Aloha,

Winter Camp started cold this year. My water bottle froze solid the first night in my tent while I slept, warm and cozy. The thermometer said 12 degrees, once you scraped off the ice to read it. Thank goodness we had 3 hot meals a day, 4 or 5 if you count the pizza and cheeseburgers at the Trading Post.

The theme this year was Hawaiian Vacation. Well, that was stretching our imaginations but some did wear crazy wild colored shirts with palm trees and flowers. The first night we went to campfire and they had awesome fireworks for our 100 year BSA anniversary. Some were sitting in snow watching the skits and fireworks.

We had nearly 800 campers. Melissa and Bradley worked staff.

Our Scouts all finished their Carpentry merit badge, just one day before it was retired.

We had our Luau around the dodgeball competitions with roasted pig, hot cider and fresh pineapple. Hula dancers did their thing while we played limbo and bingo, Hawaiian style. Some made drinking cups out of coconuts, indestructible they say but they wouldn’t let us test that.

Our Troop dominated the afternoon games except for the hula hoop where we might be in last place. Melissa can hula hoop for hours but our Troop best was 27 secs compared to the winning time of 8.5 mins.

On movie night we saw the original ‘Hawaii Five 0’, the Scoutmasters were all saying “Book um Dano”. Our Scouts just nodded and smiled.

Smurf visited us. He now attends the U.S. Naval Academy, he was impressive in his uniform and looks thinner and older. He is not a kid anymore. We are all proud to know him.

Winter Camp is a great time to spend with friends, new and old. Can’t wait til next year.

Aloha,

Mike

Mr. Paris has posted more photos from this year’s Winter Camp as a PicasaWeb photo album. You can view them at this link: Winter Camp 2010 Photos