Hey there, friends and fellows! Cara here, staying cool on this super hot Lazy Day and ready to report on the latest festivities. But first, a quick message from Alive, our teen program onsite, about what they’ve been up to recently.

Hello from Alive!

Down here in Deer Meadows things have been moving quickly! Barely a week in and our show is taking shape. When we are not writing the show, we’re growing as artists in tons of cool classes. We are exploring our artistic interests in video projection art, contemporary dance, drawing, music, embroidery and improv. We start our day with our own morning meeting where the highlights include “Galactic Fact of the Day,” “Gaby Does Performance Art,” “Song Lyric of the Day,” and “On This Day in History.” It’s not all classes and meetings, however. We get to leave camp and go on some amazing trips! Last week we went to Thompson’s Point in Portland to see Fleet Foxes in concert, and yesterday we went to the Celebration Barn Theatre to see the twin dance duo called the Wondertwins perform an avant-garde hip hop/robot performance. Over the next few weeks we’ll be learning about surrealism, art activism, nature art and found art, touring a few art exhibits around Maine, seeing a performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and of course working on our show and getting ready for the performance!​

How awesome is that!? Luna and I can’t wait to see all of their hard work showcased in the Alive Show at the end of the session. Back on main camp, last night was Cabin Night. And boy, was it jam packed with amazing activities. Here’s what each cabin did:

LCH went for a swim in the pool

Loons swam in the lake and made s’mores

Wombles also went for a swim in the lake and made s’mores

Down Under made a music video

Avalon built a fort and did splatter painting at the tree house

Paquatahnee made sock puppets and stick bread

French 1/4 made memory tins and did M&M questions

Chateau Fiasco did glass fusing with Philippe and played basketball

Gimme Shelter made clay projects in the pottery studio

Shangri-La glazed their pottery projects and made s’mores at the glade

Treasure Island made survival bracelets, tie-dyed bandanas, and made s’mores

Atlantis made glass beads and hung out with the animals in the animal barn

Wabanaki camped out up at Tipis with Courtney F.

Camelot had some campfire fun

Valhalla roasted apples with cinnamon sugar over a campfire

Halley’s Comet went off camp to play mini golf in Camden

Forbidden Planet did “build n’ burn” at the end of the world

Taj Mahal made waffles

Whew! Just looking at that list makes me tired. Good thing we got to sleep in a bit on this super special Lazy Day. We woke up to a breakfast of muffins and scrambled eggs and headed off for a big cabin clean. Before we began today’s activities, everyone received a brand new Hidden Valley t-shirt. After our cabins were squeaky clean, the older half enjoyed a nice, long rest period followed by an early lunch so they could be on their way to the Bangor State Fair. HVA, who returned safely from their first adventure yesterday, also joined the older half on the trip. We’ll be sure to give you the full scoop on all the fair fun tomorrow.

Back on camp, the younger half gathered in the backyard for the Crazy Auction! Each cabin was given a list of odd items for them to bring back to our whacky MCs. After collecting, constructing, and preparing performances in our cabins, we met in the Rec Hall to present all of our items. The list included a Crazy Creek for a moose, an outfit fit for the king of Hidden Valley, a physical object to represent nothing, a human fidget spinner, the world’s smelliest shoes, an offering for the dining hall dragon, and the next fashion craze of 2080. It was so fun to see cabin groups working together in a creative and silly way.

After an outdoor lunch, the younger half went back to their cabins for rest period. Right now, everyone is hanging out by the pool for some afternoon activities while we wait for the older half to return from the fair. Any minute now, the younger half will be surprised with ice cream (!!!) the perfect treat on this warm, sunny day.

Once everyone is back on camp, we will all eat a yummy pizza dinner outside before heading over to the Rec Hall for a movie night! Luna and I are itching to know what the movie will be, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! For now, enjoy some pictures from Cabin Night, the Crazy Auction, and Alive!

Climbing away!

Cara B.

What’s up, everybody? It’s me, Luna Bug, back for some more chat about everything HVC.

Last night we had the wacky and fun Zoo Dance over at the Rec Hall. Everybody got dressed up as their animal or zoo related character of choice, whether it be cat or lion or turtle or zoo keeper. There was tons of dancing with DJ Kaytee L. on the ‘pod, but if dancing wasn’t your thing there was a lot more activities for everyone to do. Among those activities there was also a Meet the Animals bunny circle/animal pen hang out, Foxes and Rabbits tag, animal charades, animal masks, face paint, Doggy Doggy Where’s Your Bone?, and an animal mural that everyone helped paint. It was a gorgeous evening for a semi indoor and semi outdoor dance, and the perfect way to end the 4th day of classes.

Today is the 5th day of classes, and we welcomed the day with Egg Bar! Everyone grabbed their plates, waited in line, grabbed some toast, ordered their eggs, and got not one, not two, but three potential pieces of bacon!

On top of it being the 5th day of classes it is also Jake Day today. Named after a former legendary counselor Jake Durett who revolutionized our video program at HVC, Jake Day is the day where each cabin gets a moment to line up at the base of tipi hill, sing a cabin cheer, and shout our names loud and proud! It is recorded and then compiled into a video that’s sent out to all the families and counselors in the middle of the winter to quell our camp-sick blues. The day got going bright and early with Lower Carriage House singing and chanting at 7am, and continuing on with the different cabins through breakfast.

And on top of it being the 5th day of classes and Jake Day, it is also Saturday Caturday! Today was the first of its kind, led by our counselor Joe. Plenty of cat garb was donned, and there was even a cat stuffed animal in attendance.

After all that buzz before and during breakfast, we settled into morning meeting to hear the usual announcements and songs to get our day going. Then, it was off to first period and another day of classes!

Tonight is the staff talent show which is going to be a super fun night of watching our very own counselors do usually impressive, sometimes ridiculous things. Rumor has it there’s a boy band in town…

Before you go, make sure to check out photos from today’s morning meeting and from the dance last night!

Smell ya later!

Luna

Good morning, good morning! It’s Cara B. with news from yesterday’s evening program and the fourth day of classes.

We slept the whole night through after a yummy Mexican dinner and lots of singing with Kim and Reggie. We sang many classic Kim and Reggie favorites, including Trampin’, Satchel Page, Solar Power, and my personal favorite, Them Bones Gonna Rise Again. Reggie offered some wisdom to our campers about their significant role in making positive changes in the world. He noted that though many people do not believe that kids can be involved in conversations about current events, that is certainly not the case. He reminded us that “children are not the future, children are the present.” How awesome is that? Luna and I are so grateful to HVC campers for all the good that they bring to our community here.

While we were on camp singing our hearts out, Hidden Valley Alive was off site also enjoying some music. Our arts teen program headed off to Portland to hear Fleet Foxes perform at Thompson’s Point. I heard they had an awesome night. It’s so nice to get off camp for a little while, especially to appreciate the arts in a cool outdoor venue.

This morning we awoke to my absolute favorite camp breakfast, pancakes! With everyone’s grins stained purple from blueberry sauce, we headed over for camp meeting in the Front Yard instead of the Backyard. Why is that you may ask? Some will tell you that this is a sure fire way to know that the Candy Drop is today. Others, (Candy Drop conspiracy traditionalists,) will tell you that the drop only occurs during evening meeting, so a morning meeting location change is irrelevant. Perhaps we moved to avoid having the sun in our eyes, but I doubt it. Things are getting pretty fishy as the session progresses. The Candy Drop could be any day now!

After meeting, we went our separate ways for the fourth day of classes. It’s hard to believe we’re already half way through this round of classes! Tonight, it will be time to get wild for the Zoo Dance! Luna and I can’t wait to see everyone’s animal inspired looks. For now, enjoy a few photos from Kim and Reggie and Alive at the Fleet Foxes concert.

Until next time!

Cara

 

Howdy hey, folks!

Luna Bug buzzing in to report on the first lazy day of the session today, but first, let’s rewind to electives last night. The whole camp gathered on the soccer field and listened as each counselor talked about what their individual elective was. Among the options were pizza oven, baking cookies, making glass pendants, basketball, skateboarding, capture the flag (of course!), PK Work Crew, Juggling Dance Party, sardines, Mandala drawing, back country cooking, archery, tipi zip line, wood burning and etching, glass beads, manicure night, friendship bracelets, and finally the PK Forbidden Tour.

After we heard about the elective choices, the camp was split up into three groups. One group at a time was chosen to pick an elective based on who was the quietest! After everyone chose, we all went off to our various parts of camp to participate in or run the electives for about an hour and a half. Afterwards everyone reconvened in the rec hall to hear the report on Capture the Flag and a few other of our electives, and sing the Farthest Field led by Meg. Then, it was off to bed to rest up for our lazy day today!

The Younger Half went to Lake St. George this morning while the Older Half stayed on camp for Reality Television Day. During Reality TV Day there was Jersey Shore Hair Gel station, a Keeping up with the Karkassens station which involved dramatizing camp life, Project Runway: Newspaper Edition, a Make Your Own Tagline station, and The Voice Karaoke. Each camper was incentivized to participate in the Interest Group style activities because they would receive an Academy Voting Card after doing each station. With these voting cards they could choose between one of three possible prizes: pieing a counselor, splatter painting a counselor, or dumping a bucket of water on a  counselor. At the end of the morning’s activities, the votes were counted and the results came in: Billy will be splatter painted at evening meeting!

After the exciting morning, it was off to lunch for the older half, and then onwards to rest period, followed by pool activities. For the younger half, they had lunch at Lake St. George, and then once back on camp they had a rest period and a cabin clean. Afterwards, the younger half cabins did a few different special activities. LCH baked cookies in the barn kitchen, another cabin tie-dyed, and a few other cabins watched Inside Out in the foothills. Now, everybody is heading over to the Backyard for evening meeting. Afterwards, we’ll have dinner which, if my nose is telling me correctly, will be tacos, and our evening program tonight is going to be the always fantastic, camp classic Kim and Reggie.

What an awesome day! Make sure to look below for pictures from electives, Lake St. George, and Reality TV Day.

Cara B. and I will be back tomorrow to report on the fourth day of classes happening tomorrow!

Here’s to churros!

Luna Bug