Campers had a great full first day at sleep away camp! Campers woke up at 7:15, got ready to go, and headed to breakfast for a delicious meal of eggs and potatoes. Meals are family-style at sleep away camp–it’s a great opportunity to learn everyone’s names! Thus energized by a good breakfast, campers headed back to their cabins to do a quick cleanup and get ready for their day. We met on the green after cabin cleanup to start our day with some fun traditional camp songs, including “Tarzan”, “Little Red Wagon,” and Counselor Krista’s very own invented song “Jello!”
We then split up into two groups–the older campers headed down to do a low ropes teambuilding circuit, while the younger campers attempted to conquer Director Jen’s maze. It took a lot of working together and communicating to make it all the way through the teambuilding challenges embedded in the maze! Campers, split into their cabin groups, had to make it through a “minefield” of cones without touching any of the mines with their feet, they had to help each other through “tunnels” made of tarps, they had to figure out how to flip a “raft” tarp while standing on it, and they had to direct each other through the robot challenge! It was tough, but every group managed to make it through, and all of them were very excited to explain to Director Jen how they beat her maze. 🙂
Meanwhile, the older campers worked together in their cabin groups to do the low ropes teambuilding challenges; campers had to all stand on a pair of giant wooden skis and make them move, they attempted to swing over the “peanut butter pit” while holding a bucket of rocks, they helped each other climb through a giant tire, and they attempted to all stand on a box only one square meter wide! The older campers really enjoyed working through the challenges, and found it very interesting that different people found different challenges to be harder or easier. After conquering the low ropes teambuilding circuit and the maze, everyone headed to lunch!
We ate some yummy veggie pizza for lunch–Grizzly Jack’s, our dining hall, was full of chatter as the younger and older campers compared notes on their morning teambuilding activities. We then retired to our cabins for a well-earned rest hour (campers relaxed, wrote letters home, read, or took showers) and then headed to the delightful hot springs pool for an afternoon swim! After a quick swim screen, just to make sure that everyone was safe in the water, campers had fun hanging in the pool. We played pool volleyball, pool basketball, and showed off our best dives, flips and other board tricks. Even the directors went off the diving board!
After swim time, we changed into clean clothes and retired to the gym and game room for some relaxing free time. Campers had a chance to make their very own gorp (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, with some goldfish, dried apples, almonds, and other delicious healthy snack foods added for variety!) for snack, and enjoyed some air hockey and ping pong in the game room and some games of HORSE and Knock-Out on the basketball court. We then headed to dinner, which was a fun buffet of hot dogs and hamburgers, before heading up to the Opera House for a Dutch Auction! In their cabin groups, campers got a chance to make skits to perform for the whole group. Check out the photos (at photos.aocamps.com, password in your camp account) of the one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eaters and the world’s best Q-tips! We closed the day with a lovely acapella rendition of “Day Is Done,” and campers headed back to their cabins to discuss their cabin codes of living and get ready for bed. Lights were out by 9:15, with everyone asleep in order to be ready for tomorrow’s awesome day of the game predator/prey and horseback riding!