I also went to Kelowna, with two other families with tuns of kids, all under the age of 6. It was awesome. The weather could have been better, but we spent most of our time at the beach anyways. We did a tour of Mission Hills, I took some beautiful pictures of the grapes and the barrels in the cellar where they age the wine. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I highly suggest going there in your lifetime.

Then it was off to Calgary -

It's been hot! My old roommate Nikki is living downtown (in the only Ghetto in Calgary) with some friends and they bought one of those 3 foot deep pools so we've been rafting in it almost everyday, all while the Caribbean mafia deals crack next door.

They have been living there for 2 months and both Nikki and Jill's cars have been broken into and Tyler's truck was found abandoned downtown, still running, doors open, with 100's of car stereos in the back and a crack pipe in the glove compartment. So when I saw Caribbean mafia, I mean it!

Tyler graduated last year and got a job with a big engineering firm downtown, so I went with him to the mall to buy 'buisness casual' clothes and boy was it fun! I got to dress him up and even persueded him to buy new cologne (Jean Paul Gautier, so good!) And you'll be happy to know mom, that I spent zero dollars while at the mall. Have you seen the fall clothes at the GAP? Willpower much?

I went to the campus bar last night, there was a line of about 200 people when we got there at 10, but luckily we know the bouncers so we went through the back door. That's right. We are that cool. It was pretty fun, saw people I haven't seen in 4 months, 8 months, years even. It's was really fun. Danced a bunch.

Myself and Lindsay are waiting to do our presentation for our practicum right now, should be a gooder! Some of the other girls presenting went to New Zealand for the summer so I'm pretty excited to hear how their trip went. Classes started yesterday and I am lovin' them! So far my teachers seem awesome, I am taking entrepreneurship at the buisness school here and my teacher seems awesome, and it's a night class so there are lots of cool people in it. I have found that there are always cooler people in night classes, so I take them any chance I get.

Looking forward to the fall and all the pretty leaves, I think Lindsay and I are going to have a photo day and drive out to Banff just to take pictures. I am going to start getting back into black and white, I have tracked down the only darkroom in the city and we are going to start going there when we have some time/money. I hear it's not cheap, but Lindsay and I both miss it so much!

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This trip to NYC was the funnest I think. We went to Central Park and chilled on the grass like we were the coolest people in the world. It was awesome. There's a coach store right by there where we saw, and breifly stalked Kelly Ripa's husband, Mark Consuelos. One of the most beautiful men I have ever seen. I thought Bella was going to lose it she was in such awe. He's a bit short though. We also saw Nick Lachey's girlfriend in front of MTV in Times Square. It was one star-studded day!

It was pretty cool, our shopping mission was to hit up Urban Outfitters, which took us to Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and Soho. It was pretty cool. We went for sushi in this tiny hole in the wall place that was amazingly good. Best sushi I've ever had - and I'm from Vancouver!

As I said, our drive home went smoothly, we were all beat and left with plenty of time, and didn't get lost (first time) so we got back to camp early enough to hang out before curfew.

The next week was kind of hectic, color war broke, which for those who don't know, is a huge camp tradition that involves clues throughout the week, and extravagent fireworks, shows, etc. leading up to a olympic-style week of camp madness. However, it broke on Wednesday night and I left on Thursday morning, so I missed it.

Jenny drove me to the bus in Honesdale, and I took it to NYC port authority, where I had to transfer to get to Newark, and more specifically the airport. My bus driver was effing around with me I think, he told me that if I went inside and pushed the big red button, that I couldn't miss, someone would come and get my bags and take me to the bus. There was no red button. I did, however, find 3 big black security guards who thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. When I finally trekked out to the bus, my arm was all bruised from my big hockey bag. It sucked. It was bruised for like a week. Anyways.

When I got to the airport, I tried to drop my bags off at security, and the guy that took them gave me a lecture on not leaving my bags unattended. He told me that I didn't want some psychopath taking it or putting things in it. He proceeded to tell me how he just got out of the asylum and all I could do was laugh, I was that freaked out. He started to laugh and told me to lighten up, apparently it was make fun of Melanie day, as everyone I came across was playing around with me. It was pretty funny.

The flight was late due to heat lightning in upstate New York, but made it to Seattle in time to rip all the way up to Vancouver and make the last ferry home. It was a long journey but so nice to see that West Coast ocean.

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So off we go in our borrowed Chevy Cavalier with Maine plates (thanks to Angela) with Olburg's directions. They were drawn on a napkin by the way... Well needless to say we saw alot of the countryside before finding the Falls! They wern't falls exactly either, more like rapids, but it was beautiful. Clearly a place where lots of camp folk hang out, as the place was littered with drunk college kids that were all clearly on their days off as well. It was hot and thanks to our pitstop at Dave's grocery store we were stocked with fruit, munchies and beer.

The four of us chilled out all day in the hot, hot sun and soaking in the river. It would have reminded me of Merritt if you were to throw an extra few thousand of people in it. I was going to swim across it because then I would have swam across the border back into Pennsylvania but a fish (I think) bit me on the foot. It didn't hurt but I screamed and ejected myself from the river and I am pretty sure even the birds stopped chirping to look at me. It was embaressing but hilarious.

That night we headed into Scranton to the mall to get Subway and milkshakes. Two of the girls found a store where everything was 6.98, and I mean everything! We are going to go back on Wednesday night to see what we can find (hopefully a duffle bag as I am not going to be able to fit everything in the bag I brought!)

Camp is going well, today was junior camp special day because all of senior camp is out on trips (Baltimore, Boston, etc). We had a pirate theme day, it was fun. They were divided into color teams and required to do a number of tasks in order to free they people who were taken prisoner at the beginning of the day. One of the tasks was to make and sing a cheer or song. I was under the impression that it would be a raw, raw, go green! type of cheer, but once I saw the girls in cheer-making action I was blown away.

Out came the ipods, equipt with portable speakers. Team by team these girls played songs like 'Holla back girl' and U2's 'Bad Day' line for line and created new words. It may not sound like much but they did an amazing job. They were all pirate themed too! At the end of the day the red team won with a wicked rendition of 'Under the Sea'.

My girls get back from their trip today, so I am sure our cabin will be filled to the brim with more food, as if the amount of food their parents brought (a week and a half ago) wasn't enough.

The weather has leveled out too finally, we haven't had a extremely rainy day or 105 degree day in almost a week... I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.

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So we got 7 in a Trailblazer and headed East again! This time it ther was 4 Canadians and 3 Americans... and hotter than hell. By the time we got into the city, it was 104 degrees and the air conditioners that people have in their windows were workin' overtime apparently, they were raining on us as we walked down the street.

We went to Times Square, did a bit of shoppin' and did the whole tourist thing because it was some of the girls first time into the city. We did alot of walking and shopping in between our air conditioned pit-stops (which included Subway, Starbucks, and various other places). It was simply too hot to meander like we did the previous week.

The drive back was also interesting, ended up passing Lebanon and finally stopping in the tiny town of Cranberry Lake, PA where we realized (thanks to Dani's dad in Chicago and mapquest) that we had been travelling South instead of North for almost an hour. Needless to say we were late for curfew again.

The next day, back to the reality of life that is camp, we were off to Hershey, PA to go to the Hershey Amusement Park... yes, they have a amusment park. It was similar in size to Disneyland, and since it has been around since forever, had lots of full grown trees creating much needed shade to hide us from the intense heat, it was also an over 100 day.

Being the non-rollercoaster fan that I am, I only went on the water rides with the girls and a few kiddie rides. The girls I had liked to eat and drink and shop, which was all good with me, anything to stay outta the sun! At about 5, when we were having dinner at the Wok n' Roll I was informed by my girls that it rains every year at the end of the day. I just assumed that it rained a bit and you know, got over it and they day continued. No. I could have not been more wrong.

At exactly 5:30 we were in the archade and it hit. First the power flickered and then the people started to flood in. As the 4 counselors hearded all the girls into one area the lightning started. It was like nothing I have ever seen before, it was right over us. There was a siren that I later found out was a tornado warning signal. The first two weeks of camp was rainy with thunder and lightning everyday, but those few weeks and storms had nothing on this one.

Eventually it stopped and we made it to Hershey World, a chocolate verison of Disney's 'It's a small world' ride, bought some chocolate and started the 3 hour bus ride home.

The highlight of my day however, was when we stopped infront of the the infamous 'Wayne' bar in Honesdale (a local dive, very popular with the camp staff), and the entire male staff were sitting on the patio with their hands over their eyes, clearly drunk and trying to avoid any eye contact with us and the girls. We got the driver to give them a little honk and they all flinched. It was hilarious, we laughed the whole way home.

Well that's all the excitement for this week...

Love, Mel

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It started on Sunday, when myself, 2 fellow Canadians, and 1 Californian decided that yes, we would rent a car and head into New York for the day.

We got directions to the enterprise to rent the car from the office secratary, as well as directions to her parent's house in Short Hills, where we would park and where they would graciously drive us to the train into New York.

We left at 7 am, picked up our sexy black '07 Taurus from some cute enterprise guys that clearly thought we would not return alive. It was quite a laugh. We made it about 15 minutes before stopping at a truck stop for some delicious bacon with a side of breakfast. This place was a dive. They served scrapple. When we asked our lovely (emphasis on the lovely) waitress what scrapple was, she replied (yes, this is verbatim) "Pork by-product. It's the stuff that doesn't make it into the hot dog." Well that was it, the official start of our trip into New York.

Our trip there was somewhat flawless, and our new Short Hills mama was as cute as a bug's ear offering us coffee and tried to feed us as any grandmother would while we hovered at her door trying to convince her that, no, we were not hungry, and yes, we really really wanted to leave right then to go to New York. We were very excited.

We took the NJ Train into Penn Station, breifly saw Madison Square Gardens before heading into Times Square. Our aim was to see a musical, but with only one day we figured we'd do everything else because the lines were stupid long for musicals. No regrets. As we walked wide-eyed into Times Square, we took pictures with a life-like wax Samuel L Jackson, and some dirty ones with Derek Jeeter. We were quite the sight. Everytime we got looks we just laughed and told people it was okay because we were Canadian. For the most part people just lauged back. We also danced with a Naked Cowboy in the middle of Times Square, visited the MTV studio, and basically wandered in awe of the massive buildings and billboards.

Then it was time to take the subway. It was too much fun. Our destination was Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. We got on the train only to find out that only the first 5 carts went to the last station, our station. So at each stop we got out and booked it 3 carts down, and no joke did this for 15 stops. These trains are ENDLESS. And all packed full. We were laughing so hard, not to mention sweating as it was disgustingly muggy, hot, and humid out. Once in Battery Park we took pictures holding the Statue of Liberty in our hands.

We then trekked up Broadway, breifly holding the world's largest steel bull by the horns, and balls of course. We stopped for Pizza in Little Italy, and headed to the WTC site. It was really eerie, and although it was full of people, it was amazingly quiet. They have taken steel from the building to make a giant cross which was surpisingly emotional. The girl from California was clearly having a harder time than we were, but it was still a very solom and emotional place. I overheard a cute little boy telling his friend that it was the saddest the first time he visited the site, and it made me want to cry.

From there we trekked up 10 blocks to Canal street, possibly the coolest place on the face of this earth. China Town. It was out of control. Needless to say I ended up in the back of a minivan buying a fake Coach purse from a little Chinese lady. It was so crazy there, like nothing I have ever experienced. I want to go back, I could spend days there!

As time was getting on, we started to head back to Penn Station, but were distracted by a 50% sale at H & M. We missed our train, but figured we would have enough time to get back. And we would have. If we didn't get lost.

Once we made it to Short Hills and thanked our Short Hills mama for her generosity, we hit the road. About 2 hours later we hit a toll both that we hadn't hit on the way down - not a good sign. We were so lost we had to ask what state we were in. It was Pennsylvania - a good sign. Atleast we were in the right state. We got directions to Scranton, a town near camp, so we could atleast get somewhere familiar. Except the gas station attendent sent us to Scruton or some shit, on the other side of the effing Pocono Mountains. We ended up passing through New Foundland as well a little town called Bethlehem. Another gas station and an hour of backroads we found Honesdale and eventually ended back at camp. Past curfew, but luckily had left stressful messages on the camp answering machine stating just how lost we were, and they forgave us.

This morning we borrowed a car and drove the rental car back to enterprise. I am sure that we will be seeing those enterprise boys again, and I think that this morning when they got to work and the car was parked in the appropriate spot they will laugh and thank their lucky stars that it arrived back safely.

All in all it was an amazing day, with three amazing girls that I will always remember.

Hope you live vicariously through this hilarious day trip of our, love Melanie

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We decided that we were not going to be the 30 year old mothers with their belly buttons pierced and denim mini skirts... It was an interesting experience this wal-mart trip.

We also had a very 'Canadian moment'... I, the driver, left the keys in the ignition, but luckily the other 4 Canadians in the car left their doors unlocked. It was too funny!

On a more cute side, I was a witness to this conversaiton today:

Little Girl: What is happy juice?
Counselor: I don't know, somthing that makes you happy.
Little Girl: Where do you get it?
Counselor: I don't know, but they are sure serving it to us here at camp.
[Laughs] ... it was so adorable!

Probably the cutest convo I've heard in a while, plus this girl was as cute as a bug's ear!

We are also going to rent a mini-van (oh yes, we are) on Monday to go to New York! Hopefully to see Rent, or just sight see and shop. Tonight we were going to go to Dave Matthews in Scranton, but it was kind of expensive and collectively we decided that our money could be better spent on a mini-van.

That's all for now, lots of love, Mel

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The campers here all come from New York, Jersey, Flordia and Maryland for the most part, and from very well off families. The girls in my bunk are slowly becoming less snoby and more kid-ish as the week goes on, which is so nice.

My two co-counselors are awesome. Lauren is from England, and the butt of most jokes on the part of the kids, especially when it comes to words such as 'trainers' for shoes, and 'swimming costume' for swimsuit. They just think it is hilarious... My other counselor is from Wisconsin and is super nice, coaches softball, so she's going to be away for games alot... They are both wicked, and the three of us are working well together, which was and still is, such a relief.

Some of the camps in the area have been literally flooded in, one of the girls here has a brother in another camp and she said that they haven't received a food shipment since Monday. The amount of water that has fallen amazes me, and I'm from Vancouver. Some of us had Wednesday night off, so we drove to Scranton (about 40 min away) for dinner, and we drove past a road that was not only closed, but flooded to the tops of the electrical poles. It was like nothing I have ever seen. The Dunkin' Donuts and Arby's in Honesdale were in 3 1/2 feet of water, as well as the K-Mart. It's just out of this world. One of the counselors from Louisana said it looks worse than Katrina, and what we are going through is so bad it needs a name.

As for taking pictures, I have been hard at work since the girls arrived, I think I am averaging on about 100 pictures each day. It's alot of work, but I am liking it. Some girls are all over it, and love to have their pictures taken, while others duck out and then appear on the 'hit list' I get every morning from the media guys.

The girls have a trip to the brother camp next week in Mass. so hopefully I will be able to go, since they got here they have been trying on outfits and swapping clothes for the social they have with the boys camp. Oh, to be 12 again! We also only have one mirror and 2 outlets in the bunk, which has caused more that chaos, as you can imagine with 12 girls living together. Oh and two showers. It makes for a close knit group of kids thats for sure.

Well that's all for now, I hope that we make it through the next week as the rain is supposed to keep on falling until next Wednesday! Oh boy...

Love, Melanie

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The weather is interesting, yesterday we had a thunder storm come in, it was about 95 F out, and within 20 min. was pouring with rain and thundering - apparently it's common to lose power with not much warning due to random storms.

The staff here are very cool, and the directors of the camp are both very lovely, caring people, who clearly care very much about their staff. The camp hires people from everywhere, and they hired 2 girls to do the night security from Israel, and they are the most hilarious people I have ever met. They have a very interesting background - as they both finished high school and then worked in the military for the mandatory 2 years, somthing that I didn't know about. Very interesting girls.

We took our first trip into Honesdale, or more like into the Wal-Mart... Which is not just a Wal-Mart, it's a Supercentre. It's bigger than Costco, it's so huge. We spent 2 hours there. The town is really cute, we passed a sports bar and I saw the game playing through the distant van window - Poor Edmonton. One of the guys here from Carolina didn't even seem to care his team won. He doesn't even like hockey! Imagine that!

We find out our cabin placements tonight - so I will know where and with what age I will be working with. I'm not too picky, which is a good thing as I don't have much of a choice. It will be fun no matter where I think. The girls come on Sat. which I am excited about - we have had one too many meetings and I am ready to get the ball rolling...

That's all for now, hope all's well, Melanie

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The journey here was a long one, 2 countries, 4 states, in 2 days. I left the B.I. for Seattle with the maja on Thursday, in the a.m. expecting a day of paperwork at the border, but all I got was a 'why would you leave HERE for Pennsylvania?' from the boarder guard. We went to Salumi's restaurant in Seattle, a Italian deli that is owned and operated by the father of Ciao Italy! on the food network (I'm kind of obsessed...) anyways, it was fabulous, biggest sausages I've ever seen. Also had some fish thrown at me, 3 pounds to be exact, at the Pike Street Market, that I took to Arizona with me, for Drew and his fam.

Drew is good - Arizona was stupid hot. Some of India's friends were there en route to South America from Vancouver on their bikes, as in mountain bikes, very ambitious and cool people. I took an overnight flight to Newark, which sucked to say the least, but met L.Skeans in the Newark airport where we waited patiently for 6 hours to be picked up by the camp staff.

Once on the bus, all the Canadians that flew in found each other like magnets, and we, surprise surprise, are almost all from BC, and we all have friends in common, both in Squamish and Kelowna. Small World, as usual! Getting to know the 100+ staff over the last few days has been quite a challange, there are people from 30 states, 8 provinces, and 9 countries. There are a number of male staff as well that coach tennis, golf, do the heavy lifting... you know the usual. I think it will be good, a staff of all girls could get ugly.

I don't know what age of girls I will have are yet, but because I am doing the photography, I think I will have girls in the 8th grade or so, or 'upper seniors' as they are called here at camp. The camp is beautiful - and so huge. There are 25 sleeping cabins, 2 lakes, 2 pools, a pottery barn (not the store), an arts and crafts studio, a metal works studio, 2 dance studios, an aerobics studio, climbing walls, ropes courses, and endless tennis, basketball courts, and soccer fields. It's really quite amazing. The camera that I will be using is also amazing - brand new and digital, I've been playing with it all day...

We are going to Wal-Mart tomorrow night, woo hoo, it's what Honesdale (the town near by) is built around, mainly to supply this camp I think, as there is not much out here. The weather is hot, the cancelled one of the seminars to let us go swimming today. The owners are amazing, they treat their staff very well, making it a very enjoyable place to work, and I've only been here two days!

Well that is all for now, back to my assignments for school. I'll write more as the summer goes on...

Melanie

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Melanie

Back to Bowen remains copyright of the author Melpoof, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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