New York City

New York City

NYC

21st – 26th August 2007
Well I am sitting in JFK airport now waiting to fly to Spain, trying to think of what to write about NY City. We did so much more then what I would have planed and looking at the photos it’s like we almost never took the camera out... bummer!
The great thing about NY was that a few of our mates from camp are locals and I think that there must have been a solid 15 of us that all met up in NY from Camp, so they took care of the night life (I don’t think there was a single night that we got to bed before 1am.
In the day time we broke of into smaller groups to explore the city. Top highlights being things like the Statue of Liberty at night via the Staten Island Ferry... free woot-woot. Time square and the size of the shops (see the lego photos.) The Empire State Building. Oh we went to a stand up comadey show at the New York Comedy Club, tickets only $5 but the small writing was a 2 drink minimum @ $10 each for a beer (grrr it still burns.) But right at the top of the list was being in the live audience for Fox Networks Good Morning Show. So much fun! We just got randomly selected while walking around Rockefeller Centre. I won a bag of girly goodies nail polish etc and Matt got dragged into a dance competition in the commercial brake, but after seeing the first funky old black guy dance he decided to cut his loses and busted out this corny song and dance from camp called “Big fish little fish”... so funny, he got the whole audience and stage crew doing it... including the front row that was full of beauty queens, I almost pissed myself laughing.
Time started to drag a bit towards the last few days in NY. I got a bit sick from just all the pollution I think, can’t wait to get to somewhere that I can take a deep breath of fresh air.
We left booking our accommodation till the last minute and ended up at a YMCA hostel in Harlem, but by the sounds of it the facilities and price were way better then what everyone else had. We became regular subway goers that wasn’t any were near as scary as I thought it would be.
Well that’s about it for NYC, it was a blast hanging out with everyone from camp. Once again sorry the photos suck.
Pics

Washington DC

Washington DC

Washington DC

17th – 21st August 2007
DC is such a beautiful, clean and welcoming city!
The buildings are honestly breathtaking. The size and detail of the buildings are beyond description and the photos we took really do nothing for them... I was in heaven. Washington DC is such a good holiday destination too because just about everything is free.
We booked the cheapest possible hotel (Hotel Washington) that ended up to be this huge Victorian gem right across the road from the white house. It was a prime location and walking distance to all the attractions.
We had four very relaxing days in DC along with catching up on a lot of sleep we visited sights such as...
• The Smithsonian Museums (Air & Space, Natural History and Natural Archives.) We saw the real declaration of independence/ Think National treasure.
• Washington Monument (Free to go up... however it meant lining up at 7am to get tickets when the window opened at 8:30)
• Lincoln memorial
• Capital Building
• WW2 Memorial
• White House
We even squeezed in a Baseball game (NY Mets Vs Washington Nationals)
I guess as the old saying goes “A picture says 1000 words” Check out our DC experience on this link.

post camp

Last days of Camp

well all the kids left on the 14th of August along with the Colombian counselors. It was an emotional day for everyone but fortunately for us we spent it doing an airport run to Boston. On the 13th was the Nottingham fair show. All the parents camp to camp to spend the day with the kids. we spent it doing ridiculously old traditions of Robin Hood Camp, like green scarlet singing comps (with songs that are rip offs of Christmas carol melody's.) the kids preformed a play they worked on for weeks called "the wizard of Sherwood" the story line was a big mash up of the wizard of oz, robin hood characters and camp life.
Then at dusk we did a march from the top of camp down to the lake with little boats that had candles on them singing "hale Sherwood forest," " hale the brave and free, verdant harts of true comradeship our harts we raise to thee, bla bla bla." and then we let them off in the lake to float away, beautiful. unfortunately one boy lit his on fire and it sailed into his friends then there was no wind so all the boats drifted to the docks where a mini bon fire started between the boats.

Post camp was a lot of fun!! big parties etc the last night we had a counselor banquet where we were told we could have a party in the dining hall. unfortunately drunk people and food is not a good mix. A huge food fight emerged and by the time it was over the you could not see the floor of the kitchen and we had no food left to actually eat on the last day of camp.

the last day of camp was a wired feeling its like we have been struck in a huge time warp that would never end and all of a sudden we were free again. we still can't believe it is over.

It wasn't to bad saying good bye to everyone because so many of them we will meet up with in New York in a few days and the will be our mini family in England.

Here are some pics of the last part of camp
http://picasaweb.google.com/mattblairmail/LastDaysOfCamp?authkey=zvj3mdS50ko