We picked up two very happy and very dirty boys from Camp Ondessonk this morning.
This week Mason attended Boys’ Week and celebrated his birthday at camp in the unit of Chabanel. Chabanel is usually a unit reserved for girls but Mason always chooses it for Boys’ Week. The cabins are nestled in a cave and if the weather cooperates (like it did this week), there is often a waterfall. Who wouldn’t love to sleep in a cave with a waterfall?
We met Cooper last Sunday as we were waiting in line for drop-off. In the very small world of six degrees of separation, his mother’s mother is best friends with the sister of one of my friends from church. We had all kinds of other connections and now we can say our boys have spent a week together in the unit of Chabanel.
While Mason explored the adventures of traditional camp, Walker hit the trails on an adventure camp called Backpacking and Zip. He hiked 35 miles for three days through the Shawnee National Forest with eight other campers and three counselors. They returned to camp on Thursday and then Friday headed off to zipline at Shawnee Bluff Canopy Tours for a day.
His unit leader, Sylvan, made the experience even better by helping the campers cook real meals from scratch on the trails. Some of the dishes they prepared were macaroni and cheese, homemade pizza and bagels, quesadillas and curry. Yum!
He had so much fun this week that backpacking might be his new favorite adventure camp. He slept each night in his hammock. Walker said each person in the unit got a chance to be in the lead and navigate the trails using the maps and compasses. If he were not a hiker before, he is one now.
We left camp and drove to Mount Vernon, Illinois. The back of Bill’s Highlander was packed to the max. We had three small suitcases, one large suitcase, two camp trunks and one 70 L hiking backpack plus four carryon backpacks/bags. The Ondessonk pickup was just part of the whirlwind involved in getting Walker out to his coding camp in San Francisco and Mason and me out to New York. But first, we had to get those boys clean and deal with those camp trunks.
Part of the reason we had such a high number of suitcases is because Walker will be gone for three full weeks: two at Stanford and one with my parents. Besides needing to replenish his wardrobe with some of the clothes he took to Ondessonk, our car will be sitting at the St. Louis airport until Wednesday when Bill flies home. With flights out this evening, the logical choice was to take advantage of a Laundromat and shower the boys at a truck stop.
Mason, Walker and I dropped Bill off at a Laundromat and then we headed to a truck stop and to get lunch at Cracker Barrel. $14 each was a great deal for a clean shower, towels and hot water and it saved us lots of time.
We drove another hour or so from Mount Vernon to St. Louis. Bill and Walker dropped Mason and me off at the Southwest terminal for our flight to New York’s LaGuardia airport and we said our goodbyes. After making our way through security, Mason said we found Selby row. Many of our family favorites were represented with Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, California Pizza Kitchen and Starbucks. So true was his statement. I slightly embarrassed myself in front of a stranger when I announced to Mason with a train sound effect that I was overjoyed to finally be able to get myself a cup of coffee.
Sitting at our gate, a gentleman noticed Mason’s backpack and asked if he had been to Camp Ondessonk. It turned out that his son just finished a week there and they were also headed to NYC for a vacation. Small world…
The flight from STL to LGA is really short, only two and a half hours, and before we knew it, we were in NYC!
We had a long wait for a cab but finally we made it to our hotel and settled in for the night.
Meanwhile, we got updates from our other half about their adventure to SFO. After a series of delays, they finally boarded a plane and were off. Much to their delight, they scored seats with lots of leg room which is not small feat (pun intended) in today’s travel world.
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