Girls' Camp High Adventure

Audrey spent the whole week at Girls' Camp, but I was there only for Monday and Tuesday with the fourth-year-girls on a special adventure while the younger girls went through camp set-up and orientation events.  We took the girls canoeing on a brown-water river where they learned how to steer a canoe.  Some of them learned how to make a canoe tip over (I personally taught that skill by example) and how to right a canoe.

Later, we set up tents and built fires. We tent-camped by a small lake that is overgrown with small lilies and is the home to a small five foot 'gator.  It was not the 'gator nor the panther that worried me, but the 'skeetos. We were quite fortunate to have a storm blow past (without raining on us) that cleared the bugs outta our area, so we spent the evening without the resident pests.

We roasted hot dogs, baked potatoes, and made s'mores. The next morning we had strangled eggs from a dutch-oven.  By noon on the second day our 4th-year girls joined the others back at the main camp, where we found Belle heavily into a game of charades.

Below are some highlight pictures that I have included.  At the bottom I have included a link to all the pictures in smugmug.

We had about 15 girls, altogether, in the 4th-year group.  

We rented a 15 passenger van and I got to enjoy driving the "big bus." 

 We stopped for lunch on the Loxahatchee River.

ALMOST everybody got into the selfie.

Steering a canoe is not always as easy as you might think. :)

Audrey spotted a turtle on a log (just past her right shoulder).

The girls likes swimming at the canoe launch site.

Out on the river we spotted a fairly large 'gator -- it submerged just before I clicked the picture.

The lakeside campsite was very pretty and spacious.

Baked potatoes were a great treat by the end of that day.

 Strangled eggs in the morning made for a perfect hot breakfast, 

and the girls saw just one of the many uses of a dutch oven.

http://psychdrsteve.smugmug.com/Other/20140616-Girls-Camp-High/n-qPcJV

Camping Out In Chilly South Florida

The Plantation Ward (our church group) had an overnight campout on Friday night for boy scouts and families. We stayed at the Boy Scout campsite at Markham Park. I got there early and set up our tent.

We were concerned about getting enough firewood for the evening. I asked the General Contractor who happens to be working in our neighborhood and he very generously donated his old pallets. More than just giving them to me, he had his men cut them and truck them to the park where the wood was dumped right by the fire-ring. I did not have to lift a finger, thanks to Jim Miles of JM Construction. Thanks, Jim!

The sky turned threatening, so I decided to get a fire started that might last through a small downpour. Fortunately, the weather stayed good throughout the afternoon and night. It is a good thing that we had a fire because it got cold that night. Actually, I say that for the benefit of my family in the north, where they are reporting near zero temperatures and multiple feet of snow. Our cold weather reached all the way down to 55 degrees that Friday night -- brrrrrrrr!

We mostly roughed it when it came to food -- Pizza, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC. But we did not go camping for the food or the weather, but for the company. And our companions at this campout were top quality. Above, see Courtney, Belle, friend Isaac, and Steve.

Pictured above are Sidney (little and on the left), Peter, Barbara, Aren (little, with the hood) and Laura D, Laura S, and Laura K. Ben and his son Michael can be seen in the background.

Courtney, Gretchen, Heather, and MaryAnn in the picture on the left. Josh and Ruth can be seen in the picture on the right. This is just a small sample of our group. Altogether there were close to fifty people there, including several Boy Scouts. Two scouts cooked foil dinners on the coals of the fire to earn merit badges.