Weekend Update

I haven’t posted in a few days - we’ve been too busy having fun out in camp! By the way, a slew of photos will be posted later today from Saturday and Sunday. Be on the lookout for those in the login portion of the site.

Our weekend was action packed. The rain held off until yesterday evening after we had finished our Sunday afternoon activities. We did get a lot of rain last night. Thankfully Sunday night’s plans are a bit slower so it did not deter us. We finish off our Sabbath evenings with Vespers services in each cabin area. Last night the Hunter 1’s and 2’s met in the Lodge and Mrs. O gave a devotional, followed by milk and cookies before bed. At Alpine Sundays are a beautiful respite from the normal routine, a day set apart. I’ll try to give you a brief taste.

Sunday breakfast is the stuff of legends. Mrs. Gail (and her mom, Mrs. Crow, before her) have a coveted pancake recipe. Arriving at the dining hall to a piping hot stack of pancakes, sausage, fruit, etc is a great way to start a Sunday morning. Lane Park, a professional photographer and friend from Chattanooga, arrived just after breakfast, multiple cameras around her neck. She shot each cabin, with counselors, and then individuals for each camper. You’ll receive those prints on Thursday as a keepsake from their time. Boys dress in Alpine whites, complimented by a red or blue neckerchief, bound together by a leather Alpine slide. It’s a throwback for sure, but boys look sharp when they’re all in uniform together for church and the cabin picture. At least for an hour or two until those whites turn various shades of dirt and mud.

This afternoon boys enjoyed some special activities, selected by our Program Director, Malcolm Saxon, within their age group. Capture the Flag, Extreme 4 Square, an afternoon at Little River and more! Instead of our regular store snack, a special Sunday treat awaited us after Rest Hour. The Doodles ice cream truck from Birmingham arrived to serve everyone a cup of fresh, cold ice cream. I love their peach cream, but I think I’m in the minority. The boys seemed to enjoy some of the “sweeter” offerings like Bubble Gum or Blue Rasberry. Though I think Cookies and Cream was the favorite by far! We finished off a fine Sunday afternoon with fresh cut, cold watermelon on the Team sports field.

Saturday is always a “normal” day around here. Most of the boys probably don’t even realize it’s Saturday. In some ways, every day at camp is like Saturday. Activities continued in full swing. One to highlight is fishing. I heard (though I didn’t make it up there) that quite a few fish were caught at our stocked pond.

And for a number of boys it was a first fish caught. While we didn’t have fresh fish for dinner, we certainly did not go hungry over the weekend. I mentioned pancakes for lunch. Another tradition is our after church Sunday lunch, fashioned after a Sunday lunch you might have had at your grandmother’s after church back in the day. Fried chicken, green beans, rice and gravy, sliced pears, water and sweet tea filled our plates.

As I write this, on Monday morning, activities continue to roll on. We’ve had a few showers/sprinkles off and on all morning but nothing to slow us down. In fact, the sun has just peeked through the clouds. And it’s been cool and overcast all morning, a fairly typical early June morning on the Mountain.

I’ll check back in tomorrow night. Hopefully you received an email from us regarding plans for Closing day. We’ve got lots of fun to pack in before Thursday!

Thanks for reading, Glenn