Ready Or Not, Here Comes Summer!
Well, it’s official. Summer is here! This past weekend camp was in full swing, buzzing with activity and excitement as we hosted our third annual Mother-Daughter Weekend. It was thrilling to hear cabin doors slamming and laughter up and down the cabin line as the first residents of the 2016 season began moving in on Friday afternoon. Out of an exhilarating whirlwind of a weekend, here are a few of my highlights…
Friday night was a momentous occasion. After a lovely campfire, in which the Barbieri twins helped me carry the harmony line of “Flicker of the Campfire” almost singlehandedly (or maybe that’s double-handedly?), I enjoyed my first s’more of the summer. The first s’more and that last s’more of a summer always taste the best.
Saturday morning kicked off with an invigorating hike up Old Bald after breakfast. I was quickly reminded that the first hike of the summer is always the hardest. And I am not too proud to admit, I struggled. My legs are still feeling that hike today. Meanwhile, even the tiniest of girls made it all the way to the top, pretty much without breaking a sweat. I was impressed. It was the perfect morning for a hike: a warm day with a cool, gentle breeze, and the sun dipping in and out of clouds, providing welcome shade. The flame azaleas on the trail were just starting to bloom and were about as pretty as I’d ever seen them. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the top of the mountain, delivered to us by our stellar kitchen staff. For dessert they brought out a tray of brownies cooked to absolute perfection. Truly a superior brownie.
During afternoon activities I made the rounds all across camp as the weekend’s photographer. From the barn to the docks and back again multiple times, with stops at Arts & Crafts and the archery field, I covered some serious ground! In retrospect, I should have smuggled a second superior brownie down the mountain for an afternoon snack between photo shoots! I realized, however, that I think being the camp photographer is perhaps the best job in camp. You get to hop from activity to activity and see girls, and this weekend their moms too, trying all sorts of new things. An afternoon rainstorm and the chilly May waters of Lake Fairfield did not deter these girls from Free Swim! Denice even went down the water slide in her staff shirt and jeans, much to the delight of everyone on the swim dock!
After a perfect camp dinner…let me take a moment to describe this dinner…fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, spinach salad with strawberries and kiwis, dinner rolls, and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. After a perfect camp dinner, it was a dash up the hill to host an evening of Minute to Win It on the Castle stage! Mothers and daughters took to the stage to face off in wacky and silly games as fast as they could. Sometimes moms and daughters competed against each other for winner’s glory and sometimes they teamed up to take on another team. Competition was fierce, or as fierce as it can be when absolutely no one is keeping score.
It was a full day of fun. We played hard. When my head finally hit my pillow that night with the rain pattering above on the cabin roof, I was out. I can’t remember the last time I slept that well.
On Sunday morning the clouds parted just in time for our Chapel service. I don’t know what it is about Chapel at camp, but the sun always seems to know when to show up. In my 21 years at camp, I can count on one hand the number of times it has rained on a Sunday morning here. Chapel was a lovely conclusion to our weekend together. It was nice to reflect on the beauty of this magical place and camp’s influence on so many women’s lives. But as beautiful as Merrie-Woode is, this weekend was a nice reminder that it isn’t simply the setting that makes camp beautiful. Camp is always gorgeous all year, no matter the season. It is the people that turn this into the place of rarest beauty. Old Bald is always magnificent. But when a young girl perseveres through a strenuous hike she didn’t think she could finish to sit on Old Bald’s ledge and take in his daily view, that is a thing of rarest beauty. When a grown woman dreads going on stage and looking silly in front of her children and her peers, and by doing just that recaptures a piece of her own childlike bravery, that is a moment of rarest beauty. There aren’t too many places where moms can relive the magic of childhood again and young children can feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Recognizing that and celebrating that is a moment of rarest beauty.
This weekend was the perfect warm up to summer. It was fun and exhausting, in the best way possible. Though only a short amount of time, it was the best way to be reminded of why I do this job every year. So with the reflections of an awesome CMW Mother-Daughter Weekend with me, I’m ready to jump into the coming camp summer with both feet, with the same amount of commitment and folly that Denice went down that water slide! Summer 2016: bring it on!
Click here to view the 2016 Mother-Daughter Weekend Photo Galleries