Happy Camper

IN THE FIELD:  Yesterday, CJ and I took a trip to the Kitsap Peninsula. Our mission was to pick Annabelle up from outdoor school at Camp Seymour, a YMCA facility, in Gig Harbor. Annabelle and her classmates were there Monday midday through Wednesday midday.

Below, she can tell you a bit about her first day there. ...

During my first day at YMCA Camp Seymour, my school group had a number of athletic-focused "classes" across the campsite. The first class we attended among arrival was a high ropes course featuring two wooden structures for campers to climb up with the help of a belay team holding their rope and securing their place in the air. The two climbing structures were Madrona Perch (an old Madrona tree stump that had a very small platform at the top) and Giant Jenga (hanging sets of wooden bars that resembled a massive Jenga tower if you took out every piece except the middle ones). My climbing team only managed to get about halfway on each structure, though I was still proud of myself for continuing even when the sway structures caught me off guard.
The second "class" we had was rather brief. We took a small hike to the campground's zipline, which was reportedly about the size of a small football field. I myself didn't go down the zipline as the large amount of slack in the cord intimidated me, but all of my classmates seemed to have plenty of fun. After returning to the camp and having lunch, we continued with a few smaller tours of camp and familiarizing ourselves with the facility. 

The final activity that day was after dinner, where we headed down to the dock for a canoeing session. This was rather low-key and calm, and even though the seats were a tad cold and wet from earlier rain the canoes were comfortable and easy to use. Since I was in a canoe of three people it was difficult to go in a straight line, though we still managed to go rather fast and devise systems for switching sides at the appropriate times to turn. Overall, the first day was very fun if a tad physically stressful.

Sounds like a fun - and busy - first day at camp.

During my short visit there, I didn't get to see the ropes course or the canoeing, but I did notice some cool light fixtures made using paddles. 

Here's a short video Camp Seymour has posted about their Challenge Course, which Annabelle described above.


And here's a link to a virtual tour: https://www.campseymour.org/about/virtual-tour/

FURTHER AFIELD: Looking for adventure. How about hopping on board a mission to Mars?

OK, so it's in name only, but hey, that's better that than nothing!

Right now, you can sign up to send your name on a microchip that will be Red Planet bound next year as part of the Mars 2020 mission.

The mission will have a new 2,300-pound Mars rover on board. It's scheduled to launch July 2020 at the earliest, with a touch down on Mars in February of 2021.

The rover will be looking for signs of past microbial life, as well as making observations about Mars'  climate and geology. It will collect samples return to Earth at a future date.

From now until Sept. 30, 2019, you can add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here: https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass

Per NASA, "The Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will use an electron beam to etch the submitted names onto a silicon chip with lines of text smaller than one-thousandth the width of a human hair (75 nanometers). At that size, more than a million names can be inscribed on a single dime-sized microchip. The chip (or chips) will ride on the rover under a glass cover."

You can find out more about Mars 2020 here: https://www.nasa.gov/mars2020