Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Back but still recuperating


Chase and I have been back from our week at Adventure Cove since last Friday, but it's only now that I'm finally finding time to write about it. Bear with me, as it was a LONG week and this is bound to be an equally long post.

We went to camp on Sunday. There were 4 boys and 4 parents (I LOVE that our parents are so involved!!!). 3 of the parents were women - myself, my dear friend Tammy (who has done every camp with me since we started scouting together 4 years ago!) and Thea (who has never camped before and didn't think she was missing out on much). Then we had the lone dad, Ron, who is an avid camper and saved our rear end with little touches like a blow torch (to start fires using wet wood in the rain - trust me this was a life saver!) and a covered canopy to huddle under. Here's a quick pic of us girls (this is 3 days into the trip):


Anyways, we arrived on Sunday to the steady pitter patter of rain. And it continued to rain for the first 2 days. Not any fun at all, let me tell you. The boys were sleeping in BSA issue canvas platform tents. Ugh. Drippy and wet. Us girls weren't fairing much better, but at least we were zipped up in a tent. Needless to say, the first few days were somewhat miserable. If it had continued to rain like that none of us would have made it through camp. It's just no fun in the rain, especially when the idea of camp is to be outside.

Thankfully, mother nature cut us a break and the weather cleared on Tuesday. We were finally able to spend some time at the beach and outside doing activities. Wednesday was an even better day and we began to appreciate the beauty of it all - the private beach, the sun setting behind the cape, the forested campsites. It was all just gorgeous.

Thursday and Friday were absolutely spectacular days. It was uncharacteristically warm and mild and the winds had died down. We spent over 3 hours on the beach our last day and we would have gladly spent more time there if we were able.

The four kids (L to R in the photo) -- Jack, Cameron, Chase and Ty -- were part of the Nestucca patrol and had lots of fun doing their activities. Among other things, they got to tie-dye their camp t-shirts,
disect owl pellets (he found this vole skull), build a sandcastle (aptly named Fort Nestucca), shoot BB gun and archery,

and take a nighttime hike on the beach.

On our last night in camp they had this awesome bonfire ceremony. It was so touching. They had each patrol sign a log and then put the log in the bonfire. After they had done that the adults were called forward to recite the scout oath. Then only the adults who had attained Eagle rank were asked to stay. Out of 50-60 adults and staff members, only 8 had attained Eagle. I will never forget how they said "Will you be one of the many who don't achieve Eagle or will you be one of the few who do?" It's hard to put into words how something like that can affect a young boy, but it affected Chase. That night we talked about it and he was entiredly dedicated to achieving Eagle.
Another great part of camp was visiting the nearby Boy Scout camp, Camp Merriwether. This really helped us gear up for shift into Boy Scouts in February. We got to see some of the really neat things they do there - shooting black powder rifles, shotguns, 22's, blacksmithing, hatchet throwing, rock wall climbing, swimming, canoeing, rowing and all sorts of other neat activities. Chase came out of there so psyched about all the neat things he would be able to learn about in Boy Scouts.

Not only did Chase have a good time, but I did too. At least, I did after the rain let up. Tammy and I always have such a great time together. Add Thea, who has a wicked sense of humor, and us girls laughed out heads off. Case in point - here's Thea as Kenny from South Park.
Now, not only did we have fun and laugh a lot, but we also were able to wind down and read. So each night we'd crawl in out tent and use our flashlights to read. I finished my first book, one by my favorite author Elizabeth Lowell, and then started on the much-awaited Harry Potter book. Besides that, we found time to go to the activities with the boys and take some walks on the beach. I even chased the seagulls a little! LOL

But one of the most fun parts for me was BB. They were having a contest to see who could score the highest number of points in a 5-BB round of shots. Each day the person with the highest score (one adult and one scout) would get to wear the "golden BB" necklace around camp. I didn't try the first day but decided to give it a shot the 2nd day. I did fairly well, if I do say so myself. I shot 39 (out of 50) on my round and had 3 9's on the targe - just millimeters shy of the 10 point bullseye mark, which is the exact size of a BB.

I won the high score for the day and I had lots of fun wearing the golden BB around camp. The scouts were all amazed that a girl had the high BB score and the super-competative male adult leaders would make comments about how they were going to win it. Then they'd spend all their free time at the BB range trying to beat my score. Well, try as they might it couldn't be done. I had the highest score of the entire week and walked away with the golden BB. The rangemaster even did a ceremony and bowed to me. Even the competative guys clapped and cheered for me. It was quite a moment.


I have to say that there's a sense of achievement here. It's exciting to beat all the guys and gives me a little boost of self esteem. But best of all, Chase was SO proud of me. I love that!

Friday came quickly and with that the end of camp. It was so much fun and we made so many wonderful memories. I'll leave you one of my favorite photos from camp, all my Den 2 boys working together to push a log along the beach.

4 comments:

Catherine said...

Sounds like a really fun experience! And way to shoot!

Carolyn F said...

Sounds like a great time was had by all!

Jim said...

Brings back memories. Glad you had a good time. I'm sure its something Chase will cherish for the rest of his life.

Bro

Anita said...

Wow! You GO, girl! Way to go on that golden BB.