Hi Island Lake Families! Today was Counselor Switch Day, one of our Island Lake special theme days that our campers truly enjoy. At breakfast, male counselors were moved to the girls’ bunks and female counselors to the boys’ bunks. The kids have a blast with this day as they dress up their counselors and terrorize them. You’ll see lots of pics posted with our daily photos. Gotta love camp!
I’m happy to report that our campers, staff, and I have all returned safely from our big teen trip to Montreal. We pulled into camp last night around 10:30pm. I, for one, am happy to be back home in the 18462 to enjoy our final few days with everyone here at camp. I apologize that the blog didn’t get posted last night but hopefully today’s blog will make up for it all.
The Canada trip was a fantastic experience for everyone! Our participating campers had the most FANTASTIC four days of their lives! The kids got along very well with one another and followed directions better than I could have hoped for (well, for the most part, lol!). We had perfect weather every day and the kids stayed busy, day and night. Feel free to read through the past few days’ blogs to see all of the touristy attractions we hit up days 1 through 3 of this trip.
Yesterday morning of our 4th and final day, we checked out of our hotel and went directly to the Olympic Park. There we rode to the top of the Montreal Tower to check out a great view of the city. After that we went to the Planetarium and saw 2 really cool movies, one about asteroids and the other about Mars. Sitting on beanbags, watching a movie on an all-surrounding sphere-shaped screen was pretty gnarly. After the planetarium we visited the Biodome where we walked through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas.
Finally, once we completed our tour of the Olympic Park, we boarded the buses and headed back to our home away from home here in Starrucca, PA. The border was surprisingly an easy, pleasant experience in both directions and it didn’t take long for us to pass through going to and from Canada. We returned to camp last night at 10:30pm in the rain, which seems to happen to us frequently. Regardless, we returned to camp with the same number of campers we left with so I’d say it was a successful trip overall! (Wink Wink!)
Back here in the land of ILC, yesterday was our Lazy Day and we hosted a big carnival for our campers. We had an outside company bring in a ton of rides and games. Here’s a list of all that the kids enjoyed: Inflatable Pool Castle, Sno-Kone machine, Bungee Run, 3 Lane Sports Obstacle Course, Rock Slide Interactive Game, Whirly Bird Mechanical Ride, Gravity Ball Game, Frog Hop, Horse Shoe, Ring Toss, Tip A Jug, and a Dunk Tank. We also surprised our campers with a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream truck, which was a hug hit for a hot summer day.
Today in the world of sports, our 8th & 9th grade girls competed in the Wayne County tennis finals. Unfortunately, we lost 3-2, but we are extremely proud of our girls. They worked hard, they played hard, and they should be pleased by their accomplishments. Out of all of the girls who competed in this tennis tournament throughout the numerous camps involved, our girls are the special ones who made it this far into the finals. It was a very close competition up until the bitter end so we’re very happy for our Island Lakers. This afternoon our 8th & 9th grade boys played in a basketball game here at home against another nearby camp.
There have been lots of challenges going on this past week with the Camp of Thrones. Departments have been taking over their neighbors and challenging others in their determination to rule the camp. More info will come tomorrow when the game finally comes to a close.
Step right up because tonight’s evening activity is the Circus Show! We’re looking forward to our 3rd and final circus show to see all that our campers have learned over the course of the session (and entire summer for many of our participating campers). We know it’ll be the best show on earth!
Enjoy the variety of photos below from our super rad, awesome, fantastic, amazing trip to Canada. We have even more photos posted on CampMinder via our website so definitely go and take a look.
Until tomorrow, which will be our last day of majors and minors (tear!), ILCUTHERE!
