Pirate Day at RBC

Arrr! Today was Pirate Day at RBC! It was a chance to dress like a pirate with hats, scarves, makeup, and at the very least to raise a bent finger into a hook, close one eye and grimace when someone walks by. It was also a fun challenge to talk like a pirate whenever possible. “After finishing our Arrr-ts and crafts, let’s go down to Arrr-chery.” “Aye Aye Captain!”

Right after breakfast, 10 kayakers and Molly loaded up- picnic lunches, kayaks, paddles, PFDs, helmets and spray skirts— for a day on the Tuckasegee River over in Swain County. This is wide, rocky river that presents a nice series of easy rapids and calm sections perfect for a beginner’s first trip on moving water. Most of these campers were just that: girls eager to practice their kayaking skills they had just learned on the Rockbrook lake. Andrea and Leland, our expert kayaking instructors, met the crew at the river near Dillsboro, NC, and led the trip through the rapids, explaining the right lines to take around rocks, how to hit certain waves, and where to catch eddies. On this section of the “Tuck,” there are several sandy river beaches where the group can stop and play in the water, so the whole trip takes between 2 and 3 hours to complete. Back at camp before dinner, the girls had 2 thumbs when we asked how they liked the trip.

Here’s a cool arrr-t project a few girls are creating in Hobby Nook. It begins by gluing a row of crayon bits across a sheet of paper fixed to cardboard. Then, using a blowdryer, they melt the crayon wax letting it blend with adjacent colors as it drips down. Carefully selecting colors and adding obstacles can make really cool wave patterns, like the umbrella drawn here. Also in the painting and drawing activity, the girls are making charcoal pastel drawings, pencil duplication drawings, and even sketches of Margaret and Megan the two instructors. A popular game they’ve been playing is called “Animal Morphs,” where each camper picks the name of two different animals out of a jar and then draws them combined into a single creature, into a “Skeagle” (a skunk and an eagle), for example.

Dinner tonight was a birthday bash for everyone, a costumed celebration of everyone’s birthday complete with decorations, special food, and plenty of highly decorated cakes. We first get a list of everyone’s birthdays and rearrange the dining hall tables so everyone with the same birth month can sit together. Interestingly most of the tables were about the same size, with only September being noticeably larger. The counselors organizing the dinner decided to liven it up even more by making it an “Under the Sea” themed event with costumes, music and decorations. Throughout the meal, as mermaids and multicolored fish danced around the dining hall, different tables would shout or sing happy birthday to famous people sharing their birth month… “Happy Birthday Justin Bieber!” The highlight of the night, of course, were the cakes, one for each table, and each uniquely decorated earlier this afternoon by the Hi-Up campers with candies, sprinkles and colorful icing. So much cake! But, they sure were good, seeing as Katie had baked them all from scratch yesterday.

To finish off our Pirate Day, our evening program challenged the cabins to present skits summarizing a movie converted to a pirate version, as for example “The Sound of Music” could become “The Sound of Pirates.” Arrr! A very musical, Arrr!