Good morning, Sunshines!! Humming Bird here with Cat Nap, bright eyed and bushy tailed! We’ve been up for a few hours already here, because it’s DEPARTURE DAY!! We were woken up this morning by the melodious stylings of our very own Taj Mahal and Forbidden Planet campers and counselors! Among the noises heard at the bright hour of 4:45– along with Taj and Forbidden’s singing– was a siren. What siren? Why, the siren of our ’54 firetruck, of course! We’ve got some staff working really hard to revive the age-old truck, and this siren is just the first success they’ve achieved in their revival! Stay tuned for more firetruck news in the future!

Anyway, we’ve all been up and at ’em since 4:45 this morning! What could we possibly have been doing during all this time?? Well, we got dressed and did final cabin sweeps, removing all our belongings before we left for the last time as cabin groups! We enjoyed the continental breakfast provided by our bright-eyed kitchen staff, and headed out to the front yard to send off our first bus! The bus left full of campers as we lined Camp Road and did the Funky Chicken!! By 7:00 both the New York buses were well on their way back home, sent off– once again– by our Funky Chicken-ing! It was a truly beautiful sight, so check out the pictures below! The buses are all gone, which now leaves just our campers who are being picked up! Check out pictures of what some of these campers are up to!

Now for a recap of last night’s activities!

We have SO MANY Lobster Banquet pictures for you all! It was a beautiful, bountiful feast on Maine’s Finest! Each cabin was served by one of their beautiful counselors, so we all got to just sit back, relax, and destroy enjoy our lobsters! And then afterwards it was Ben and Jerry’s time!! I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!!!!!!! And we did scream… our ears are still ringing from all the screaming for ice cream!! Check out pictures of the MADNESS and MAYHEM and FABULOUSNESS that was our lobster banquet last night!!

After the bountiful feast we gave a standing ovation to our incredible kitchen staff, who have been preparing our meals for the last two months, and who have worked incredibly hard early mornings and late nights to make sure we all walked out of the dining hall with happy tummies three times every day! The kitchen staff was headed up by their fearless leaders, Chris and Lillian, who have been unbelievably generous with their time and talent this summer. They all deserved our rounds of applause, and we are so grateful for everything they’ve done for us over the course of this summer! Thank you so much!

When the applause died down and the kitchen staff had taken their final bow, we filed out of the dining hall, bug spray-ed up, and met again at the bottom of Tipi Hill! We walked up to Pinegrove in silence together, holding hands, led by our flaming torch. There were some wonderful acts, and a really beautiful candle lighting ceremony, so we all got to say goodbye to every camper, counselor and AWAC. We don’t bring cameras up to Pinegrove, so we don’t have any pictures to show you of the night, but trust us when we tell you, it was truly magical.

Right now our staff are taking down the camp and preparing it for the rest of the year, until next summer. We’re taking down every tent, and hunkering down all our buildings to prepare for the unthinkable– snow!! Tomorrow we’ll have pictures for you of the winter preparations, so stay tuned!

For now, Cat Nap and I are off to secure the llamas! I hope they don’t mind a cat and a bird in their pen… We’ll see!

Chirp, Hum, Meow,

Humming Bird and Cat Nap