CAMPING AND OTHER (MIS)ADVENTURES

As promised, here is my 2011 Canada Day long weekend story (in pictures): 

with my very good friend, Shawie !

Vince and I joined the annual Filipino Baptist Family Camp at the Harvester Baptist Church camp site in Rodney, Ontario, as hosted by our home church, the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church - Toronto.  I was so glad to be reunited with my dear churchmates.

 

Camp fee was $10 per meal all inclusive !

 It was a very sinful long weekend ... in terms of food indulgence !

Misadventure #1:  It took Vince and me about two hours to pitch our huge tent (good for six people).  The reasons were that a) The tent is not ours - and it was our first time to put it up; and b) We didn't know that we didn't bring the pegs with us, and without the pegs, it would be hard for a mansion-ic tent to stand still on a breezy day.

Misadventure #2:  We forgot to take pictures of our tent (dang!)

with some of my Pink Panther teammates :)

Campers were divided into four teams:  Blue, Pink, Purple and Yellow.

Ladies basketball or something like that :)

 Vince and I got there only on the third day of the camp, so we missed a lot of activities, but we were still able to participate on some.

Vince showed some basketball action by scoring a three-point basket.  Good job!

 Family members were dispersed onto different teams to encourage interaction and mingling with each other; hence, Vince was on Blue Team.  Pink and Blue fought against each other in this basketball game.  I didn't mind cheering for both teams.  After all, it was a win-win situation for me ;)  If you're asking who won this game, PINK did :D

You need to have a good throw form ^^

The infamous Egg Throwing/Catching Contest.

one word when catching:  CONCENTRATE !

My partner and I lost in this game.  The egg didn't have a hard shell enough to withstand the bouncing it did after I threw it a bit short :D

Vince couldn't keep himself from giggling with all the egg jokes and puns we were hearing. LOL.

As well, Vince and his partner lost their chance to win the Egg Thrower/Catcher of the Year Award.  Hehe!

Water games

Apparently, our pedal boat was malfunctioning, so after the work-out of pedaling during this race, it had to be re-done, which I and my partner then gave way for our other teammates as it was really tiring and energy consuming !

Dinner time with the Pink Panthers

There was an assigned team responsible for washing the dishes and cleaning up of the mess hall after every meal.  I joined the camp on Friday (July 1), and coincidentally, it was the Pink Team's turn to be the cleaner.  Lucky me ! :D

Teens special number

Of course, it wouldn't be a Baptist camp without the preaching of and listening to the word of God.  We experienced a lot of spiritual blessings through the sermon, singing and Christian fellowship !

Misadventure #3:  After the Friday evening service, we needed to go back to our tent to change clothes for the bonfire.  Lo and behold, we forgot to bring a flashlight!  We had to borrow from a fellow camper.

During the bonfire, I volunteered to read the various comments/suggestions/feedbacks from campers.

Misadventure #4:  After the bonfire, as we were getting ready to sleep, we realized that we didn't bring the motor pump for our airbed.  Good thing, there were some spare mattresses in the cabins.

Misadventure #5:  Mattress all settled inside the tent - nice and warm - comforter, blanket, and sleeping bag... only, we didn't have pillows, as again, we forgot to bring them.

I slept in the following day, Saturday - the last day of camp.  I missed the morning devotion :(  We planned on leaving the camp site before lunch time.  The cleaner for that day was Yellow Team, the champion.  "If they want to be great in God's kingdom, they need to be the servant of all" ...but everybody helped in cleaning and packing up anyway, so it wasn't too hard for the Yellow Team ;) After clean-up, we spent the remaining time taking pictures.

Breakfast time with the Pink Panthers

Oh how I missed them all !

Mingling (and giggling) with the younger ones ^^

Kids Category - Egg Thrower/Catcher of the Year awardees

I did a bit of practice driving, too.  I am so ready to hit the roads now.  LOL.

Camp ended but the long weekend was still on.  Shortly after Vince and I got back to Toronto from camp, we went out with his family to have a very filling dinner at the recently opened Max's Restaurant.  We altogether ordered kare-kare, half-chicken, crispy pata, pork sisig, garlic rice, halo halo and ice cream.  Burp!

with my parents-in-law

Sunday came, and it was time for us to drive back to the States.  We attended church in the morning and around 3:00 p.m., started our supposedly eight-hour journey.

Misadventure #8:  While getting ready for church, Vince couldn't find his wedding ring.  Uh oh!  We left Toronto without finding it :(

Misadventure #9:  We got held up at the Peace Bridge border for about an hour or so just for stamping of our J1/J2 papers.  The border officer asked us if we had been waiting long and then said, "There's many of us here today, I don't know why it's taking so long."  Sigh...

We then pit stopped for dinner at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar in Painted Post, New York.

Carbo loaded :/

Misadventure #10:  Along the way to Pennsylvania, I realized I'm missing one of my hoop earrings :(

Vince and I reached Lebanon, safe and unscathed, a little over past midnight (July 4).  Home sweet home!  We took turns in the shower and when it was his turn, misadventure #11 happened.

We have yet to identify the culprit's true identity.

Misadventure #11:  Vince found this questionable blood-sucking creature latched onto his side (along the waist) and obviously had fed on him already.  It looked more of a dog tick than a deer tick - and I prefer it be the former than the latter.  Anyway, he has brought this parasite with him to clinic today to hopefully be able to confirm what kind of tick it is, and just the same, he will take prophylaxis for Lyme's disease.  Yikes!

So there is my long weekend story.  As you can tell, it was really a LOOOONG weekend.  Vince and I had fun and we hope to do it again next year :D

Life may throw us all the misadventures we can imagine - I don't care, as long as we're in it together ♥

PS:  Although I never saw my hoop earring again, Vince found his wedding ring :)