Summer Safari and Camp Gilead

This summer I went to two camps: Summer Safari and Camp Gilead!

CAMP GILEAD JULY 2008

The first camp that I went to was Camp Gilead. This was my first time there so it was a little scary, but my friend Sydney D. went with me so that was cool! There was a pool, a skate park and a chapel there. We went to the pool once every day. We went to the skate park once and we went to the chapel twice a day; once in the morning and once at night. During camp, your cabin wanted to have the torch because it gave your team 1000 points and your cabin got to go first to meals. My cabin had it once, but we lost it before lunch so we didn't get to go first. Camp Gilead records could be set or you could try and beat old records. Sydney and I broke the record for the longest time being tied together at the ankle: 22 hours and 12 minutes! This made going to the bathroom and getting dressed a little bit tricky, but it was very fun!!!

There were 4 teams that competed in different games. I was on the green team, Go Greenland. The other teams were the Red Dragons, the Golden Retrievers, the Black Stallions, and the Blue Angels. The final game was where the teams divided up and went to different stations so that there were a certain amount of people from each team that were at each station. Then each team got a torch and started doing whatever it was that their station was doing, then passed it off to the next station. I was at the boating place. When we got the torch we had to take it in the boat then cross to the other side of the pond and back, then one of us had to run to the skate park to pass it on. At the end of the week, The Golden Retrievers were 1st. 2nd Go Greenland; 3rd Blue Angels; 4th Black Stallions; 5th Red Dragons. Camp Gilead was really fun!!

SUMMER SAFARI AUGUST 2008

About three weeks later I was at the parking lot in front of the Outback Steakhouse near my church. I was about to get on the bus to go to Summer Safari. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Daroga State Park where we stayed for a couple of days. On the way we stopped in Wenatchee to eat lunch. I ate at Subway. When we got there we were assigned in tents where we put our stuff. Then we had free time until dinner.

A basic day at Summer Safari goes like this: I wake up at around 7:00 and get ready for polar dip. I go down to polar dip, sign in then prepare for whatever torture Mike has for us (It is really fun though). After that I dry off and get ready for breakfast. They have really good food there.




After breakfast, I went back to my tent to get my Bible & notebook for solo time. Solo time is when we have the chance to spend time studying God's Word and answer questions.
Next our tent group met to talk about our solo time, and then went to the morning meeting of worship and the message.
Free time came next for the afternoon to dinner. During free time we could go inner-tubing, swimming in the lagoon, or just hang out! The lagoon was very cold, but it felt good because it was soooooooooooooooooo hot there. I enjoyed inner-tubing and one day I learned to wakeboard!! Lunch was anytime between 12-1pm. The camp store was open after lunch and closed around 3:30 pm. I could buy candy, pop, ice cream, bubble gum and licorce at the store.

After free time we had dinner. Then the evening meeting. After that we had a snack then the night time show. It's awesome, it's funny, it's hilarious!!!
Two of the nights we had a campfire before we went to bed. We slept under the stars every night. . . The stink'in sprinklers got our sleeping bags wet every night! Fortunately, they dried out before we had to sleep on them again!
But eventually the fun had to end . . . I had a great time at Summer Safari!

SAM