A day of adventure

Hard to pick just one photo today, as I took a lot. I was off today, and had about the best day of playing and adventuring I've had all summer.

This afternoon, we loaded my car with three kayaks and drove across the street to kayak the usually impassible wetlands. Since it rained so much yesterday, we were able to kayak the wetlands with surprising ease, and they were incredibly beautiful. Tons of birds, tons of green and some fantastic weather with a great sunset, to boot.

Today was great. I'm off to play some late soccer before crashing into bed. You can find the rest of the photos from today's adventuring on my Facebook page.

Once more...

So much for getting back to blogging more frequently, huh? Since I last posted, nearly a month ago, life – work, specifically – has been a bit of a whirlwind, and I've hardly spent any time on the computer. Not that I'm complaining. Less time on the computer is always nice.

My time here has been well-spent, and there's nowhere that I'd rather be. After working 18 consecutive days from the end of May into June, averaging between 12 and 16 hours of work a day, things have finally calmed down a bit and I can step back and gain some perspective. It was hard work getting the camp ready for summer, especially with a brand new dining hall. There was lots of new ground that had to be covered, but now that we're running (we're into week three of summer camping) things are going much smoother.

I love this part of New York in the summer. The weather is fickle at best – in the course of a day it can change from rain to sun and back to rain several times. In June alone we've had swings from 45 degrees to 95 degrees; humid to dry; sunshine to hail. It keeps things interesting.

My focus now is to just use the rest of the summer to serve and to grow in my relationships with others and with the Lord. And to cram some fun activities into my free time when it comes along.

Here's my short list of what I still want to get done with my days off this summer:
- Trip to Cincinnati (forthcoming, for a family reunion) where I'll see all of my family, a Reds game, run a 5k and see Zimmer, who's been in Thailand.
- Go to NYC.
- Go to a Mets game.
- Go to a Red Bulls game (hopefully versus FC Barcelona).
- Go to Portland to visit my sister and her family.
- Go to Fenway.
- Make dentist and optometrist appointments (before I'm a poor grad student!)
- Spend a night out practicing wilderness survival with friends.
- Backpack into Pine Creek Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania."

There's more I want to get done, too... we'll have to see what I have time for!

To summer.

Well, a lot's been happening in my life lately, and I've not blogged much about it. I'm sure I'm going to have lots of adventures this summer in New York I want to write about though, so I've decided to get right back on the blogging horse – so to speak.

I had a wonderful, busy last week in the Midwest before departing for New York. I went to three baseball games with wonderful people, all of which the home team won (the Indy Indians won two, the Reds won one. Oh, and Doug – I swear all baseball games aren't militant.) It always feels like summer hasn't really started until I've been to a baseball game – three in one week means the season can really start.


I also had the chance to finish up a freelance project shooting a bald eagle nest – it was really incredible how close I was able to get to such amazing birds. The chicks were a captive audience, but the mother was very wary of me, and any time I'd get close she'd fly off. Luckily I arrived one day while she was away, and when she returned she didn't spot me right away. I had about five minutes in which to capture some cool images, including this one. The full gallery can be found on my Flickr site here.


After packing up, cleaning, finding a place to live next year and finishing up everything I had to do in Bloomington, I was ready to drive to New York. After spending 12.5 quality hours in my car on Sunday, I finally arrived at Lake Champion. It was great arriving and seeing a place that I really do love, and more importantly, seeing people that I really care about. I was also greeted by a midnight soccer game in the gym, which I somewhat regretted participating in after spending so much time in the car.

So now I've had a few days to get settled here. I've been thrust immediately into a really busy work situation, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the people I'm working with and I love the cause I'm working for. I really could make a life out of this property staff thing.

The highlight of yesterday was seeing the rather large bat pictured below. It was the biggest bat I've ever seen not in a zoo, and after some Internet research, I'm pretty sure it was the Hoary Bat – which has an average wingspan of 15.7 inches (thanks, Wikipedia). I thought it was pretty cool to see.