Camp Tannadoonah Journal

Welcome back to camp!  We’re nearly through the first week of camp, and it’s been a fast-paced and exciting week.  The 59 campers for this session checked in on Sunday afternoon.  Sunday night we divided the camp up into 5 tribes of campers, then chose tribe names and colors, and tie-dyed bandannas to match.  The Red tribe chose the name the “Ferocious Cotton Candy.”  The Orange tribe became the “Invincible Penguins.”  The Yellow tribe is the “Flowers of Time.” The Green tribe is “Team Pocohontas,” and the Blue tribe is the “Tree Huggers.” Check out the photos at http://flickr.com/photos/tannadoonah/.

Monday night we had cookout and cabin night.  Everyone made hot dogs over the fire, and then the cabins planned their own activities.  It was a hot night, and so many of the cabins took the kids down to the waterfront for an extra swim time.  Tuesday was another hot day, and the evening activity was a round of water relays. Wednesday night we played Tannadoonah Auction, Name that Tune, and “The Second Story Window” game in the dining hall because of the rain. Today (Thursday) was a lot cooler and we were able to play “Capture the Tiki Man” (instead of Capture the Flag).

This year we are doing a lot of extra outdoor cooking because of our new program that we are calling “Iron Chefs.”  The campers who sign up for this program get to cook one meal outdoors over a fire each day.  We have 16 campers signed up for this program this week!  Monday at lunch they cooked pizza bread over the fire, and Tuesday at breakfast they made a California Egg Scramble.  Wednesday night they had foil dinners, which was a little difficult because it rained in the afternoon and the wood was very wet!  They ended up bringing their dinners into the dining hall to finish cooking.  Thursday at lunch the Iron Chefs prepared “American Chop Suey.” Finally, on Friday morning they will be preparing another breakfast.

We also have many new activities taking place during the day here at camp.  Twelve campers are taking part in our Team Building (”Low Ropes”) Challenge, and 3 campers have been training all week for our mini-triathlon, which will take place tomorrow.  We also added a fourth activity period this year so that campers could try more of the camp activities.

So that’s what’s been going on up here during this wild and crazy first week of camp!  Tomorrow night we will have our first Council Fire of the season, and Princess Tannadoonah will canoe in from the lake to light the fire.  We’re all having a great time up here at camp!  See you soon,

Ms. Amber