The Last Days of Summer 2014 at Camp Otterbein

It's hard to believe that my fifth summer at Camp Otterbein has come to an end!

Last week was our final week with campers. In Wilderness Adventures, we had 5 guys. I called the group "Burgers and Fries". We had a great time! What an awesome way to end the summer!
We went on awesome adventures and had some great discussions throughout the week. I haven't seen a group of campers open up this year as much as these guys did.

The first day, we did our river kayaking trip. We changed up the route a bit, starting instead of ending at the whitewater kayaking site. As usual, we had a wonderful time paddling down the river. I led and Andrew, the counselor, stayed in the back lifeguarding. I know too many Andrews by the way, in case you didn't notice. Haha!

That night, we hiked into an area called The North Woods. Andrew made up a story about how we got lost in the woods and set up a great survival scenario. We then set up camp and slept out in the middle of the woods. It was a chilly night, but we had a fabulous fire going and plenty of layers. And the serenity of the forest at night is a wonderful way to fall asleep.

The next morning, we found our way back (very quickly thanks to the amazing navigational skills of the oldest camper) and had some delicious s'mores pancakes. A little later that day, we did the high course. I saw some amazing things happen up there: the boys worked together so well!

On Wednesday, we went on our rock climbing, rappelling trip. Unfortunately, a huge storm hit right when we were about to set up for the repel so we had to hike down and leave. Scott (our camp director) took us to a local place called Grandma Fay's for some delicious ice cream. That night was the last worship service and the camp tradition of Capture the Flag with all of camp. As usual, we had a blast chasing eachother around beneath the stars.

The last day came way too soon. We had a delicious double Dutch oven breakfast: Mountain Man breakfast (a casserole with eggs, meat, hashbrowns, and cheese) in one oven and fruit pizza in the other. Yum! The rest of the day we packed up, had some final discussions, and even got to swim. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, we sent the campers home.

 

Monday and Tuesday of this week was staff closing, in which we worked and cleaned up by day and did fun surprise activities by night. The first night, we did a fun scavenger hunt set up by Scott's parents and ended up at a local movie theater to see Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D: great movie!  The second night we had our last dinner together, went down the zipline, and then had our closing ceremony and final communion and worship for the summer. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone: some that night and some the next morning before I left.

Readjusting to life after camp, as usual, is pretty difficult at times. I already miss my friends, the ability to change so many lives in such an amazing way, the beautiful places and adventures. Fortunately, there are plenty of amazing things coming up to look forward to: pre-wedding festivities, the wedding, and starting graduate school. My amazing summer job may be over, but big things are happening and I have so much to be grateful for!