Day 98: an awesome day

another week ends. the whole week was smooth and the kids were well behaved. today was really hot..

now for a vagabonded raconteur:

our crew left camp for the precious end-of-the-week time off. we headed down the highway to the sweetest swimming hole i've ever seen or heard of. clear waters glided forty feet below a solid cliff face. another forty feet above that, the roadway buzzed overhead across a steel truss bridge. the darkness of the deep heart mellowed on the opposite bank where smooth rocks melted into the flow. prime. after several jumps and videos and pictures of the area and our antics, we moved on to

montanas, canada's version of lone star and typical midscale man-food chain restaurant, faced mountains and the highway. eight of us sat at the porch and enjoyed the warm breeze. the sun was bright and we sheltered our faces with the menus but were soon distracted with the arrivals. we had our fill of steak, ribs, roast, corn bread, and the such while bob dylan played in the background and the olympics buzzed on the tvs inside. one surprise birthday party later, we were on our way

to the ocean. richard thought he knew where it was, so only our car went looking and the other guys headed back. after a short drive and a walk through blackberry bushes and gravel paths, we found the ocean. the distant mountains. the sunset. the coast. together. during magic hour. second to the outback's, this was the most ultimate sunset i've seen. i hadn't brought my camera bag because when the trip started, we had originally headed off to go longboarding and the following events hadn't really been planned. the others had theirs and i'll have some of those before too long. as the mountains took burning yellow and red across the marching waves in front of us, the opposite side of the rocky island we had waded to platformed a red and rising moon. after a quick swim in the warm water and summer night, the day was complete.

Day 35

it happened. 1,400 people flooded the property for the open house today. they needed extra coverage at some activities and i ended up working the skatepark while the other video guys took care of shooting the highlights.  this was a chill change after last weekends pressures and i helped countless kids put pads and helmets on and then sat on top the half pipe to watch them continually destroy themselves as they practiced and experimented. even little kids kept it together, fell down, and got up without any tears. kids are tough here, apparently.

the mass of peoples complicated meals incredibly and, since i had a staff shirt on, people would ask me if we'd run out of food as we all stood in long lines and waited for the pasta trays to be refilled. one lady intently cut me off at the coffee pot to snag the last few drops and then turned to ask me to tip the machine for her so she could get everything left. these things weren't big deals to me, really, but it struck me as a complete change to the otherwise easygoing camp atmosphere. typical society, cough cough.

the sun's fading colors melted behind distant mountains and still ocean waters as i walked the beach a few minutes ago. there were a few bonfires in the distance and tim and i walked the rocky shoreline to find a bunch of friendly crofton high schoolers partying on the beach. maybe friendly is the wrong word. the next fire lit the faces of two older men with a bongo and djembe. we'd heard their beats from the distant camp pier and approached to discover they were talking about the state of the world. the world was indeed getting darker at this time of night and i wondered how they were going to get their drums back up the thick forest and hills to wherever they'd come from. the third fire was dimly smoldering by the time we were near and the shadows of two people shuffled away like crabs across the rocks.

i'm going to sleep at the top of the climbing tower. i'm going with one of my roomates, tyler, and i think he's waiting upstairs for me, so i'm going to bed early tonight.