On Wednesday, July 4, we (Mike, Katie, another leader from our church John, and I) decided to take a trip into Michigan to celebrate Independence Day on the American side of the St. Clair River. We thought it would be so cool to have our passports stamped on July 4, but were disappointed that the border guard flat refused to, claiming it doesn't get stamped for land crossings. The Canadian officer said the same thing, even though I know that's a lie, since I have several stamps from Canadian land borders, the most recent from a few weeks ago...
At the end of the awesome week, Katie, Mike and I decided to take the scenic route home through southern Ontario, Niagara Falls and the Adirondacks. We saw a lot of beautiful, peaceful things. Between Walpole Island and Niagara, if you take a more southern route (we took Route 3 pretty much straight across) you'll find lots of farmland, some wind turbines, apparently some vineyards (I slept through that part), more agriculture...
Peaceful.
Niagara Falls was cool. I'd been there once before with Jamie, Amanda and Katie, but having Katie with a very, very broken foot, it was difficult to explore. This time, Mike, Katie and I were able to wander all along the river. I was absolutely mesmerized by the upper river, watching all of that water pouring over the edge and noticing what little weeds had managed to root themselves and grow along the edge.
After a good dinner at a pub and some wandering around, we decided to take our tired selves back into the US for a good night's sleep in New York, at a place to be determined once Mike had domestic service for his magical smart phone. Well, we made it into New York, and then while Mike was looking down at his phone and Katie was focusing on not getting car sick and I was driving on I-190 North... right back into Ontario. There was no way to turn around before the border check, so I hung my head and told the guard how embarrassed I was to go the wrong way. Well, it's also New York's fault for not putting any sort of LAST EXIT IN THE US sign before the last exit.
So we spent another night in Canada, in Niagara Falls, before returning to the United States to search for moose in the Adirondacks. No such luck spotting any, but we did find a lot of beautiful lakes, the gorgeous Roosevelt-Marcy trail, and some great trees.
Of course, the fact that Katie and I had our passports scanned into and out of Canada four times in the month of July had me a little nervous heading back through customs at the end of JACK's recent Maritime madness, but we clearly sailed through without a problem.
Exhausting, but a very good adventure through multiple mission trips and many new places.
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
18 August 2012
05 March 2012
Leader of the Year
Now that I work four part-time jobs and have one unpaid internship, the adventures have unfortunately been kept to a minimum. However, this past weekend was Jr. High Wintercamp at Lake Champion, which is not my favorite place in the world but I do love our middle school youth group and the hilarity that ensues when taking them on adventures...
I actually left earlier than our group on Friday because I needed to be back earlier than our group on Sunday for the annual handbell festival at church. Mike kindly agreed to drive up with me. We left well ahead of rush hour, so had enough time to stop at Johnsonburg because I 1. wanted to hike, 2. wanted to say hello, 3. am constantly campsick and 4. why not, it wasn't that far out of the way. After a pleasant afternoon of Red Trail, hanging out by the fireplace with Kate from Princeton, pizza with the retreat staff and tea with Kurt, Lorelei, Tadd and Abi, we carried on to Glen Spey, New York to register our group for the retreat and await their arrival.
Doug, Katie and fourteen of our middle schoolers arrived in good time, unpacked and immediately got going. At the first leaders' meeting, I volunteered myself and one of our youth for an on-stage activity without listening to what the game was-- turns out it was pie roulette. Thankfully, I was able to slam a whipped cream pie in my kid's face and leave the stage before anyone could get me.
We were extremely fortunate to have sunny, blue skies despite strong predictions of heavy rains. Saturday was a beautiful day. A bit windy, a bit chilly, but it's winter and it was just nice to be able to hang out with the group in the sunshine. My favorite part was probably when they were all exploring the rocky little stream by the bridge; I'd told them to stay away from it in the morning because I didn't want to deal with cold, soggy children, but when I was elsewhere in the afternoon, they wandered down and told me upon catching them there, "Mike said it was ok." Mike did not say it was ok, but I told them fine, as long as there was no whining when they fell in. Many fell in. None whined. It was very peaceful and pleasant just watching them enjoy being outside and in each other's company.
Evening came. After the last group meeting on Saturday night, the retreat traditionally has a skit night lead by various leaders. This year they had something called the Leader Challenge instead. Because I have lots of enthusiasm and no shame, I volunteered for our group. The Challenge went something like this--
Round 1: Relay. All of the leaders were corralled on the stage in the front of the room and given various tasks to complete and be one of the first eight to return to the stage. Tasks included, "Go back to your youth group and return with a scarf tied around your head" (for once in my life I did not bring a scarf, nor did any of our people, so I ran to the youth group where someone tied a jacket around my head-- the leaders accepted it, and I passed the first round); "Go touch the back wall of the room and put on three sweatshirts from your youth group" (almost thwarted by my group's enthusiasm-- they kept putting the sweatshirts on me, one arm through a sleeve, one arm through the neck hole. Every time. I won this round anyway.). Several other ridiculous feats later, the task was to touch the back wall and return to the stage with a youth on our backs. Thankfully, my youth group had one teensy hyperactive child who was perfect for that job. Unfortunately, the final task was to do a lap around the room with said youth on my back, which would have been fine had I not badly pulled my left quad at some point during the round. That was the only part I lost.
Round 2: Trivia. Specifically, middle school trivia. Also, the challenge leaders sprayed us in the face with water guns while we answered, because a room full of screaming junior high kids wasn't enough. Luckily, my questions were, "Who was Woody's owner in Toy Story?" and "What team does Tim Tebow play for" (which I admit, I second guessed myself-- which horse team? Colts? Broncos? But one of our youth group boys was thankfully doing star jumps and screaming BRONCOS! BRONCOS! at the top of his lungs) and "Name the 13 original colonies" (which I admit now that I got wrong in the insanity of the moment, but the guys seemed impressed enough that I was able to quickly name 13 old, east coast states and accepted it... I said Maine but left out Georgia. My bad.). I think the only reason I made it past this round was because it was down to three of us (they needed two) and the girl before me was asked to name all four Beatles... which she didn't seem to be able to do while being sprayed with water and screamed at by all of the middle schoolers, but my kids helped by yelling things like, "ADAM SANDLER! BILLY JOEL!"
Round 3: the pies. It was down to me and one other girl. We were plastic wrapped from our shoulders to our ankles and laid face down on the stage. A line of whipped cream pies was set up, and the object was to squirm our way up the stage and plant our faces in each one along the way. Remember the all the enthusiasm/none of the shame moment? I owned the competition and was crowned Leader Of The Year.
There was also a redemption round for all of the people who didn't win--
Round 4: the mayonnaise. Thankfully it wasn't really mayo, but plain yogurt in little mayo jars that we had to eat with our hands. I won this too.
The weather was beautiful and as always, I am so so thankful to have such amazing youth. Despite coming down with a really rough cold and being covered with bruises and I'm pretty sure there's still whipped cream up my nose and in my ear, we had a pretty great time together.
I actually left earlier than our group on Friday because I needed to be back earlier than our group on Sunday for the annual handbell festival at church. Mike kindly agreed to drive up with me. We left well ahead of rush hour, so had enough time to stop at Johnsonburg because I 1. wanted to hike, 2. wanted to say hello, 3. am constantly campsick and 4. why not, it wasn't that far out of the way. After a pleasant afternoon of Red Trail, hanging out by the fireplace with Kate from Princeton, pizza with the retreat staff and tea with Kurt, Lorelei, Tadd and Abi, we carried on to Glen Spey, New York to register our group for the retreat and await their arrival.
Doug, Katie and fourteen of our middle schoolers arrived in good time, unpacked and immediately got going. At the first leaders' meeting, I volunteered myself and one of our youth for an on-stage activity without listening to what the game was-- turns out it was pie roulette. Thankfully, I was able to slam a whipped cream pie in my kid's face and leave the stage before anyone could get me.
We were extremely fortunate to have sunny, blue skies despite strong predictions of heavy rains. Saturday was a beautiful day. A bit windy, a bit chilly, but it's winter and it was just nice to be able to hang out with the group in the sunshine. My favorite part was probably when they were all exploring the rocky little stream by the bridge; I'd told them to stay away from it in the morning because I didn't want to deal with cold, soggy children, but when I was elsewhere in the afternoon, they wandered down and told me upon catching them there, "Mike said it was ok." Mike did not say it was ok, but I told them fine, as long as there was no whining when they fell in. Many fell in. None whined. It was very peaceful and pleasant just watching them enjoy being outside and in each other's company.
Evening came. After the last group meeting on Saturday night, the retreat traditionally has a skit night lead by various leaders. This year they had something called the Leader Challenge instead. Because I have lots of enthusiasm and no shame, I volunteered for our group. The Challenge went something like this--
Round 1: Relay. All of the leaders were corralled on the stage in the front of the room and given various tasks to complete and be one of the first eight to return to the stage. Tasks included, "Go back to your youth group and return with a scarf tied around your head" (for once in my life I did not bring a scarf, nor did any of our people, so I ran to the youth group where someone tied a jacket around my head-- the leaders accepted it, and I passed the first round); "Go touch the back wall of the room and put on three sweatshirts from your youth group" (almost thwarted by my group's enthusiasm-- they kept putting the sweatshirts on me, one arm through a sleeve, one arm through the neck hole. Every time. I won this round anyway.). Several other ridiculous feats later, the task was to touch the back wall and return to the stage with a youth on our backs. Thankfully, my youth group had one teensy hyperactive child who was perfect for that job. Unfortunately, the final task was to do a lap around the room with said youth on my back, which would have been fine had I not badly pulled my left quad at some point during the round. That was the only part I lost.
Round 2: Trivia. Specifically, middle school trivia. Also, the challenge leaders sprayed us in the face with water guns while we answered, because a room full of screaming junior high kids wasn't enough. Luckily, my questions were, "Who was Woody's owner in Toy Story?" and "What team does Tim Tebow play for" (which I admit, I second guessed myself-- which horse team? Colts? Broncos? But one of our youth group boys was thankfully doing star jumps and screaming BRONCOS! BRONCOS! at the top of his lungs) and "Name the 13 original colonies" (which I admit now that I got wrong in the insanity of the moment, but the guys seemed impressed enough that I was able to quickly name 13 old, east coast states and accepted it... I said Maine but left out Georgia. My bad.). I think the only reason I made it past this round was because it was down to three of us (they needed two) and the girl before me was asked to name all four Beatles... which she didn't seem to be able to do while being sprayed with water and screamed at by all of the middle schoolers, but my kids helped by yelling things like, "ADAM SANDLER! BILLY JOEL!"
Round 3: the pies. It was down to me and one other girl. We were plastic wrapped from our shoulders to our ankles and laid face down on the stage. A line of whipped cream pies was set up, and the object was to squirm our way up the stage and plant our faces in each one along the way. Remember the all the enthusiasm/none of the shame moment? I owned the competition and was crowned Leader Of The Year.
There was also a redemption round for all of the people who didn't win--
Round 4: the mayonnaise. Thankfully it wasn't really mayo, but plain yogurt in little mayo jars that we had to eat with our hands. I won this too.
The weather was beautiful and as always, I am so so thankful to have such amazing youth. Despite coming down with a really rough cold and being covered with bruises and I'm pretty sure there's still whipped cream up my nose and in my ear, we had a pretty great time together.
07 March 2011
same as it ever was...
On Friday, I was brainstorming a post entitled, "Miles to go before I sleep" but ran out of time in the transition between excellent concert adventures in Virginia and excellent youth retreat adventures in New York. And so you get another Josh Ritter- covering- Talking Heads- reference (since he did it again on Thursday night): same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was! As ever, I am tired and paying dearly for my adventures, but pretty happy for them nonetheless. I traveled by car about 1100 miles in a week, about 800 of which were between Thursday and Sunday-- Northern VA to Charlottesville and back, to Toms River, to Glen Spey in New York, and back to Toms River. As Joe Pug sang when he returned to the stage for the encore, "I don't mind riding around."
I am grateful to Fiona for driving us to the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville on Thursday, saving me several hours behind the wheel. The concert was awesome-- Josh never fails me, and Joe Pug as the opener was a great match. I enjoyed the rolling drive along county and state roads between Fairfax County and the City of Charlottesville, including at least six counties... I wonder what it would look like if I started keeping track of that (more a la this blog). That drive actually reminded me of another ridiculous time in my life (not more or less ridiculous so much as different ridiculous) during the infamous spring of senior year. I made the same trip with my friends Matt and Ross when they played a show at a tea shop just a few blocks down from the Jefferson Theater. Anyway, awesome adventure with Brittany and Fiona.
never a disappointment
Friday morning I woke up, already quite exhausted, and left the D.C. Metro area at the tail end of rush hour with far more success than I expected. I arrived back home a swift four hours and fifteen minutes later, and after a quick run, shower and double checking of what I packed, I was driving a van full of luggage to Lake Champion in Glen Spey, New York for our youth group's annual Winter Camp retreat. I was delighted to have a co-pilot, my friend Mike, as that drive is notoriously harrowing. We made it alive and didn't have to kill too much time before our busload of junior highs arrived with the rest of our leaders.
After little sleep and lots of fun (and ukulele jam sessions), the retreat was quickly over and I found myself behind the wheel of the van again, returning home earlier than the rest of the youth group as to participate in the bell festival at church.
This is what said harrowing drive looks like during daylight.
Mike again served as co-pilot, our overtired silliness carrying us through the 150 mile drive home (through a nor'easter, no less). The concert went well and I was in bed by 9PM. Over 9 hours of sleep later, I am still paying for these adventures, even more so now because I'm still awake, loaded with caffeine, determined to finish Thesis Draft Number Six tonight, after this short blog-updating-break... which ends now...
I am grateful to Fiona for driving us to the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville on Thursday, saving me several hours behind the wheel. The concert was awesome-- Josh never fails me, and Joe Pug as the opener was a great match. I enjoyed the rolling drive along county and state roads between Fairfax County and the City of Charlottesville, including at least six counties... I wonder what it would look like if I started keeping track of that (more a la this blog). That drive actually reminded me of another ridiculous time in my life (not more or less ridiculous so much as different ridiculous) during the infamous spring of senior year. I made the same trip with my friends Matt and Ross when they played a show at a tea shop just a few blocks down from the Jefferson Theater. Anyway, awesome adventure with Brittany and Fiona.
never a disappointment
Friday morning I woke up, already quite exhausted, and left the D.C. Metro area at the tail end of rush hour with far more success than I expected. I arrived back home a swift four hours and fifteen minutes later, and after a quick run, shower and double checking of what I packed, I was driving a van full of luggage to Lake Champion in Glen Spey, New York for our youth group's annual Winter Camp retreat. I was delighted to have a co-pilot, my friend Mike, as that drive is notoriously harrowing. We made it alive and didn't have to kill too much time before our busload of junior highs arrived with the rest of our leaders.
After little sleep and lots of fun (and ukulele jam sessions), the retreat was quickly over and I found myself behind the wheel of the van again, returning home earlier than the rest of the youth group as to participate in the bell festival at church.
This is what said harrowing drive looks like during daylight.
Mike again served as co-pilot, our overtired silliness carrying us through the 150 mile drive home (through a nor'easter, no less). The concert went well and I was in bed by 9PM. Over 9 hours of sleep later, I am still paying for these adventures, even more so now because I'm still awake, loaded with caffeine, determined to finish Thesis Draft Number Six tonight, after this short blog-updating-break... which ends now...
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