The final Monday of the camping season has come and gone and it was a day bittersweetness for the staff and new adventures for the campers. None of us can believe that the summer is almost over! It feels like yesterday that we were all in staff training gearing up for the arrival of first session campers! I guess this is the best example of the expression, “Time flies when you are having fun.” J

            Today was a busy day for everyone, especially since the weather was so gorgeous. It was breezy, sunny, and mild, and everyone wanted to take advantage of it by being outside as much as possible with some creative and unique activities. H8 spent a portion of the afternoon harvesting herbs in the camp garden, and H1 and H7 spent their last block of the day stargazing.  P2 went on an arrowhead hunt on Santa Claus Island, and H5 and P3 went “deep sea diving”, more commonly known as bay swimming. Also fairly new activities, P5 went paddleboarding and H3 had a camouflage lesson complete with face paint!

            Even though this is one of our bigger sessions, (about 190 campers!) we still always have room for all the campers to participate in classic camp activities that we have become known for. Some times, that may mean combining two activities into one, like H13 and H6 who had some kids kayaking while the others sailed, and vice versa. APF got to know eachother this morning by playing icebreaker games and lashing at their site during the first block of the day. And P4 did the same later in the day, as they built teamwork skills and got to know each other during a fire building competition.

            In other areas around camp, like the craft shop, H11 made dream catchers and H9 glazed terracotta pots. At the pool, P6 did a monk swim. At the waterfront, H2 caught fiddler crabs to feed to the resident turtles and P1 went on a sunset boat ride. At the high ropes course, H4 went on the swing. And in the rec hall, a place that rarely sees campers, P7 listened to scary stories.

            My personal favorite activity that went on today was a dessert cookout made at the brand new fire pit at my shelter by H10! The fire pit was made as a service to camp by the adventure pathfinders and I was so excited to see it get used for the first time tonight. It was the best Mexican S’more (s’more in a tortilla with peanut butter)  that I have ever eaten.

            It has been a pleasure blogging for you this summer! Until next summer friends,

            Emma

Ah two week sessions, my favorite sessions, with crazy Sundays, more time to get to know campers, and most important, Sailing Pathfinders.  Every afternoon during two week sessions, the Sailing Pathfinders - otherwise known as SPF's - flock to the beach and learn the ancient craft of sailing.  They brave the high seas of the Rehoboth Bay, along with its many creatures and jellyfish, battle the days when there is too much wind and when there is no wind, and at night, hear the word IRONS ringing in their ears.

Being an SPF alumna, I remember the first few days of sailing as capsizing, nearly getting stuck in the marsh, and wondering what I was doing.  So, to save some confusion and capsizing, I have tried to morph the sailing program into a more show-and-tell teaching style, as well as using candy to gain the short summer-time attention spans.  The first day of fourth session had winds around 18mph and more white caps than I’d want to sail with on a Sunfish, so the SPFs sailed two boats at a time and I went out on the jet ski to coach the new sailors through their first tack (turning the boat around).  A few days later, the wind was almost as strong as the first day, so we held a rigging-sailing around a buoy-unrigging competition.  Once everyone felt comfortable on catamarans, the waterfront staff and SPFs sailed across the bay to what we call Treasure Island.  The next day the pathfinders mastered our biggest boat, the Hobie 16, that has two sails, a ton of ropes, and is buckets of fun.

 Unfortunately, our last day with the SPFs is rainy and thundery, but Maddie and I hope that they have taken away a lot from these past two weeks and will use their new sailing skills for a long time.

Peace, love, and IRONS

Becca