Two early morning departures shrunk our community from 250 to 150 in 48 hours. Our youngest campers, Archers, Explorers and Woodsmen left our dock at about 7:00am Saturday. Their time on Johns flew by – many of the people gathered to see them off kept remarking “I can’t believe they’re leaving already!” Friday night the Islanders hosted a campfire with a Wizard of Oz theme in their honor. The Mountaineers made the Explorers and Woodsmen honorary members of their ‘Wolf pack’ and the Troubadors wrote a song to all the younger camps, to the melody of “Part of Your World” from the Little Mermaid. It was a wonderful gathering for all of us.
This morning the four oldest units, Mountaineers, Troubadors, Islanders and Wayfarers left on their 5-day Big Trips. Two groups headed to the Cascades for alpine hiking and moutaineering – leaving the property by 5:30am. The bike trip will be touring the three major San Juan Islands. They were boated over to San Juan Island at 9:00am. The kayaks, Hunt Canoes and Lightnings will be navigating around the San Juans, staying overnight at some of our beautiful marine parks. The Lightnings left the beach at 9:00am. The remaining waterfront trips waited for favorable currents and were on their way by 11:00am. The forecast for this week is for mostly sunny days in the high 60’s low 70’s – perfect weather for all the trips. They will return to camp Thursday afternoon before dinner.
Their departure leaves six units on the property. The Foresters and Voyageurs become the oldest campers on site, Rangers and Mariners become the youngest, with the Pioneers and Vagabonds filling in the middle. The Pioneers took advance of a leadership opportunity by hosting Chapel this morning. The topic was “Sharing”. They led us in singing “One Tin Soldier” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”. They asked Units to come up with their definition or description of Sharing: Foresters – to push the boundaries of ownership; Rangers – (acronym) S-haring, H-appiness, A-lways doing it, R-espect, I-magination, N-on exclusive, G-reat people; Mariners – letting people borrow your things, sharing your time with others; Vagabonds – generosity of one’s knowledge, property and love; Voyageurs – giving or splitting a value/item for the other person or people’s benefit.
Highlights from last week include:
- our second all-camp overnight – much warmer weather and lots of star gazing;
- two dances – one with the Pioneers, Rangers, Vagabonds and Voyageurs and the other with Archers, Explorers and Woodsmen;
- some very serious crafting by all units in the craftshop
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Just back from Sunday inspections. There is time after breakfast and before the first activity of the day for everyone to go back to their units to clean up. On Sunday everyone does a ‘deep clean’, emptying trash cans, filling water cans (fire fighting preparation) and cleaning around the unit. Departments also tidy up and prepare for the upcoming week. The units are inspected that day and passing units enjoy a rare treat on Johns – an ice cream sandwich! I don’t know the results yet, as not all the inspectors have completed their rounds but I am very optimistic that everyone will pass with flying colors.
Prior to going out for inspections we enjoyed our Sunday midday meal at 1:00pm, which was immediately followed by our Sunday Musicale, an open mike type gathering where campers and staff perform for the entire camp. Today we were entertained by various vocalists, a pianist, several guitarist, and a great performance on a Diabolo Yoyo!
Now (5:30pm) all the units are out enjoying some relaxing time together and sharing a light bag-lunch dinner. Then it’s back to evening activities – an all camp game of Capture the Flag!
This week we will celebrate Nell Robinson Day on Tuesday, in honor of the woman who owned this property for several decades, raised sheep and enjoyed her solitude. Our third overnight will be Wednesday and then we prepare for the return of Big Trip campers and staff – oh how the lodge will vibrate at Thursday night dinner.
More next Sunday…