Summer Dancing

Today started out with unusually cool weather accompanied by a very slight drizzle off and on. Given the warmer, more ordinary summertime heat we’ve been experiencing lately, it was a nice change for camp. And that drizzle sure didn’t slow us down any! We were happily enjoying all of our regular activities. The drama class, which usually meets inside the Junior lodge, was playing a funny improv game called “Bus Stop.” Using just a couple of props, the girls take turns creating a bus stop scene with some crazy, unexpected character waiting for the bus. As the scene unfolds, the goal is to guess who the mystery character is in the scene. Inevitably, the game includes actors and audience members cracking up.

Down in the Lakeview Lodge, the Middler and Senior dance classes were rocking out practicing routines for the end of camp dance show. Led by the “two Lindseys” (Both dance counselors are named Lindsey this session), there are some technical moves in the choreography, making practice pretty important. The Junior classes spend more time playing games— Freeze Dance!! —and learning more basic dance moves.

Down at the riflery range the girls are really improving their skills. It seems like everyday at lunch, Leah and Molly the riflery instructors are announcing new girls who shot bullseyes. There’s been so much shooting down there, Richie had to replace the target hangers because they were completely shot up! It will be interesting to see the giant pile of shells leftover at the end of the summer.

For lunch today, Rick made us a Mediterranean feast with homemade hummus, freshly fried falafel, toasted pita bread, olives, feta cheese, tomato and cucumber salad. I heard several comments about the hummus being “really good,” probably because it had just the right amount of lemon and salt. There was some action at the peanut butter and jelly station and salad bars too, but not as much as you might think. For dinner, Rick and Alison teamed up for a special dessert: ice cream cake. They took some of the leftover, un-frosted birthday cake and layered in slabs of ice cream and even more chocolate cake. Chocolate frosting and a little icing decoration was added to make these works of art! When it was all over, not a crumb was left.

Tonight was also a dance night for the whole camp, this time with the boys up at High Rocks. It was quite an operation to get all 220 campers up the mountain (two shuttles using all of our vehicles, plus some borrowed from High Rocks), but we all made the trek to enjoy a square dance out on their 3 tennis courts. After the girls got over some initial jitters, they were soon having a surprising (to them at least!) amount of fun. It’s all very lighthearted and silly, with part of the fun being learning the moves, but also messing up by turning the wrong way or grabbing the wrong hand. After a short break for cookies and lemonade, we were back to the dancing— winding the clock, trapping a birdie in the cage, and lots of partners being swung. On the ride home several senior girls commented that they enjoyed the square dance even more than the “pop dance” we had last week. I’m not too surprised, but happy to hear another example of camp providing a new, and surprisingly enjoyable experience for our girls.