So, my blog has been a little quiet for the past couple days and that is because I was on a camping trip with some of the kids from camp. I love camping and I love getting out in the outdoors even more than we do on the campus, so when they asked me to go on the trip I was happy to get out of here for a couple days. This particular trip happened to be with a great group of campers, but I am sure that any of the trips that we run would be fun to go on.
This trip was to Boothbay Harbor and the surrounding area. Now, when I say that we were camping, this is pretty posh camping in that we stay at a nice campground with most of the amenities you could ask for. There was a lake where they had all kinds of water toys and craft for rental, showers, bathrooms, pool, hot-tubs, store, snack-bar, laundromat, the works. This is car-camping at it’s finest, which is fine with me, but I think that it is important to mention that we were not doing any hiking and real hardcore camping. We did sleep in tents though and cook meals over the fire and eat outside.
For some of us (namely those of us over the age of 15), there were many points of interest on this excursion. We got to do things like go fishing on the Miss Boothbay, a small fishing boat that leaves from Pier 8 every couple hours to take people mackerel fishing. Unfortunately, my shift on the boat didn’t catch any fish, but we had fun, and it was a lot cooler out on the water than it was walking around town. Fortunately for the second group that went fishing they actually caught something, so we ended up with nine fish to have for dinner. This did make my personal fish tally on these trips a big fat zero.
We also spent our first afternoon out there at the lake in the campground. We rented a bunch of water toys like kayaks and water-tricycles. I think the kids enjoyed this, I know that I certainly did. Beating the heat of the day on the lake was a lot of fun. This was followed, of course, by the obligatory lobster dinner at the lobster pier. While I am not a lobster person, fresh fish is always good and most of the kids seem to really enjoy the lobster.
The real highlight for the boys though, was crusing for girls at the campground. This was one of those big campgrounds where people stay for the whole summer or for extended periods of time, so there are a lot of people there. I was actually very impressed at the success rate that our boys had. Within the first evening we were there they managed to make some strong connections with a number of young ladies. I don’t think that we went on any trips like this when I was a camper, and besides, I went to a co-ed camp so all of our trips were co-ed anyway. To tell the truth, I don’t think that I ever really went cruising for girls like these boys did. Probably because I thought that I was the awkward, dorky, geeky kid that wasn’t “hot” or something like that. The strange thing is that part of me, I think, was a little jealous of these boys that they could do this and be successful. Not that I am looking for girls, I have a wonderful girlfriend, more that it is something that I never really did for whatever the reason.
Needless to say, with hormones running rampant, I managed to stumble over at least two of our campers “making out” with girls from the campground. Personally, I don’t care and I left them to their own business, most of the time not even acknowledging them. Boys should be boys, and it isn’t like they are not doing the same thing at camp! In fact I bet some of them are worse at camp.
The boys managed to invite and receive a fair number of young ladies at our campfire on our second night of camping. While I tended the fire the boys made and shared s’mores with the girls and everyone sat around and chatted (and probably sucked some face). I don’t think that any of our boys actually snuck out at night to go visit any of the girls, which is something that I totally would have done when I was a camper (actually, I did…). I mean, at least at the campground it wasn’t a two mile walk like it is at camp! Though I have to say, if any of our boys actually walked the four mile round trip from IA to FA and back to visit a girl at night, I would let them because you have to be determined if you are going to spend an hour walking in the middle of the night!
It is just so interesting to watch these kids, especially the ones that I have developed rapports with over the past couple years. It is funny when kids ask me for advice because I never knew what to do, and it is also interesting to just watch what they do. It seems to work, and then they get embarrassed and don’t want you to talk about it, but when you get back to camp, everyone knows what was going on during the trip before you even get back to your cabin. It is great to be young!
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And by-the-by, my postcard offer still stands. I picked up some new postcards on the trip, so if you write to me, you will get one!
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