Cheers to a splendid summer!
Hello hello!! Humming Bird here with updates about what we’ve been up to here in the Valley! After a beautiful Fair Day yesterday, we enjoyed a super fun performance by our Rock Band classes! They played an amazing set, including Twist and Shout and Party in the USA! Everyone was up and dancing, and signing white books, and bringing our summer to a lovely close. Check out photos from the whole day and evening!
This morning we awoke a half hour later than usual, for PACKING DAY! The kitchen staff served us some DELICIOUS cinnamon buns, which we devoured passionately with our cabin mates!! On this warm, sunny packing day, we’ve been running about, packing our things, taking our cubbies and mattresses out of the cabins, sweeping the cabins, finding missing socks and things under our beds, putting our cubbies and mattresses back in our cabins, labeling all our bags, moving all our stuff, and generally turning everything upside down so that we can make sure everything gets back to the appropriate locations and states and countries, to be reunited with our campers after they arrive at their destinations. (WHEW!)
In order to make this happen, everyone on camp worked REALLY SUPER DUPER HARD this morning to sort through the knick-knacks and chachkies that have accumulated over the last month, and we were all rewarded with a delicious mac ‘n cheese and buffalo chicken wings lunch! Thanks, Chris and Lillian! After lunch we all enjoyed our final cabin activities. These short activities– like compliment circles, tipi zip line, hikes, and memory jars– are a nice way to close out the session, and prepare campers for their departure tomorrow.
Tonight we will gather as a camp in the dining hall, seated around our normal tables… only, this won’t be a normal dinner– not by a long shot! This dinner will be more of a banquet… a lobster banquet! Tables will be dressed with tablecloths, mussels, appetizer salad, bread, and potatoes. And rather than our usual buffet-style lineup, campers will be served their dinner by a counselor (don’t say your counselors never do anything for ya, kids!)
What ever might our counselors be serving?? Why, LOBSTER OF COURSE! (Or spanakopita, chicken parmesan, or an allergy-appropriate alternative!) Don’t worry folks, for those of our campers and staff who are allergic to shellfish, we have a separate table that takes into account all relevant allergies! Your campers will not go hungry! After the lobster, we’ll bang on our tables until Meg comes out with…. BEN AND JERRY’S!!!! I sure hope they have Americone Dream!! I love that crunchy cream!! Stay tuned for photos of our feast!!
Once we’ve all finished dinner and scooped the last of the ice cream from the pints, we’ll gather at the bottom of Tipi Hill one last time this session. On the silent walk up the hill to the pine grove, we’ll contemplate the beautiful month we’ve just spent here at camp. Some cabins or individual campers might sing a song around the fire, and we’ll all bask in each other’s company on our final night of first session in the Valley. We’ll have our candle line, in which every camper will have the opportunity to say goodbye to every other camper. This tradition provides an amazing opportunity to get some closure after a busy month. Through the tears and sadness, there is always hope for the next summer here in this special place.
We’ll have more photos and updates tomorrow for you all, as the buses and planes take off and eventually arrive. Stay tuned for more on the lobster banquet and departure day. We’ll be up bright and early at 5:00 AM tomorrow, so stick with us to hear our progress throughout the morning!
Until then, I’m going to go make sure the lobster is all set and ready to go… and maybe I’ll check on the ice cream, too… and maybe I’ll try to steal some… we shall see!
Humming Along,
Humming Bird