Hey there, ladies and gents! Olive Oyl here with your HVC scoop! Despite the morning schvitz, it’s only smiling faces here at camp, where we had a hilarious morning meeting with lots of goofy moments. It’s Dress in the Dark Day, so counselors and campers came to breakfast decked out in their most ridiculous outfits. There were inside out shorts, backwards jackets, underwear as hats, and mismatched shoes…no where else on earth could fashion choices like this be as applauded. Meg showcased her perfect pickle, complete with chanting from the crowd, which will sadly end its life this afternoon as it will be eaten at interest groups. We also cashed in on a Wheel of Misfortune prize, which is Stephen the counselor dressing up as Frodo from Lord of the Rings (his celebrity look-a-like) for the day, with script in hand willing and able to act out scenes at any given moment. This prize is sure to provide lots of entertainment for the day!

Before this morning’s silly meeting, we had a very epic evening meeting last night, complete with Wheel prizes, mad science, and gifts. We honored our five year campers, counselors, and staff with the HVC classic five year vests, all warm and fleecy and ready to be broken in. This special group was thanked for their contributions to camp and urged to spread Hidden Valley’s values of friendship, community, and love to the world outside of camp. We also acknowledged our eight week campers with comfy and cozy Hidden Valley sweatshirts, which will surely come in handy as these August nights become chillier. In addition to these sentimental moments, there was also lots of fun, like the spud gun, which is a contraption made to shoot potatoes into the sky…it was awesome! Everyone turned to view the spud works and watched potatoes fly in the sky! We saw even more things shoot in the air, with the mad science class demonstrating the Diet Coke and Mentos phenomenon, which created a giant fountain of foam! Mad science also showed us alka seltzer rockets, which popped up and created quite a fizz! Last but not least in our epic meeting was Taj Mahal’s Wheel of Misfortune prize of waxing Rob the counselor’s legs. The girls warmed up the wax and showed no mercy as they not-so-gently stripped Rob of his bushy forests of leg hair.

As camp begins to wind down, we’ve started many end of camp traditions, like the soccer game, which took place yesterday afternoon. It was a close game, with counselor-camper mixed teams, ending with a score of 5 to 4. There was lots of hustle and teamwork on the field, and of course HVC goofiness, like two of our counselors accidentally scoring in the opposite team’s goal. The crowd was energetic and supportive, doing the wave and cheering from the sidelines. We also had a commentator, who provided athletic insights and interviewed players. And how could I forgot the special soccer game snack? We enjoyed hot dogs and of course Blue Sky to wash it all down.

Last night’s evening program was cabin night, where cabins have the chance to spend time with each other and have tons of fun! LCH went on a hike up to the log cabin and Avalon did a slip and slide on Tipi Hill. Loons was also atop Tipi Hill, enjoying a bird’s eye view from he zip line. Gimme Shelter had a goodbye party for a cabin mate complete with hot chocolate. Chateau Fiasco had a paint party outside and also sipped on hot cocoa. Treasure Island went into nearby Belfast for ice cream. Atlantis had a Pancake Race, where the cabin was split up into teams and were given fire kits, grills, and pancake ingredients and were competing to see who could make a pancake first, meaning that they had to make both the fire and the pancake mix from scratch. It was a tough competition, but the slow and steady team did in fact win the race. Forbidden Planet had a Pyro-night, where they made sculptures out of clay, twigs, tin foil, and other found objects, and then blasted them with a giant torch! Awesome! The girls also got down and dirty, with Down Under splatter painting and making s’mores by the fire. French Quarter went on a scavenger hunt and finished with a swim in the pool and a campfire. Paquatahnee went for a swim in the lake and camped out under the stars and were greeted with breakfast by their counselors this morning. Shangri-La went on a photo scavenger hunt, where they took photos of memorable spots on camp that will be sent home later on in the year when we’re all feeling camp-sick. The Shangri-ladies ended the night with banana boats at Tipi Village. Valhalla made cookies and Halley’s comet made smoothies and had a dance party and toilet paper fashion show. Camelot went on a creek walk and made s’mores by the fire and Fiddler’s Green baked cookies. Lastly but not leastly, Taj stuck with the classic and made s’mores by the fire.

Be sure to check out HVC podcast’s fourth video:

and of course lovely photos:

Forever yours,
Olive