A Very Opening Opening Campfire II- From the Lake

What's the point of having an Opening Campfire at a brand-new sparkly fresh (in a sparkly wooden way) Lakeside Fire Ring if we don't look at it from the lake?

Which is what we'll do right now.

The Fire Ring is a pretty great new feature in our Camp Skyline. (Skyline? Not skyline. Lakeline? Lakeline. Yup, Lakeline.)

A Camp Director and his long dreamt project.

How'd we get a camera to float out there on the lake? We'll never tell.

It looks so orderly from a distance!

(It was pretty orderly from up close too.)

Future Camp postcard?

Hidden benefit of Lakeside Fires? Lakeside Fire reflections.

The show from afar.

The unveiling of the Green Group's spirit animal: they went with a sunfish. Good choice Green Group.

Yup. Pretty good way to start a week at Summer Camp.

 NEXT TIME: Highlights from Battle for the Island, our very own version of Capture the Flag.

A Very Opening Opening Campfire I- From the Shore

We kick off every session here at Camp with an Opening Campfire, but this Opening Campfire was extra Opening for the following reasons:

- It was the first Opening Campfire of Summer 2015, opening the entire Summer Season!

- It was the Inaugural Opening Campfire at our brand-new Lakeside Fire Ring, opening this exciting new focal point of Camp!

- And of course, for our first time campers in attendance, it was their first Opening Campfire ever, opening them up to all their future Summer Camp experiences!

Wow. That's a lot of things being opened in one Opening Campfire.

And now here's a lot of pictures.

The Groups assemble to plan their Opening Campfire presentations.

And to make the very serious decision...

Of what animal sigil will represent their group for the week.

And then, our first nice big group of campers files in...

To our nice big COMPLETED Lakeside Fire Ring.

It's this way.

Aisles are fantastic.

Simply Fantastic.

Opening Campfires of course require...campfires.

And the view is above tolerable.

Let's kick this thing off.

With a letter we received from The Viking Viking Society of the Viking Viking insisting our Viking Week at Camp must be officially Viking Viking certified. Why can nothing ever be easy?

See. Aisles. Fire. What's better?

And it's not an Opening Campfire...

Until our Camp Director has led us in a rousing rendition of The Princess Pat.

Nor is it complete till we've met the staff in through their Course Area Skits! (Is that a Viking long boat in the back ground?)

And finally, the groups reveal their Animal selections...

So at this point it's getting pretty dark. But I'm pretty sure a snake and a fish have been selected.

NEXT TIME: Part II - From the Lake!

Live from Lakeside - Vol: III - Finished for the Fourth of July

As we anxiously await the arrival of our Session #1 campers tomorrow (our first Summer Camp campers showing up is one of our favorite moments of the year, easily up there with every other moment of Summer Camp...which are our other favorite moments of the year), we thought we'd give you a sneak peek into the progression of our Lakeside Fire Ring project...over three distinct moments in time.

THREE WEEKS AGO:

Remember that ledge on the edge of the Lakeside Fire Ring where you could sit on rocks right on the shore of the lake, rest your feet on the natural foot rest and enjoy a perfect view of Shawanni's serene waters? No? Neither do I! Because it's never existed before. A guaranteed new favorite spot on Camp.

Onward and upward.

Our Assistant Program Director Jaclyn Bealer was one of the first to check out the view from the last row.

Not a bad seat in the house.

LAST WEEK:

More benches! More plants! Half of the actual fire ring! Cause our Lakeside Fire Ring does kind of need...a fire ring.

Stone stair case aisle walk ways? Yes sir.

It's beginning to look like something. Something a whole camp can sit on.

Rocks. Our Lakeside Project's best friend.

THIS MORNING:

Done! (Basically done.)

You can walk on it!

You can stand in it!

Perhaps most importantly, you can sit on it!

We can't wait for you to get here and see it in person.

Our official dedication will be on July 18th for our Lantern BBQ (which invites are out for! If you're a Lantern Family and didn't get your invite, please get in touch!). We still have benches open for sponsorship if you'd like to be one of Lakeside's forty founders.

Now all that's left is to fill up our new Lakeside Amphitheater with campers for an inaugural opening camp fire...which, funny enough, is exactly what's on tomorrow's agenda. 

Cause it's the first day of Camp.

Counselors. On. Camp.

Yes, Camp is alive with the sound of summer time.

But first.

A word on this here blog in said summer time. 

This is a "Year-Round Summer Camp Journal", and not always the best "Summer Summer Camp Journal" because during the summer I like to be out and about camp more and  in front of my computer keyboard tapping away at the internet less. It keeps me in-line with our stringent tech-free policy and being at summer camp is always more fun than typing about summer camp.

HOWEVER! I do want to do my best to keep everyone as updated as possible on all the goings-on at the 108 acre woods with pictures, stories, tall tales and the like. Those updates just might sometimes be a little...brief.

Or a little late.

Which brings me back around to the fact that THE COUNSELORS are here! (And have been for nearly a week and a half. Remember what I said about being a little late?)

But regardless, THE COUNSELOR STAFF OF 2016 is finally here where they belong, gathered on the shores around our beloved Lake Shawanni.

And how did we welcome them? Why they same way we welcome our campers.

By playing New Games in the Bowl! 

It's really the best way to welcome any group of people any age anywhere.

Senior Staff go over the rules. While defying gravity at all times.

We've got some familiar faces!

We've also got some new faces!

And they all line up together to play some Octopus Tag.

Can't have a first day of Camp without Octopus Tag.

Well, you could. But would you want to?

Back to the hill! Next game!

X-Treme Rock/Paper/Scissors.

Well that's just a tie gents. One of you has to NOT throw paper. Eventually.

This game looks fun.

And this game looks like Dead Ants.

Yup. Definitely Dead Ants.

And this game looks like trying to do one of those jumpy-in-the-air-photos specifically for an un-punctual blog post.

Back to the forest! I'll return shortly with more breaking camp news...just a week or so after it's happened.