That is yours truly in the chilly waters of Maine at "Two Lights" on Cape Elizabeth.

Yes friends, that is how I spent my day off today.  After a week of hot and sweaty weather, Ruth an I jumped in the truck and headed for Cape Elizabeth for some scuba diving.  This is certainly the way to beat the heat, with the water temperature dropping as low as 55˚F at our deepest depth of 32 feet.  It is a little chilly at first, then you get used to it, and then later on you start to feel cold, but it sure was better than being out in the hot and muggy weather!

We had a very successful dive day today.  We visited a different dive shop than where we went last week and they were much nicer and friendlier.  We will probably visit them again for our future diving needs while we are here in Maine.  The whole experience in their shop was better and I think that it set a much better tone for the rest of the day.

When we got to the dive site we saw another pair of divers who were just coming back in.  One of them was dragging what appeared to be a pretty old boat anchor crusted in barnacles and such.  It was actually pretty impressive that this guy had lugged it all the way back from wherever he found it.  It could not have been easy since it looked pretty heavy!  They told us the conditions were pretty good and we gave them a hand getting back up the beach to their car before we suited up to dive.

Everything about our dive day went really smoothly.  We got in and acclimated to the water, swam out and really had no issues getting down, equalized and on our way.  We saw a whole bunch of crabs of various varieties, a couple fish including what we thing was a flounder, but we didn’t see any lobster.  We saw lobster traps, but no lobster.  I suppose that leaves us something to look forward to on our next dive.

After returning the gear and returning to camp we pretty much did an about-face and headed off to dinner.  This was the first time this season that I went to the 302 for dinner and it was good.  We met up with some of the other staff there and then went to see Livingston Taylor in concert.  That was a lot of fun, he is a great performer.  I actually sang with him back in high-school at some concert in Newton.  It was fun to see him again years later!

So, a pretty good day off, very fun and very successful!

Summer in Maine (or anywhere in northern New England really).  This is the time to look out for moose.  Every summer at camp we have one intrepid staff member who comes to camp with the exclusive mission of seeing as many moose as possible in the eight weeks that we are at camp.  With the number of moose around where the camp is, one would think that this is not a hard thing to do.  In reality, it can be quite the challenge.

Last night was our first night off since staff week began (not that the powers that be really care what I am doing after dinner) so it was the first time that Mike could head out and go moosing.  I am not really sure if “moosing” is actually a real word, my spell-check doesn’t like it, but that seems to be the term that everyone uses when looking for moose.  Mike is also very particular about his moosing trips and goes out almost every night of camp, sometimes with campers and sometimes just with his family or a couple friends.  If other people see moose but not him, that is about the worst.  Las year I had about four or five sightings before he had his first….

One of the favorite spots for moosing is about ten minutes up the road from camp on one of the little Maine back-roads.  The road runs between some marsh-y land and and a river.  Right around dusk and just after dawn are the times to really get out to find some animals so we often leave on moosing excursions after dinner.  Up at this location there is even a little place to sit and look out over the fields than can keep you pretty well hidden.  It is usually an active spot, many people hang around there or show up there looking for moose.

So last night Mike took off with his family and left me back at camp.  I of course got on the phone and managed to swing a pickup to get out on the first night of moosing.  We drove around out there for over an hour without any sightings, and right around sunset I decided to make some art and shoot some barn and sunset photos.  After a couple more loops around the area, his family was starting to get hungry so we gave up and headed off to town so they could eat (I had eaten at camp).

As we headed towards North Conway we passed the Asst. Director of the camp who was out moosing with some other staff people.  Seconds after passing we got a phone call from him, wanted to know if we had seen any moose.  Well, you already know the answer to that question.  However, by the time we got to the restaurant we got another phone call and they informed us that they had seen three moose right where we were.  One right in the middle of the road where I had been shooting sunsets!  Twenty minutes!  I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

With that, the game is now on for the most moose sightings this summer and the best moose photos!

I have been talking about it for months, probably since the end of last summer, and now it is finally here.  ”What?” I hear you ask.  Camp.  I am back for my third summer at Indian and Forest Acres Camps in Fryeburg, Maine.  Indian Acres (IA) and Forest Acres (FA) are brother and sister camps separated by 2.2 miles and the Fryeburg Fairgrounds.  I blogged a little bit from camp last summer, so if you dig back through my archives you should be able to find a little bit.  Hopefully this summer, with my blog in a new (hopefully permanent) home I will have the time to blog more about the camp experience.

I have been a camp person all my life.  I started back in 1994 at Yavneh, a Jewish summer camp in New Hampshire.  I went there as a camper through 2000 and then in 2001 I went on their 6-week Israel program.  After that summer in Israel I headed off to work at Micah on the recommendation of my sister.  I spent three summers there and then took a 3-summer hiatus from camp.  After the Les Mis year at PTC I was able to return to camp, this time to IA/FA as they are owned by a friend of the family who asked me to come.  Needless to say, I love being back at camp, and I love being here.

We often talk about how the kids go home and spend nine months of the year waiting for the two that they spend here at camp.  This holds true not only for the kids but also for the real camp people like myself.  I love my real job, but there is nothing that compares to working at a summer camp.  I think that this is one of the most rewarding jobs that there is.  When you see kids get so excited about the things that they do at camp, the new activities they try or the friends they make and the fears that they master, there is no great feeling of pride than knowing that you helped get them there.  The real camp people are not in this for the money, we don’t really get much, it is the other rewards that make the job worthwhile.

When I arrive at camp I always feel like I haven’t left.  Almost everything seems to be exactly the way it was.  Unfortunately today, that meant the rain as well, but we are hoping that this summer will be a little drier than last.  The things that I left in my cabin are still there, other things that were left around camp are still around camp.  Some things probably shouldn’t have been left around camp but were…  Within minutes the old routines fall back into place, and life continues as if there hadn’t been a nine month break in the middle.

I think that summer camp, in some form, is something that every child should get to experience.  I know that camps like IA/FA and the camps that I attended are not always the most affordable summer solutions, but the benefits of camp on children is just amazing.  Seeing how much children grow and learn in eight weeks is amazing.  Then when you see those same kids come back year-after-year and you continue to watch them, it means even more.  There is so much that kids can take away from the experience.

So, I am here, gearing up for the summer.  I have some unpacking of my own stuff left to do and lots of other things to take care of around camp.  We have some time before the kids get here, but now that I am here, I know that the end will feel like it came so fast.  One day at a time and make the most of every day, that is the key to a great summer.