With Taco Tuesday, a camp-wide scavenger hunt, and a starry night, yesterday was a day to be remembered.
Lunchtime is special on Tuesday. While all meals at CTT are fun whether it is the Girls’ Side chant or Cabin 5 singing the University of Maryland, College Park fight song, there is something special about Taco Tuesday. When the lunchtime bell rings, campers and counselors alike funnel through the cafeteria with mouths watering for a tasty CTT taco. After receiving their food, the fun does not stop; we go to what is traditionally the salad bar, but on Tuesdays, becomes a cornucopia of options for making one of the best meals camp has to offer. Though biggest taco-making and fastest eating contests don’t sound like much, Taco Tuesday is one of the most anticipated days of the CTT week.
Last night was also our Scavenger Hunt. The campers were split into teams and hunted for clues, which would become a phrase necessary for all campers at Camp Tall Timbers. Teams had to hunt for ping-pong balls and then rally them for a minute, perform trick shots in basketball, race canoes, throw Frisbees around the baseball diamond, race to put on a harness, and test their minds in trivia to earn clues. After over an hour of searching throughout all of camp, every team found all twelve clues spelling out, “Don’t leave your shoes on the porch or Dyson (the new camp dog) will eat them.” As a reward for finding all the clues, campers enjoyed ice cream sundaes and gazing at the starry sky and beautiful moon that graced us to remind us how beautiful CTT can be. Before going to bed though, a group of campers who wanted to continue exploring went off to search for fireflies and Aidan Brodnitz caught four in a jar.
Yesterday was our first full day of activities and it seemed that every camper did something noteworthy at each activity. Beck Mueller won the Monkey Olympics in challenge course. Max Penn, keeping with his goal of doing something blog-worthy each day, scored a hat trick in hockey. Ethan Harrison, Gabe Perman, and John Barnes climbed up the climbing wall. Ethan McCann won a game of knockout. Joe Balaban made a half-court shot. Matt “Ziggy” Ziegelstein won eight games of tennis and Ignacio “Vans” Ibarrondo, Sam Blum, and Zach LaPorte shot a bullseye in archery. Jaime Sanz Carpintero was the MVP at his game of basketball and when the tetherball fell off the pole, he fixed it in a matter of minutes. In horses, Katherine Barnes won a game of red light/green light and later that day, with her songwriting partners, Hayley Sanders and Sydney Alloy, used the two chords they learned in guitar to write a song about teamwork entitled, “Teamwork.”
Today, Boys’ Leagues commences with all of boys’ side being split into four teams to compete for the rest of the session in sports and the CTT Futsal tournament begins as well. Tonight is Cabin Activity Night where the cabins get to bond at an area of camp and build on the friendships that will last a lifetime. It’s time for another great day!