Greetings on this beautiful sunny day!! Humming Bird here with TONS of updates on our INSANE last 24 hours!!
Last night we enjoyed a beautiful turkey dinner, provided by our wonderful kitchen staff! There was turkey with gravy, and cranberry sauce and stuffing– if I wasn’t at camp, I’d think it was November!!
After dinner, our evening program was THE WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE!!! Our counselors put together an elaborate show for us!! Campers arrived outside the Rec Hall, only to find COMPLETE AND UTTER MAYHEM!!! There were counselors on the roofs of the Pottery Studio, the Hilton Bathroom and even the Rec Hall itself!! Counselors dressed in wild Island attire lobbed water balloons and hose water from off the buildings, while cannibals roamed around on the ground, hissing at campers who dared to cross their path!! Our thoroughly soaked and enthusiastic campers entered the Rec Hall to find 7 people asleep on the wilderness-inspired stage, waiting to share their elaborate spectacle!! The premise was as follows:
7 lucky contestants were chosen to compete on a televised game show, which took place on Cannon Ball Island– but the contestants had no idea they were competing, let alone that their actions would be recorded and aired to Hidden Valley Camp! Also unbeknownst to the contestants, evil cannibals inhabited this particular island, patiently awaiting the moment they could strike! Our contestants steadily turned against one another and one by one, they began to disappear, until only one was left, and her complete and utter rage at the television executives– not only for their morbid manipulation, but also for their “grand cash prize” of a mere $12.01!!– led her to run screaming after them into the night!
In between the death’s of our poor 7 contestants, Peter led our “commercial breaks” from the show, calling campers up (with help from the loathsome Gruesome) to perform INSANE tasks onstage! Campers were delightedly horrified to participate in classic competitions like the Dirty Diaper Challenge, the Sibling Floss, the Human Statue, the Watermelon-Rubber Band challenge, and– ironically the least repulsive game involved in the Wheel– Spit! Campers who won these absurd challenges got to sit back down, while those who lost stayed on stage and had the chance to receive a prize from counselors for their cabins! Some prizes included giving counselors a makeover, waxing a counselor’s chest hair, and the opportunity to “wash” a counselor’s hair with any substance in front of the whole camp at Evening Meeting!! More prizes await cabins that didn’t get the chance to win something last night! And of course, the wheel wouldn’t have been complete without LOTS AND LOTS OF PIES TO THE FACE!! Campers and counselors alike were walloped with whipped cream, pounded with pudding, and terrorized with tin pans!! No one was safe from the AWACs with pies!!!
After our winning contestant chased the TV executives out of the rec hall, the whole camp followed them outside to watch as our archery staff shot flaming arrows to try and catch the villains!! (Only wooden cut outs of them!!) And when that didn’t work, Peter set fire to the ringleader’s head!! (Campers were, of course, seated at a safe distance away from the very controlled flame, which was put out almost immediately after it was set!) And don’t worry, parents! Any children who were afraid of the Wheel were provided supervised refuge from the pandemonium, under the Grape Arbor in Meg’s Planet! Check out the ridiculous antics we had going on in the photos below!!
After a wild and energetic night, today we are enjoying a Trip/Lazy day!! The WHOLE ENTIRE CAMP (!!!) went to see the Minions Movie at the Colonial Theater in Belfast today! We settled into our 5 buses (labeled 1-4, and of course, Bob) and were on our way after a hearty breakfast to our 10:00 matinee of the movie, for which we had the entire theater reserved! We laughed and cried with the Minions, enjoying our popcorn and Blue Sky sodas, and we all cheered at the end for the excellent movie! Now we are back on camp, and enjoying a relaxing poolside afternoon! Tonight we will all settle in for Valley Fest, Hidden Valley’s very own talent show! And what talent we are lucky enough to have here!! We are scheduled to watch almost 40 talented performances tonight, so stay tuned to see if your camper was featured in our show!!
I’m off to practice my scales before Valley Fest starts!
Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do,
Humming Bird