It’s the Hi-Ups who started the first full day of camp today by ringing the rising bell at 8am sharp. This gives all the campers 30 minutes to get dressed, clean their cabin a bit, and make it to the dining hall for breakfast, which today was oatmeal with all the fixings (e.g., toppings of brown sugar, walnuts, blueberries, and dried cranberries), sliced South Carolina peaches, and orange juice, along with our usual fruit, yogurt and cereal bar. After a few brief announcements and a quick stop at the Infirmary if they take daily morning medicine or vitamins, the girls were off and running to their first period activities. This is quite a sight with small groups of girls heading out in different directions, some dressed for horseback riding in long pants and boots, others in bathing suits ready to work on kayaking at the lake, and others with water bottles preparing to go on a hike out to Rockbrook Falls. There was a group of Middlers meeting at Hiker’s Rock to go rock climbing on Castle Rock with Katherine and Tara, a group of Seniors learning how to knit, and a group of Juniors headed down to riflery for their first experience shooting a real gun.
Between first and second period we have our “muffin break,” a time when everyone (literally at times!) runs to the dining hall porch to have one of Liz’s freshly baked muffins. It’s the talk of the camp to find out what flavor muffin Liz (the camp baker) has made that day. Today’s? Sugar Spice, and they were awesome! We all look forward to the surprise of muffin break each day.
Also this morning, the CA girls and their counselors went hiking with Jeff to John Rock in the Pisgah Forest. In addition to reaching the summit of the rock, there was a second goal to achieve— picking the secret theme for this session’s banquet, the big party the CA girls plan for the whole camp. It’s a big deal to pick the theme because it affects the food served, the music, decorations, costumes, skits, and dance numbers that might be included. The CAs work all session preparing for the banquet, so having everyone excited and invested in the theme is crucial. When we reached the top of the rock, and were enjoying the amazing view of Looking Glass Rock from up there, the theme was set. You’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to find out what it is! 😉
The weather helped this afternoon by providing a nice cooling rain shower just at the start of rest hour. Rest hour is just that, an hour after lunch when everyone heads back to their cabins to rest. This might mean just reading in your bunk, or writing letters home, but for a surprising number of campers (and counselors!) it’s a chance to take a real nap. It’s really wonderful, and you might think that there would be complaining about having to take this time out, but the girls really do look forward to it… maybe because we stay so active at camp.
More dancing, swimming and making things (really cool pottery vases, for example) completed the afternoon camp activities, and cabin skits got everyone laughing down each Line’s evening program. It really was a full day at camp today. Be sure to check the photo gallery. We’ve got new stuff up there everyday.
