Sunday, September 5, 2010

Off to Camp!

I'm recapping my Girl Scout trip to London that I took during the month of August. On August 14, we went to Cambridge and camped for a week with 200 Girl Guides from the surrounding area.

Here's what I wrote after having slept at camp for the first night.

Sunday, August 15, 2010
First night camping in Cambridge

It is 7:00am and we are just starting to wake up. The three of us adults shared a tent and it was not bad. I slept a bit like a mummy but it worked out. We haven't seen the girls yet so I'm not sure how they slept, but they went on a 5 mile walk last night so they probably just crashed.
We had the best time yesterday chatting with the other women at camp. Two of them have promised to bring in a bunch of traditional food. These ladies were quite funny and a joy to be with.

Today we are getting a tour of Cambridge and then some time to shop or eat there. We are looking forward to that.

Time for me to get out of my sleeping bag, if I can.

Happy birthday Dad! I hope you have a great day! Love you!

Cheers!
Sent via BlackBerry




Below was our home for the next week - we are the tent on the far right. And by we, I mean that it's the tent that Melissa, Teresa and I shared. The adults got the nicer tents.




Here's a bit of the camp and that little person in the background is Melissa making a phone call.




Here's the tents that our girls slept in. They are helping putting up the last tent - or at least trying to help.





Here's Teresa in the front parlor of our tent. Don't you like what we did with the place? It's called camping chic. We achieved the look by spreading our suitcases all over. You can try this at home.



This was out kitchen for the next week. One of the most wonderful ladies had made some cake to share with everyone and some of the girls are in line to get some.




Melissa is patiently waiting her turn - notice the cup in hand.



After breakfast, we were taken on a walking tour of Cambridge. We started the tour on Castle Mound, where from that vantage point you can look out around Cambridge.






The days of traveling had caught up to our girls. They were exhausted. Can you tell?



Here we are walking through Cambridge.





We saw some of the colleges that make up Cambridge University. There are actually 31 colleges (I know that because our tour guide said so, and I bought a sweatshirt showing all of the colleges.)




The second floor window on the right is where Issac Newton once studied. How cool is that?






The river is quite pretty. The have boats that they call punts and people go punting down the river. If we had more time I'm sure we would have done this too.




The buildings were so pretty, and so intricately carved.




The women at camp had told us we needed to try a Cornwall Pasty while we were in Cambridge. Here's mine below. They said that in the old days the miners would get them and their dirty hands would hold onto the braided part and they could eat the filled part.



It was filled with meat and potatoes and it was quite good.



Here's a view of the white cows of Cambridge and some of the college behind.





When we got back, the camp was having the opening ceremonies. It was a Mad Hatter's Tea Party theme.



The Mayor of Cambridge came to cut the ribbon to officially start the week of camp.



Our three girls in their Alice in Wonderland shirts.



Nadine, who picked us up at the train station, had made these most adorable cakes for the opening ceremony.



Aren't these cute! They were so good too!





We even got to take our picture with the Mayor of Cambridge - she's the woman in the middle.



Later that afternoon, the ladies from the camp had planned a creamed tea for us Americans. It was wonderful!


Here's Caroline putting together the scones, with clotted cream and jelly.



Here's the finished product. It's probably not good for you, but oh does it taste good!



Here's Claire enjoying her scone.


And here's Caroline enjoying hers.


It was so nice of these two to make the creamed tea for us. It was quite a special thing. We had a proper table and tea with it. They were so nice to us the entire week. Such fun we had with them!
Here's what I posted the next morning, about the first day.

We have made it successfully through our second night at camp. The wind is relentless here so it was quite cold last night and this morning.
Yesterday we did a walking tour of Cambridge. We think we walked around 4 miles. After the tour we had an hour to shop and Bailey and I both got Cambridge sweat shirts which I was very thankful for yesterday afternoon. We also had a lunch of Corinish Pasty which was what was recommended to us. It was very good. Of course I took pictures which I will post later.

Yesterday afternoon they had the opening ceremony for the camp and the mayor of Cambridge was here. We got to meet her and get pictures with her.

I'm not real sure what the plan is for today, but I know we stay on site here at the camp.

Cheers!
Sent via BlackBerry

1 comment:

Donna said...

Meat Pie!! That looks very tasty! Your tents do look like an upgrade! Very cozy and yes I love what you did with those suitcases! :)