The sky turned darker and darker, thunder rolled in the distance and a hundred or so people craned their eyes to the sky- all of them hopeful the storm would go away. After a day of fun in the sun, Beach Day was cruising along perfectly and just as the teams were setting up for the grand finale, the Samoan Relay, the menacing clouds and ominous rumbling prevailed and a quick, furious rain shower drenched everything at CTT.
The campers high-tailed it to the gym and we all scrambled to think of activities to replace the relay. It may seem that with a theme such as Beach Day the day was ruined. But remember- this is CTT. Even when it rains, we can have a good time.
The day began under a sunny sky. Four teams were chosen, each with CITs serving as captains. The Red King Crabs were led by Enrique the Super Spaniard and Kenna Hinton, the Green Sea Turtles had the pleasure of having Ethan Ebinger and Molly Shay running the show, Erin U. and Collin were at the helm for the Orange and Yellow Sunny D and the Blue Crabs dutifully followed Dana Marks and A.J. The teams decked out in their colors, swimsuits and carried beach towels to a day of activities that included boat building, Frisbee and crab soccer.
The boat-building contest was a fun one to watch. The team was given an assortment of random objects to build a boat with. The only requirement was that it had to carry half of cinderblock.
All the teams worked diligently on their boats for the time they were allowed. Despite the hard work, some just worked better than others.
For example, the red team’s design floated, but not upright. As soon as Enrique put it in the water, it tipped to the side and stayed there.
The yellow team’s design didn’t do much better. It began taking on water as soon as Conti put it on the lake. It didn’t take long for it to become completely submerged.
The blue and green team put forth the best concepts. The Sea Turtles put the brick in a bucket and sealed it. They then tied the bucket to the back of another vessel they made out of a crate and they both stayed afloat for a good while. Even with a good idea such as this, they still couldn’t quite top the blue team.
The Blue Crabs utilized empty soda cans and made pontoons out of them. Their star-shaped vessel easily supported the block and almost took on no water. They won the competition by half a point over the Turtles, and after a winner was decided the distant thunder became a giant obstacle in our plans.
As I mentioned, the rain certainly fell. Although everyone was looking forward to the canceled Samoan Relay, a few games of step tag in the gym had everyone right back in the spirit. After the Sea Turtles won, the teams split up and two of them headed to the rec hall for some games with Dean and Adam. The other two stuck around in the gym for that old rainy day standby- dodgeball.
After the dodging, ducking, dipping, diving and dodging, it was time for the Luau social. We set up speakers and blasted Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Hootie and the Blowfish (yeah, for the first time ever I got to pick a song) and many more of the camper’s favorite tunes. Katie was good enough to set up the stage lights to create a club atmosphere and we all danced the night away.
So, despite the rain Saturday turned into a great day at CTT. We missed out on the relay race, but Mike says that last night’s social is one of the best he has ever been to. Today is a normal day, but tomorrow is one everyone here is waiting for. Tomorrow we board the buses and head north to Hershey Park for a day of roller coasters and water slides.
But Hershey isn’t the biggest thing looming in the horizon. I don’t want to give it away, but I will give you a clue as to what the biggest event of the year is- Let’s go WHITE!