Summer Camp - 1st session

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June 5 saw us arrive at camp in North Carolina. After a couple of days settling in we volunteered to help set up camp, mainly putting together foosball and air hockey tables. The first 5nights also saw us and a bunch of others at the local Mexican Restaurant drinking 34oz (about 1 liter) mugs of beer for only $4, BARGAIN!!!!!!!! On the Sunday we finally saw the kids arrive for the first of 2 x 25 day sessions. Mick had his own cabin of 12 kids, 2 co-counselors and a CIT (counselor in training). All the boys had their own individual personalities and all were not quite what you would expect from 10 and 11 year old boys. By that we mean that they didn’t really throw rocks or like to hit things. Although they weren’t exactly what Mick expected, he was amazed at how quickly he and his co-counselors became attached to them. They had a lot of great times together.

Hayley was the tennis instructor but lived in a cabin of 12 girls (10 to 11 years old), 3 counselors and her. While she didn’t have much responsibility in regards to the campers she did become particularly close to a few of them. Many of the girls in Hayley’s cabin were there for both sessions and those girls who she was close to switched their beds to be closer to her.

The days had 5 hour long activities that were separated by meals and 1 rest hour (yah for naps) after lunch. Campers and their cabins could choose what activities they would prefer to be assigned to each day. These activities were: Blob (big pillow that you jump on one end and launch the person on the other end into the sky!) , zip line, kayaks, canoeing, iceberg (rock climbing on an inflatable bubble in the middle of a lake), spinning log, water trampoline, tubing, dance, swimming pool, ping pong, go-karts, soccer, ultimate frisbee, hockey, tennis, basketball, horse riding, badminton, drama, arts & crafts, mini golf, games room, dodge ball, fishing, volleyball and tetherball. There was also day trips to Bowen lake where they have their “Mastercraft” ski boats, which are really nice, for the kids to go skiing and wakeboarding. Other day excursions were to Pisgah National Forest, Hollywild animal park, Frankie's (a fun park with video games, mini golf and go-karts), Piggy’s ice creamery and out to the Sapphire mines. For night activity there was an array of fun such as scavenger hunts, counselor hunt, let’s make a deal, roller skating, dances, campfire, night swim, lip synching competitions, camp songs, bingo and big screen movies with popcorn.

The 3 and a half weeks for the first session went by in a flash and before we knew it, it was time for my kids to return home. Mick was an escort of the busses to the airport and was supposed to be able to go through security to see his kids off. When he got to the gates he was told that he couldn’t and subsequently could not say goodbye to his kids as they had already gone through. He was bitterly disappointed, but has been able to make contact with most of them since then which has been great.

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