Ice Cream and Fairy Houses

Today the girls were surprised by the arrival of the “Biltmore Train!” You’ve heard of the Biltmore Estate. Well, in its earliest years it also ran a commercial dairy (as well as a hog, poultry and cattle farm) and sold its products locally. The delivery truck for the Biltmore dairy products— remember the milk man? —was decorated with a train motif, so when that truck would arrive at Rockbrook, the campers called it the “Biltmore Train.” One of the things it brought was ice cream. Think big tubs of yummy, ice cream ready to be hand dipped. Keep a stack of cones nearby too. And keep eating until it’s gone. That’s the Biltmore Train at RBC.  It means the campers can eat several (two, three, even four!) ice cream cones by getting right back in line while they eat their cone. Soon there’s a train of girls eating ice cream at Rockbrook. A decadent, once-a-year special treat for all these Rockbrook Girls!

Tonight for the Twilight period after dinner, Pam organized a special “Fairy House” workshop. This was an invitation to come down to the garden and build a small planter, a magical pot of flowers, moss, sticks and other natural objects that fairies would inhabit.

Mostly Juniors were excited about the idea, but there were several Middlers who attended as well. Pam prepared by having a variety of flower pots available, as well as trays of flowers, a pile of different mosses she had collected, even shells. The campers were encouraged to bring with them a couple of special “found objects” to add to their houses, something like a shiny pebble, or strangely gnarled stick, for example. Most of the girls started by planting a couple of different colored flowers in their pots. Pam, Alison and Sarah helped them with the soil and explained how to bury the roots of the plants. Then most added moss to the pots already making them magical looking. Adding string, a collection of stones and twigs, some of the fairy houses became quite elaborate. A couple even had a roof made of sticks and moss. The imagination and creativity built into this activity, combined with all the cool natural materials made it such a wonderful experience. It’s the kind of thing we just love around here!

It’s a Golden Day at Rockbrook

The sun was shining and the energy was flowing today at Rockbrook!  We started the day with a delicious Breakfast Burrito which gave everyone lots of pep to take on the adventures of the day!  Several trips were offered from rock climbing on Castle Rock to kayaking on the Nantahala River.  In addition there was lots of talk of rehearsal for the camp play, rehearsal for the camp dance routines and to top it all of- today was twin day!!  There were all sort of twin duos and trios spotted all over camp.

After lunch, the highlight announcement was Biltmore Train!!  Biltmore Train is an all you can eat ice cream buffett for the campers and counselors.  It is an old tradition at camp from the early days.  The Biltmore Dairy Truck used to deliver the ice cream out to camp for the girls to enjoy a cool treat.  Here is a great old photo from the early days of Biltmore Train.  Today the girls enjoyed choosing from Peppermint, Cookies and Cream, Vanilla, Chocolate and Mint Chocolate Chip.  Have no fear, for those who don’t enjoy ice cream we had plenty of popsicles to go around. It was a fun treat and it cooled us all down for a nice rest hour.

This afternoon continued with lots more action around camp.  The mermaid club members (girls who have completed 100 or more laps in the lake) completed their laps and were announced during dinner.  Their efforts will earn them a big Rockbrook Surprise!  Girls also took time to complete more friendship bracelets, walk with a friend, pick up a their tie dye shirt or glaze their pottery.  As you can see, the days are full at RBC!  We sure are having fun!

Dolly’s Dairy Bar

Do you know they have the best ice cream in the universe? Do you know they have a super chocolate flavor of ice cream called “Rockbrook Chocolate Illusion?” Did you know that every Rockbrook camper wants to go, and pretty much every one does? It’s all true, and it’s Dolly’s Dairy Bar in Brevard. Located at the entrance to the Pisgah National Forest, it’s everyone’s favorite place for a cool summertime treat. Here are a few photos of our Rockbrook girls at Dolly’s last summer.

We love Dolly’s ice cream!

Your Year Round Health Food

It’s ice cream, of course! Biltmore Dairy ice cream.  This photo of a Biltmore Dairy delivery truck has that great slogan proudly written on the side: “Biltmore Ice Cream: The Year Round HEALTH FOOD.”

At Rockbrook, we certainly understand!

Celebrating Third Session 2010

It’s easy to celebrate the session when you look back on all that we’ve done over the last few weeks. It’s celebrating, though, that we do today, our last full day together. Foremost, perhaps, the girls mark their place as a cabin group by designing and painting a plaque for the inside of their cabin, something with all the their names and the date that can be hung in the cabin for girls who come after them to see. The girls spend so much time together as a cabin group, and share so much (at every meal, for example), it makes sense to want to preserve that group feeling. Of course, there’s always the cabin photo, but this is something extra.

Down at the barn, the girls who have been riding celebrate their experience by presenting the “Horse Show” for the rest of the camp. This is a chance for the riders to show off their new skills, ride their favorite horse again, and perform horseback riding drill team routines. Instead of a competition with prizes and ribbons, this is a real show with everyone welcome to demonstrate their horseback riding abilities and to have fun doing it. It really is a cheerful atmosphere, complete with popsicles to help everyone to stay cool as the late morning sun came up over the mountain.

We also celebrated the amazing dramatic, vocal and dancing talents of our campers with the presentation of this session’s musical, Annie. After weeks of working on their parts, rehearsing, building scenery and designing costumes, everything came together for an amazing show. We had more than 80 parents attending, and with the entire camp also there, the gym was packed! If you didn’t get to see it, you’ll be able to catch it on this year’s DVD yearbook. No worries.

We’d held off long enough for another “Rockbrook Surprise” everyone loves: Biltmore Train! That’s our special all-you-can-eat ice cream bonanza recalling the Biltmore Dairy’s ice cream truck and its camp visits. Think tubs of ice cream, stacks of cones, and the campers going back for more and more. Certainly a little decadent, but it was also a great way to celebrate everyone’s success with the play and to enjoy some time socializing with the families who came to see the performance.

Perhaps the biggest celebration of the day came at the end when we held our Spirit Fire closing campfire. Since it’s very first summer in 1921 Rockbrook has closed its sessions by gathering everyone around the fire ring on Vesper Rock to reflect upon and appreciate everything we’ve shared over the last few weeks. Through songs, memories, tributes and recognitions, we all celebrate each other and what camp means to us. It was remarkable to see these girls choke back tears as they hug each other and about their love for each other and for Rockbrook. Camp, how it makes them feel and how it helps them grow, is so important to them. It’s humbling to see it in action.

The final day of camp is full of celebrations. Throughout the weeks of camp, these Rockbrook girls accomplish wonderful and amazing things. They learn more than they can say, and grow more than they realize, but most importantly, feel at home at Rockbrook. It’s their camp.

With all of that, it’s easy to celebrate.

Hold Your T-Grip!

Sixty Rockbrook ladies had quite an adventure by spending their day rafting down the Nantahala River!  Though many find it chilly, it is quite the thrilling ride.  With class II and III rapids, both Middler and Senior campers love the challenge of the Nantahala.  Some of the rafters chose to add on to their adventure by spending the night at our private outpost nearby.  They will return tomorrow just in time for cabin day.  The evening consisted of campfire songs and s’mores… what could be campier that than??

And the fun didn’t stop with rafting today.  Back at home, campers were treated to one of our historic special events this evening: Biltmore Train.  It’s an all-you-can-eat ice cream extravaganza!  It started long ago when the Biltmore Dairy brought a truck decorated like a train to camp and girls would line up for their preferred flavor.  Today counselors filled hundreds of cones with delicious scoops, and campers just keep coming back for more.  This evening’s most popular flavor was our blue cookies-n-cream.  Quite the treat!

Ice Cream from the Biltmore Train

Cabin Day Fun

Wednesday at camp follows a different schedule than other days of the week. It starts with the campers attending their regular activities, the set they signed up for on opening day. Kathleen, our camp photographer, spent some time down at the Equestrian Center (or simply “The Barn”) taking pictures of the different lessons going on. Today our farrier was there as well, so the girls were able to learn a bit about shoeing a horse. Cara led one of the classes that was working on drill team riding. In the class, she had 5 riders, plus herself, making 3 rows of 2. They worked on staying in formation and spacing as they walked and then trotted in a figure-8 pattern. By the end of the lesson they were really doing well, starting and stopping on command perfectly. Good work!

For lunch, Rick and his crew had homemade macaroni and cheese for us. The girls absolutely gobbled it up, though were less enthusiastic about the steamed broccoli! With the salad bars, it was a yummy lunch. Oh and today’s muffin flavor (for our “muffin break” at 11am) was chocolate chip, made from scratch by our baker Liz. Boy, those were popular. After rest hour, we began “Cabin Day,” a special time on Wednesdays that replaces the regular afternoon activities and allows each cabin group to do something together. It might be a group craft project, hike to Rockbrook Falls, or baking cookies, but the cabin group decides. We also sometimes plan something for an entire age group, like today when the Juniors had a Beach Party down at the lake. They pulled out all the lake toys, swam and played a bunch of relay games like the classic greased watermelon, and a funny game that involved blowing through a straw to move a small ball across the water. With beach music and bright sunshine, it was a great afternoon “mountain beach party.” To cap it off, we all made a quick trip to Dolly’s Ice Cream stand for a sweet treat.

Later, all the senior girls took a trip to Sliding Rock. This always means big excitement for the girls. The water is so cold and the anticipation of the final plunge into the pool below is so great, you hear plenty of screaming as the girls slide down the rock. Coming up from the water below, there’s even more urgent screams of “Ah, Ah, Ah, It’s so cold!” But as they hop back in line, you also hear, “That was sooo fun! Let’s go again!” Most everyone slides once, but I think some went 4 times in all. Next stop? Dolly’s again. Pulling out of the forest, we stopped so everyone could enjoy a cone of their favorite flavor, like “Rockbrook Chocolate Illusion” or just some soft-serve Vanilla. Dolly’s ice cream is legendary at camp (“This is the best ice cream on earth!” one Junior put it to me), so everyone loves a trip there. Don’t be surprised if your camper asks to stop by on the closing day of camp. It really is good stuff.

Saturday Games

The pottery studios are really hopping this session. When the girls are signing up for their activity schedules, pottery is so popular in fact, it tends to fill up the fastest, though archery, riflery and the Alpine Tower are right in there too. I think that’s because the girls are making really cool stuff in there: cups, bowls, sculptures, whistles, tiles, dishes, etc. It’s particularly exciting to see their faces when they throw their first pot on the wheel. It’s a little tricky to learn throwing on the wheel, and it can be frustrating at first, but with some tips from the instructors and practice, most girls figure it out. We finished firing a kiln full of pieces the other day, and everything looks awesome! Don’t be surprised to see some wonderfully colored, handmade pottery coming home with your camper.

After our morning of regular camp activities, and a classic lunch of hot dogs, baked beans and all the fixings, (oh, and let’s not forget rest hour!) the whole camp played a giant game of “Minute to Win It.” We took aspects of the popular TV game show and “campified” them to create a series of silly physical challenges. Each cabin group then competed in their lodges with the big finale in the gym. The games included, juggling balloons, stacking candy bars on your partner’s forehead, eating an oreo placed on your forehead (no hands!), and rolling an egg without touching it by fanning it with a piece of cardboard. You can imagine how funny these games are to watch, and how much fun they are to play with your friends.

There’s a long tradition at Rockbrook of something called the “Biltmore Train.” Year’s ago, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville ran a commercial dairy farm and sold dairy products to the local communities. This included a special ice cream truck that would make house calls, and in our case “camp calls.” Once a session, it would pull into camp and serve the girls almost unlimited (!) ice cream cones. Since the truck was decorated like a train, perhaps a reference to George Vanderbilt’s family business, our campers called it the “Biltmore Train.” Now that the Biltmore dairy has been closed (and replaced with a winery), we have our own ice cream cone extravaganza… buckets of ice cream, stacks of cones, and the girls going back for more, sometimes two, three or four times!  It’s a little decadent, but for all these girls, a once-a-year special treat.