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Published: September 6th 2010
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What an incredible summer I’ve had!
To those of you who subscribe to my blog, I apologize that in the last day you have been swarmed with email alerts that I’ve been updating. I got tremendously behind on my blog while in Hawaii and then Alaska, then had a very busy summer (which you’ll discover in this entry). Now I’m travelling again so I needed to get caught up. Caught up I’ve done, but your inboxes had to be filled up in the process. Apologies for that.
I have been busy busy busy since I came home from the Spirit. After getting home, I had a couple days in Dunnville before I rushed to Toronto for a couple days of visits, then back again. I tour guided for a week, took a group of students to Niagara Falls. It was a lot of fun to get back on a bus again. Friends who started guiding with me many years ago can’t believe I still go back to run trips. But I love it.
I then had a couple more days of rushing around which included frantic planning, unpacking and packing . . . because then it was time
The Horseshoe Falls
While tour guiding in Niagara Falls for camp! This summer was my sixteenth summer back at camp. I can’t believe it’s possible that I’ve spent so many years going there. But I love it, obviously. My first night at camp, after I’d unpacked my clothes, lined up my theatre, dance and childrens books, made my bed and hung up photos on the wall, I sat down and looked around. I felt so satisfied. I was home. I spend more nights in that room at camp every summer than I do anywhere else. Add to that that the camp is literally minutes from my hometown, family and friends. It felt more like coming home than anything else.
It was a fantastic summer at camp. This summer I taught dance, musical theatre, theatre and musical theatre dance programs. I had so many phenomenal young people in my programs. We put on shows that I was proud of - and I hope they were too. Over the summers, directing program at camp, I’ve come to love the balance of working with young people and directing artistic pieces. This summer, I felt especially proud of the teaching I did. While the art forms I taught this summer are ones
The American Falls
While Tour Guiding in Niagara Falls I’ve done before, I took some different approaches and focuses with the programs. I was about to take visions and ideas that I had and communicate them to my groups. Regardless of how the final products turned out for the audiences to see, every day in program, I could see the campers growing, tying new things, taking risks, developing. I felt so satisfied in my teaching abilities. It all confirmed to me that the work I do in the summers is the work I’m meant to be doing long term.
In addition to the programs, there were the usual fun and wacky activities throughout the summer. I brought back Double Dare this year - a camp-adapted version of the 80s/90s kids television game show. And I introduced the camp to the new game show Minute To Win It as they competed in the physical challenges they’ve created for the show. In the last week of camp, I assisted another staff member in running the session’s cultural banquet - a Hawaiian luau. It was fun to bring the aloha spirit to camp for a night. There were other evening activities that other staff members ran that I was also a
Blue Butterfly!
Niagara Parks' Buttefly Conservatory, while tour guiding part of. One that stands out was a Glee night, based on the TV show, where I got to play Rachel and with other staff characters put on the final performance of the night. It was all so much fun.
The staff were phenomenal this year. The staff building where the program directors live in is called Fitz. There were so many different program directors this summer, with our highest turn over rate from session to session. I got to work with so many lovely people who are wonderfully gifted artists. I love the Fitz family.
After the last year spent on ships and often feeling frustrated with work, I just felt so happy to be doing work that I love. I did not want camp to end.
But end it did. The summer there went by so quickly!
On one of my days off from camp, my friend Dan and I spent a day in Niagara Falls. When I wrote my guide license to do that tour to the falls, I was given a bunch of passes to different Niagara attractions. So Dan and I decided to use them up. We did the aerocar over
On the Maid of the Mist
While tour guiding Niagara Falls the whirlpool. I’d only done the aerocar once and I was young when I did so it was fun to go again. Then we went to White Water Walk, which is a boardwalk down along the bottom of the river next to the rapids. I’d never done that before so I was eager to check it out. It was awesome. It is one thing to see the Niagara rapids from the top of the gorge and another to stand only feet away. That river is truly wild. By the white water walk, we also went into the Buddhist temple that is across the street. Neither of us knew anything about this one so we thought it would be interesting to see. It was beautiful. And amongst our crazy busy days at camp, it was nice to just stop and have a quiet moment. Later that day, we went right down by the falls. There, we saw a rainbow in the mist, which is pretty normal. But this rainbow was a complete arch from the river level, up and above the city and back down again to the river. I’d never seen anything like it. Our last activity we did was
Niagara’s Fury, a relatively new attraction. You watch a video about the creation of the falls, then go into a room with 360-degree screens, a moving floor and a room that snows, rains and blows wind at you as the falls are created. It was so much fun; we were laughing and squealing like little kids. That night was my cousin’s birthday. We had a surprised dinner for her and I brought Dan along. It was great to see most of the family and family friends - and of course to surprise the birthday girl.
When I was saying good bye to my aunt, I was saying how I’d need to see them again after camp ended. She mentioned that they were going to Darien Lake and I should go with them. When I got back to camp and looked at my schedule of post-camp, I decided that I wanted to go along. Darien Lake is an amusement park with a campground in New York State. I used to go there every summer when I was growing up - but it had been a decade since I’d been there! So, the day after camp ended, I drove with my
sister to the park and met the rest of the family there. I then had three days with family to enjoy. We rode the roller coasters and all of the little spinny rides that were my favourites when I was little. We spent one afternoon at the waterpark trying out what for me were new slides. I played midway games and won a stuffed animal to give to my baby cousin. I was spoiled with home made meals. On the second night, Brooks and Dunn were playing at the park’s amphitheatre and I went along with the family to see the show. The park was a lot of fun but it was even better getting to spend time with my extended family who I just don’t get to see enough of when I’m always traveling. I’m so glad I went.
It has been an incredible summer. I want it to be next summer already! But I’m working at making the year ahead an exciting one. Starting with . . . a trip to Fiji!
Stay tuned for adventures from Fiji.
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