel that we all share– passing around white books to sign goodbye notes and exchange contact information to stay in touch with our friends during the year. The end is near, but there’s still so much to experience– two more days of classes, another Trip/Lazy day, Fair Day, Packing Day and Closing Pine Grove. We can’t wait to make some more memories and take time to reflect on the amazing times that we’ve already had.

P.S.

Be sure to check in soon for a Community update!

Until we meet again,

Olive

PK’s secret tour

Greetings, Earthlings! Special Reporter Olive Oyl here with a special lazy day update!

First off, we had an exciting day yesterday afternoon with the Counselor-Camper Basketball game! We saw amazing effort and teamwork from both teams, and extra special athleticism (and outfits!) from Team X (the PDs). It was a close match, but the campers ended up the champions. Those not participating in the game were cheering and commentating. There were also massage trains on the bleachers and playing with the ducklings in their little play pool. It was also a special day at interest groups because all campers got white books. White books are perfect for decorating and recorded friends information and end of the summer notes.

After expending lots of energy in the basketball game we refueled on a delicious dinner of Korean food made by our very own Kae Kim, who oversees all of our Korean campers. Check out the pictures of delicious fried rice, chicken wings, beef, and veggies. We also celebrated Tyler’s birthday and had yummy cake. Our amazing dinner prepared us for an exciting evening of electives! We had a whole variety of activities going on, like a dance party, pool games, knock out, Tipi Zip, and of course, Capture the Flag. In terms of art, we had exploding clay, a splatter pain party, dream catchers, glass beads, and making origami earrings. For the foodies, we had a group at the pizza oven and a group making rice crispy treats. It was an awesome night and we all reconvened in the Rec Hall to share stories and join in on some songs like Baby Shark and The Farthest Field.

We slept in a little bit this morning and had a drift-through lazy breakfast of croissant sandwiches. The older half then left for Great Skates in Bangor for an amazing morning of roller skating (or blading!). Pros and beginners alike all had a great time skating around and having a snack at the roller rink. The younger half stayed on camp for Spy Day! The premise was that an unknown thief has stolen the French Toast recipe from the Dining Hall, so campers had to complete a series of challenges to get clues about the potential French Toast thief! They completed activities such as the human knot, water balloon attack, climbing the rock wall, name that tune, and the laser string challenge. The breakfast criminal will be revealed at evening meeting, but campers have already been speculating based on the clues that they earned!

It was a busy morning for all, but older half and younger half have joined together this afternoon for a relaxing few hours by the pool. On this beautiful sunny day they can choose to go for a dip, lounge and read, jam on guitar, or make friendship bracelets. They’ll also be a bunch of super pool activities later on like Capture the Flag, rock sculptures down at the creek, and Yoga in Wabanaki field. Tonight we’ll have a chilled out movie night and get a good night’s sleep to get ready for another busy day of classes tomorrow!

That’s all for now, be sure to check out all of the spectacular pictures!

Lots of Love,

Olive

ALIENS!

Hi all! Snoop Cat here with a brief update…

After waking up this morning to some chirping birds, I realized that today marks one week until the end of camp…! It is amazing to think about all the wondrous things that have happened over the past few weeks. Luckily, there is still a lot more to come. We are all still looking forward to seeing the play (Alice in Wonderland) and the musical (Matilda), participating in Sharing Night, perusing the art show, Fair Day, and more!

Peter and Meg spoke to all of camp today about the fact that the session will be coming to a close soon. They talked about what to expect regarding feelings about leaving this amazing place and these amazing people. Peter has also come to the shift meetings to speak with counselors more in depth about the end of the session and went over counseling strategies that are most applicable during this upcoming week. We have created an astoundingly welcoming and cohesive community here at HVC this summer. It is so heartwarming to look at all that we have accomplished over just a few short weeks, and we are all excited to end camp on such a high note!

Now, I’ll hand it over to Lady of the Lake!

Lady of the Lake here!

First off, a huge congratulations to all the campers who participated in the Portland Spelling Bee yesterday where different camps in Maine competed against each other. We have a talented bunch of spellers here at HVC! In fact, one of our impressive teams won the Younger Half division of the Spelling Bee. Our trophy will be proudly displayed in the office, so thanks guys for the new, shiny decoration!

As if breakfast and lunch yesterday weren’t absolutely amazing, we had a delicious spaghetti feast last night. There were rich meatballs and delicate pasta sauces, along with traditional parmesan cheese. And let’s not forget the zesty garlic bread we had! It was the perfect meal to fuel us all for our adventurous evening program.

Last night was our Space Dance! The dance was an absolute blast. Our DJs played one amazing space jam after the next, and everyone was busting their best intergalactic moves. The campers couldn’t not dance – the music was that contagious. At one point, an outrageous and spirited conga line paraded through the Rec hall.

Outside the Rec Hall, campers participated in fantastic space journey activities. They space face painted with Ace in all different styles. Campers sported colorful, bright, and Space-y designs on their faces. At the basketball court, campers played rousing games of space jam basketball. In the Hilton Dance studio, kids had an exciting moonwalking competition. Kids showed off those amazing space dancing skills back off in the Rec Hall, too. On the Rec Hall field, campers played the always lovely field game, Man from Mars. Continuing the Space theme, there was Ring Around the Planet, our intergalactic version of traditional hula-hooping. Kids danced around vigorously with the hula hoops to the delightful space jams.

We couldn’t have a Space Dance without searching for extraterrestrial life. Many campers chose to create their own space accessories and then search for aliens. They found many intriguing creatures throughout space! The star attraction (no pun intended) of the night was the Lunar Landing Tractor Rides, where campers explored an exciting universe from the back of a tractor.

We also celebrated the end of raininess at the dance by painting puddles in bright and sunny colors, which definitely add some fun to our paths. Which brings me to the exciting news of the day – the sun is out! We sang a celebratory round of Here Comes the Sun this morning to appreciate the glorious weather. There’s no better weather to take a dip in the lake, go mountain biking, make a marvelous piece of art, rehearse for a show, or play in a basketball game…

Today is the camper-counselor basketball game during Interest Groups! Campers have been practicing for this day in their basketball team class for the past three weeks, and they are ready to show off their basketball skills! Interest Groups will all happen near the basketball court, where we will all be cheering on the players. We even have a commentator, so it’s sure to be a humorous occasion for all. Who knows what will happen today at the court!

We were also treated to a delightful morning meeting today, where Loons campers presented a particularly hilarious spirit animal of the day. Each day, Loons campers summon the spirit of something – like their goofy counselors, or the wailing donkeys. Today, the campers summoned the spirit of Bud, the man who instructed counselors in van driving during staff training. The campers imitated his signature voice and catch phrases perfectly, and the entire camp was laughing hysterically. What a great way to start the day!

Well, that’s the news for now.

Later,

Lady of the Lake

Chateau Slumber Party

Hey there, friends! Special Reporter Olive Oyl here with some HVC news for you!

First off, it’s time for a Junk Food Day Recap! For breakfast we started off with a vast selection of donuts, like oreo, boston creme, and chocolate glazed. We also had pop tarts and special cereals like fruit loops. For lunch we feasted on loaded hot dogs, cheetos and oreos, and of course our extra special PB & J bar complete with marshmallow fluff. For dinner we had both tomato and cheese ravioli, bread sticks, and salad. Dinner would not be complete without the sundae bar for desert, featuring hot fudge, caramel, strawberry sauce, sprinkles, and cherries.

After our gluttonous dinner we headed off for Cabin Night (oh what a night!). Despite the schvitz, which we haven’t had here at HVC since the fourth of July, cabins were all over camp doing a ton of fun activities. Wombles was in the Woodshop making a plaque for their cabin and Avalon was doing an Egg Drop, where they discovered a magical egg that didn’t break even after some tough campers. LCH was making pizza at the pizza oven while Loons had a musical tractor ride. Bermuda Triangle had a relaxing movie night and Chateau Fiasco had a slumber party complete with lots of games of mafia. Wabanaki had a gentlemen’s evening playing poker and card games and Forbidden Planet made a clay godzilla with the help of Dan our pottery man. For our lovely ladies of Hidden Valley, we had Down Under and The Burrow playing games with Camelot in the Old Dance Studio. Paquatahnee made dream catchers using branches, string, and beads. French Quarter also explored their artsy side doing some tie-dye. Fiddler’s Green had a spa night complete with cucumbers, manicures, and pedicures. Shangri-La made tiles in glass fusing and Valhalla and Halley’s Comet teamed up to play games in the barn library. Finally, Taj Mahal made a mosaic. It was an awesome night of creativity, cabin bonding, and tactfully avoiding the schvitz! Hard to believe, but it was our last cabin night until our cabin activity on packing day. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!

While camp may be coming to a close soon, we have so many exciting things to look forward to. Bermuda Triangle has been organizing cabin versus cabin soccer tournaments during rest period and interest groups. These have been super fun and also good practice for the camper versus counselor tournament coming up tomorrow! We’ll have a special snack and activities all going on by the soccer field. We also have the basketball game coming up soon, where both counselors and campers will show off their b-ball skills!

We had a very special group of campers leave early this morning to travel out to Portland for a Maine camp-wide spelling bee! They’ve been practicing for the past week or so during Interest Group and are ready to show off their fabulous spelling prowess!

Tonight’s evening program is bound to be out of this world with the Space Dance! There will be galactic games, cosmic crafts, and lots of extraterrestrial energy. We can’t wait to explore our spacey side! We’ll be making decorations during interest groups in preparation.

Well, that’s all for now, folks! Be sure to check out the awesome photos of cabin night, junk food day, and blind art class!

So long,

Olive

It’s Junk Food Day! We woke up this morning to a breakfast of donuts, pop tarts, and sugary cereals. We can’t wait to see what food the next meals bring!

The Wheel is still on everyone’s mind, particularly the gory ending. I forgot to mention yesterday that the Mayor had his heart ripped out by his wife. Oof!

After pool activities ended yesterday, we gathered up for evening meeting, where we heard the results of the cabin inspections. In the Younger Half, a dragon and his knight searched for the dirtiest cabin to burn down. During their search, they discovered that LCH was the cabin to demolish. But the knight couldn’t let the dragon do so, and struck the dragon down. For the older half, a Princess decided that Deer Meadows was the scariest, while Taj was the most indifferent. Fiddler’s Green won cleanest for the Younger Half, and Halley’s Comet won cleanest for the Older.

We headed into the dining hall for a delicious meal of pizza. There were so many options to choose from, like veggie pizza, pesto and tortellini pizza, and various meat pizzas. Then there was delicious watermelon for dessert.

With our stomachs warm and full, we had Valley Fest! There were 32 acts that performed, and all were truly amazing. There were instrumental performances – a fiddler’s tune on the violin, a guitar rendition of Wild Horses, a flute performance, a classical violin performance, and a juggling drums performance (the two campers traded off juggling and playing with the bowling pins). There were also musical performances that involved singing – we heard A Thousand Years, Ho Hey accompanied by the ukelele, Anyone Else But You (also on with the ukelele), Royals, Someone Like You, Blowin’ in the Wind, This Love, Brave, You and I, I’ve Got Confidence, All of Me, and Let it Be. We also had campers perform dances – one to Rolling in the Deep and another to Waka Waka. We were all amazed by the talent in HVC, and can’t wait to see more performances from these folks over the next week and a half.

After the delightful night, we climbed into bed where we dozed off to the lovely sounds of schvitz. And that brings us to now, Junk Food Day and the 4th day of classes.

Be sure to check out the awesome pictures of Gross Day activities and Valley Fest!

Until next time,

Lady of the Lake

Hey friends! Lady of the Lake here, with more news than you can imagine! The camper in the photo above said the magic word – read on to find out what in the world we are talking about.

Immediately after evening meeting last night, the Wheel festivities began. The night we had all been waiting for was finally upon us. We had an extremely fitting Thanksgiving feast to start the night off right, complete with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and of course, pumpkin pie.

I say that the meal was fitting because as we approached the area outside the Rec Hall, where the Wheel took place, we entered a 17th century village. Farm animals trailed villagers carrying eggs and flowers, and a donkey carried more supplies. A preacher stood on the roof of the Pottery Studio, reading out the words of The Bible. Two villagers stood on the roof of the Rec Hall tossing paint filled water balloons down on us. One villager was tied up. Fear and suspense filled the air as we waited to enter the Rec Hall. Finally, the guards let us in, and we entered the Town Hall of Hidden Valley Township, where the mayor and his wife greeted us. Witches were among us, they announced, and they had to be tried. Welcome to the Salem Witch Trials, Hidden Valley Wheel of Misfortune edition.

It was time to Spin the Wheel. Peter let out Gruesome, the monster that chooses participants for Wheel activities. Gruesome selected 7 souls to be the jury for the trials. There were four witches to be tried. The first was tried for having flaming red hair. When the mayor spotted another counselor with hair just as red, he ordered for her execution as well. The two were taken outside with the executioner and brutally murdered outside the Rec Hall window. (I’ll take the time to note now that though this wheel had scary aspects, there were many moments of comic relief intertwined to keep us all laughing and in high spirits. Up was also playing in the Red Barn, for those who decided to forgo the Wheel.)

Naturally, we next had to search the brains of the witches. Gruesome selected more campers to do the searching. The campers looked through the brains (really messy concoctions of spaghetti and other foods) until they found seeds of evil in them. They raced, and the losers all got to have a chance at a Wheel Prize. Each participant had a choice from two oddly titled envelopes (titles included “A Second Candy Drop?” and “Poop,” among other things). Peter opened the chosen envelope, and read the prize if there was one enclosed. Sample prizes included having a counselor serenade a cabin before bed, having a counselor lifeguard during rest period, and having a counselor dye a streak of their hair. Cabins will collect their wheel prizes over the following two weeks of camp. Some campers said the magic word, and they were immediately pied.

A townsman then came to announce the news of the witches death. He had the facts a little wrong (he thought she’d been convicted of having blue hair), so he was immediately pied.

The trials then continued. The next witch was tried for dancing with the spirits up at Pine Grove. Her husband spoke out, and he too was convicted for being disloyal. The two were taken outback and executed. Then, those of us in the HVC Township had to prove our loyalty. Gruesome picked pairs of campers to come up. One camper created a horrid drink, and the other drank it. The first to finish the fluids won. Their pair sat down. The losers, unsurprisingly, had a chance at Wheel prizes.

At around this point in the night, we in the Town Hall witnessed the Mayor’s wife creating her own magical potion. Her husband stormed in, and she announced that the witches had cursed her and forced her to make the potion. The trials, of course, had to go on.

The evening continued, as the final two witches were convicted and executed. Campers had to complete various other tasks, like sibling tooth flossing and eating a hot dog off a string. After each execution, the townsman tried to announce the deaths. Each time, he was pied. The final time, the poor townsman’s head was shaved. The Mayor and his wife ran a tight ship in Salem!

But the magic continued after all the witches were dead. Who was behind this mischief? The Mayor’s wife, of course. The executioner seized her, and deemed that she had to be set on fire. We headed outside to the back of the Rec Hall, where the graves of the previous witches lay. We lit the head of the Mayor’s wife on fire, and watched her burn. (Ok, in reality we lit her witch hat on fire and then dumped water on her to put out the fire.) The reign of terror was over, and with it, so was the Wheel.

We gathered up and then headed off to bed, ready to get a good night’s sleep before today’s Trip / Lazy Day. Not to worry, there are loads of pictures of the Wheel to help you visualize the insane craziness of last night.

We woke up today refreshed and ready to go. The older half headed off to go Glow Bowling, where they got to bowl in a glow in the dark atmosphere, while the Younger Half stayed on camp to have Gross Day. On the trip, campers had a blast getting to show off their unique bowling techniques and having massive sing-a-longs on the bus. Back at Gross Day, campers could paint their face and sculpt their hair with shaving cream, investigate a mystery box, go down a slip-n-slide, experiment with mentos and fizzy drinks, play with slime balloons, have a colored water dunk, take a go at a gross obstacle course, or play paint twister. The campers sure were dirty when the activities ended! For those campers who preferred to remain un-gross, we had Tranquility at Meg’s Planet. There, kids could read a book, hang out with friends, play some music, or make friendship bracelets.

We all regrouped together for lunch, and then had rest period. Pool activities are ongoing right now, and the Parent Trap is showing in the Rec Hall. It’s been, and will continue to be, a great Trip / Lazy Day, especially because we have Valley Fest tonight! Valley Fest is the camper talent show, and we have over 30 acts coming our way.

Be sure to check out the photos from the Wheel and Glow Bowling. There are more photos to come of Gross Day and other events happening around camp, so stay posted.

Over and out,

Lady of the Lake