Oh what a beauuutiful MOOOOOOOOORRRNING!! Oh what a beautifu– Oh, hi! I didn’t see you there! I was just practicing my showtunes! Humming Bird here with updates on a lovely– albeit unplanned– night last night!! BUT FIRST!!! The Official Humming Bird Cat Nap Candy Drop Probability O’Meter is buzzing in at a solid 23.57%!! We shall see.
As we said yesterday, last night’s planned evening program was Meg’s Rodeo, which would have been super duper fun, but the thunderschvitz had other, more impromptu plans for us here at camp! So instead, our cabins enjoyed a spontaneous cabin night! Our campers and counselors had some very creative spur of the moment ideas for how to spend their night! For example, Forbidden Planet played poker, Valhalla played strategy games, Shangri-La had a spa party, Taj Mahal played team building games, Gimme Shelter did some “Epic Gambling” (minus the gambling of course!) Loons taught one of their counselors to play Magic the Gathering, Fiddlers Green played cards and did a spa night, and many cabins practiced their cabin cheers!! The schvitz TRIED to ruin our night, BUT CAMP FUN WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL!! Check out pictures below!
Now you may be wondering, “Humming Bird, what’s a cabin cheer?” Well allow me to explain!! Each cabin comes up with a cheer– an upbeat way to express pride and excitement regarding their cabin, their cabin mates, and their time at Hidden Valley! These cheers are performed and recorded on JAKE DAY! “What on this beautiful green and blue Earth is Jake Day, Humming Bird??” BE PATIENT, I’LL TELL YOU!! Jake Day is a wonderful day here at camp when our video staff record EVERY. SINGLE. CABIN. ON. CAMP. performing their cabin cheers, and then going through and saying their names! These recordings are compiled on a digital yearbook, which gets burned onto a CD and mailed to every single camper sometime in December!! It’s a really cool tradition that provides campers with a little piece of camp to keep with them forever! So thank you, Jake Day, and our HVC Video Staff!!! **Jake is the name of the counselor who used to run this day on camp, and he was in charge of video here. He has unfortunately since left Hidden Valley to create videos elsewhere, but his legacy at camp lives on in Jake Day!
While we patiently await Saturday’s Jake Day festivities, we have some exciting things going on at camp! Tonight is our very first ELECTIVES!! Counselors line up and explain what activities they will be leading (like Glass Beads, Peter’s Forbidden Hidden Valley Tour, a Random Parade, and of course the classic Capture the Flag!) and how many campers they can take. Campers then walk very slowly and respectfully (they definitely DON’T all run and swarm the counselors, trying to make it to their chosen elective first) to the counselors leading their preferred activity, and enjoy partaking of the aforementioned activities for the evening! It’s a super fun program, so check back in tomorrow for photo evidence of it!!
Meanwhile, our teen programs are doing some super duper cool stuff!! The apprentices are working on individual projects within their respectives areas, like stained glass, pottery, glass beads, instrument making, and horses! They are also spending lots of time learning from local artists, like the man who built most of the stone walls on camp, and– tomorrow– a local glassblower! They have also been cooking their own meals up at Blodgett! When asked for a quote, their counselor had this to say about the Apprentices, “They’re very busy.”
Alive is going to Portland tonight to see The Decemberists (in July… WHAT?) They’ve been kept busy with some crazy evening programs, including an Infomercial Battle!! Cat Nap and I did some extensive research on this program, and discovered that it entails making up a product, creating a jingle for that product, and performing the jingle for a panel of judges! The Alive counselors were unable to provide a quote, but you can see from the photo below, it looks like the campers are having a superb time!
Cat Nap and I have to go do an anti-schvitz dance! Tune back in tomorrow for pictures of our Electives!!
Chirp, Hum, Meow,
Humming Bird and Cat Nap