Holiday #2b (2009) - Silver Lake Camp

Here is the next instalment of the holiday 2009 posts.

After leaving Sibbald Point and spending the night at the dog-friendly B&B, we drive on northwest towards Owen Sound. About a half hour out of the city (and after stopping for a bite of lunch at a restaurant near the beach) we arrive at a summer camp that has the reputation among several generations of teens at our church as being the best summer camp in the world. I also have fond memories of going to summer camp as a child myself, though not this one. I’d like my kids to have a similar good experiences, I’ve booked them here for a 4-day camping experience. I chose the short camp in part because Button is still pretty young and in part because Mustang still is a bit reluctant to be away from home. That’s also the reason I’m volunteering, so that I’ll be close at hand and the kids will see me from time to time.

We sign in, find the kids’ cabins, unload their gear and are introduced to their counsellors. I then find my (& Lovely’s) cabin and move our stuff in, before heading off to the kitchen to get introduced to the crew and get a sense of what my duties will be. That first evening is a campfire barbecue. The weather so far this spring (summer?) has been cool, and today is no exception, but by evening it’s not too bad (and the next four days prove to be quite nice, too, thank goodness).

My duties aren’t too onerous. We start in the kitchen around 6am to prepare breakfast. The head cook is very organized (you’d have to be!) and while some people are doing breakfast, others are getting head-start on lunch and supper. At 8:00 we break to eat and take a rest while the cabins do the dishes, then by 9 are hard at it again for lunch/supper. The menus for the week are yummy and nutritious, and there is always a vegetarian option for veggie kids/counsellors, plus some other “special orders” for kids with specific dietary needs. At noon we stop for lunch, then have the afternoon off. Around 4:30 or 5:00 we need to be back in the kitchen for the final supper prep, then evenings free. Every evening around 7:00 there’s a campfire with singing and devotions. The “devotions” at this camp seems pretty light; at the camp I went to as a child it was pretty evangelical by comparison. I don’t mind this approach; these kids are still quite young.

I walk Lovely in the mornings and then while I’m working I leave her tied to a tree close to the kitchens. There’s another dog that belongs to the camp director on site and he’s left free to wander, but I don’t want to let Lovely loose just to be safe. She’s got shade and I leave a water dish close by, and kids passing by will give her a pat or two, so she seems happy enough. In the afternoons we go for a longer wander around the camp, and she joins me and the kids by the evening campfire. At night, since we don’t have her crate, she either sleeps on a blanket on the floor or sometimes curled up by me.

Some days I bake buns, other days help chop veggies for salad or soup, cook chili or what have you. The first day I’m pretty wiped, but after that I make sure to use a stool while working and that saves my joints. The food is really good here!

On Friday I drive into town to get a haircut as my hair’s been driving me crazy. After noticing a movie theatre across from the stylist’s, checking out the movies playing and schedule, and realizing it’s not a bad drive in from camp, I decide to come back that evening for a movie. I take off right after supper, and while I’m a bit late for the show I had most wanted to see, another fun one is just starting so I catch “The Proposal” which is a lot of laughs and much better than I had anticipated.

Saturday the camp is over, and after breakfast we pack up and take to the roads. We’ve arranged to meet Laolao and Laoye near a campground just east of the big city, which will take us a few hours to get to. Actually, it takes longer than I thought, and by 5 the kids are hungry so we stop off for a bite at a Timmy’s in one of the towns we’re passing through and I call Laolao on my cell to say we’ll be late.

Finally we get to the rendez-vous point around 7pm and we all stretch our legs. Laolao takes over the car and the kids and I climb into the bus for another hour or two travel – but more comfortable this way. We stop for the night in a big parking lot off the highway (where the truckers stay), Sunday is the final leg home. It’s been fun!

Unfortunately my camera ran out of juice before we got to camp, and I don’t have a spare battery, so I have no photos of our time there.