Good afternoon, ladies and gents! Olive Oyl here with your lazy day update!

First off, last night was another amazing cabin night, oh what a night! Avalon had a water balloon fight and made s’mores and Loons also had some food and fun, with Capture the Flag and hot cocoa. Wombles hopped on the s’mores bandwagon with a hike and then some fireside treats by the Log Cabin. Lower Carriage House had an evening atop Tipi Hill, hanging out with the Tipis campers and enjoying the scenery from up above. Chateau Fiasco had a mystery evening and cookout. They received a clue at dinner, then dressed up in camouflage to hunt down the PDs, who had “stolen” various items. Once they found all the clues they had the materials to make brownies! Yum! Bermuda Triangle did Tipi Zip art, using water balloons  and paint to make a beautiful masterpiece from up in the trees. Forbidden Planet had a “pancake race” where they were split up into four teams and received matches, a log, and birch bark. They then had four minutes to search for more items to make a fire. Once their fires were set, they whipped up some pancakes! Awesome! On the girls’ side, the Burrow made a music video and s’mores and Down Under did a scavenger hunt and splatter painting down at the Tree House. French Quarter was in the glass studio with Gabe working on a beautiful mural for their cabin and Paquatahnee went on a scavenger hunt all over camp. Shangri-La tie-dyed t-shirts and Camelot made s’mores pizza in the pizza oven. Valhalla had a similar idea with desert pizza in the snack shack and Fiddler’s Green made glass beads. Taj Mahal made clay tiles of various shapes to string together for a collaborative cabin art piece. Finally, our teen programs, Alive! and Adventures joined together for a contra dance in the Rec Hall, complete with a live band! Adventures got back from their trip yesterday and they had a blast! More details and photos to come tomorrow.

It’s been an awesome day so far for both the older and younger half. Our younger folks left after breakfast this morning for a fun day at nearby Lake St. George. There’ll be swimming, relaxing by the water, frisbee, soccer, friendship bracelets, and other usual camp staples. They’ll also enjoy a delicious picnic lunch before they head back to camp for a super cabin clean and rest period.

The older half had a pretty exciting morning with a super cabin clean and then 90s Nick Day! There were a whole variety of themed activities, like Slime Time Live in the dunk tank and Dexter’s Lab, where they did mad science like oobleck on speakers and diet coke and mentos. We also had scary monster mask making, Family Feud trivia, and a Legend of the Hidden Temple/CatDog race. Finally, we had recess games like Spud and Kickball and ice block sledding down Tipi Hill. It was a ton of nostalgic fun. Our older half cabins enjoyed some lunch and are now having a nice, long rest period before they head over to pool activities, where they can cool off and take a dip, or just hang out by the water and write letters home, play magic, or jam on instruments.

After chowing down on many a slice of pizza this evening, all of camp will be reunited for movie night! It’s sure to be a fun and relaxing way to wind down this spectacular trip and lazy day.

Be sure to check out all the cool photos from cabin night and 90s Nick Day!

Over and out,

Olive

Meg and Tom’s bagel Sunday dulcimer tradition

Hey folks!

To start us off, we have an exciting Alive update! On August 1st, Alive participated in Belfast Statue night! Dressed as Greek Gods and other mythological beings, the Alive campers were positioned in groups of three along main street where members of the Belfast community engaged with the living statues. After successfully holding their poses for almost an hour, Alive enjoyed some delicious ice cream from the Cool Spot!

Yesterday’s dinner was the culmination of Junk Food Day. We had yummy calzone-like pasta and homemade well-seasoned breadsticks. We also had delicious sautéed string beans. Desert was the real cherry on the ice cream, if you will. Seriously – we had ice cream sundaes.

To get our sundaes, we all sat outside the dining hall and competed in different little contests – like making the best grumpy face and whistling the best. If a cabin won the contest, they had to enter the dining hall as a certain animal (i.e. a bunny, duck, or giraffe). Inside the dining hall, we were given cups with vanilla ice cream, and then could put chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, marshmallow fluff, whipped cream, sprinkles, and of course, cherries on top. What an amazing dessert!

After, we headed to the Rec Hall for a Winter in August dance! In addition to some seasonal tunes playing in the Rec Hall, there was much to do in the surrounding area as well. We built snow people out of cardboard, painted our faces to match the theme, played Freeze tag, sang songs together, and of course had a game of basketball going. Inside the dance, folks were jamming all over the place busting incredible moves and just having an all around great time. By the end, we were the perfect combination of content and tuckered out.

This morning’s camp meeting was one for the books. We have quirky traditions at meeting everyday. For instance, in morning meeting, we have Thought Dejour, where campers from Taj Mahal come up and share an inspirational thought. When Peter announces Thought Dejour, everyone in camp starts belting out one or the other of the Thought Dejour theme songs, and it always turns into an epic battle. We also have another cabin announce the funny made up word of the day. At evening meeting, we have the Gurus of Uselessness, who are campers from Forbidden who announce an utterly useless fact. In the evening, we also have Iron Chef, where we have two bizarre tasters test out the food that our campers create during their cooking class based on one ingredient. This morning, our Spirit Animal of the day (which is another funny announcement at meeting) summoned the spirit of the Iron Chef tasters. Their impersonation was spot on and hilarious. And no meeting is really complete without the occasional friendly kitten wandering in!  Spirit Animal always ends our morning meeting, and in the evening, Peter ends our meeting with the words, “Brice, Redwood on deck.” Those are our first two dinner groups. We have six, and all are named after different national parks. Each consecutive dinner group has another syllable. Taj announces the groups, and that’s how we get our dinners!

Well, that’s all for now!

Fondly,

Lady of the Lake

Candy drop!

Yesterday, right as evening meeting started, a plane flew pretty low by camp… and that can only mean one thing… CANDY DROP!

More details to come later this morning! For now, let’s just appreciate how magical it is for candy to fall from the sky onto a crowd of super excited campers…

Check back soon!

Snoop Cat

Hi world! Lady of the Lake here with another batch of HVC news.

Yesterday, after lunch and rest period, the younger half headed off to their own pool activities, while the older half hit up the Bangor State Fair. At the fair, campers headed off in small groups to experience the amazing rides and treats offered. There were rides that went high into the air, upside down, and spun at incredible speeds. Among the many delectable snacks, there were fried Oreos, cotton candy, fries, corn dogs, and lemonade. In addition to the numerous rides and snacks, there was an agricultural center and many animals to view. Campers and counselors alike had an absolute blast.

Once we reconvened at camp, we had a fantastic taco bar. We could smother our tacos with perfectly sizzled ground meet, moist refried beans, fresh tomatoes and cheese, home-made guacamole and salsa, and corn. For dessert, we had superbly delicious churros, a camp favorite.

After the feast, we had a special guest performer, the magician Peter Boie! Peter Boie has been coming to camp for many years, and his act is always a hit with the kids. Earlier in the day, a few cabins took part in workshops with Peter Boie. They got to ask questions and even learned a few tricks of the trade. Last night, he did all sorts of crazy acts, including escaping from a straight jacket! He got loads of people from the audience involved, too. We were all totally wowed by the end.

This morning, we had a particularly exciting morning meeting. We had one of our staff members get pied in the face. Remember the scavenger hunt at electives a few nights back? Well, the winner of that got to pie a staff member. It was pretty funny for all of us to see.

Right now, we’re all at classes enjoying the spectacular weather. Speaking of classes, I’m going to tell you all about some other amazing classes we are offering these two weeks.

One is a 2d art class, taught by two of our very own program directors, Hilary and Shannon. Their class, which is offered to the older half only, experiments with different mediums, like pencil, charcoal, watercolor, and pastels, and different techniques, like shading and perspective. The kids are working on a final piece with a theme, like nature or people. We can’t wait to see their work in the final art show.

Other awesome classes we are offering are a latin fusion dance class and an aerobics class. The campers in those classes are really getting to groove!

We also have a Harry Potter cooking class these two weeks. If campers have ever wanted to taste what the wizards of Hogwarts were eating, they get to now! For those craving a yummy treat, we also have an ice cream making class. They’re getting to make all sorts of flavors.

There’s blind art this session, where campers are creating masterpieces without using their eyes. Their work is always quite humorous. We also have painting without paint, where kids get to paint with anything but paint. They’ve used tools like ketchup and oil. Who knows what they’ll do next. We even have a music video class, where campers who like both making videos and music get to shine.

It’s a great time to be a camper here at HVC, that’s for sure.

More news to come later about tonight’s evening program, the Staff Talent Show.

Later,

Lady of the Lake

Check out the gallery below of Alive! getting ready for Belfast Statue Night. Tonight the group will head into Belfast to act as human statues as a form of live art. Awesome!