Camp

A real life experience. <3

          When I turned ten, it would be a tradition that my grandparents would take us on a special elder-hostel trip.I wanted something to do with the ocean and horse back-riding. Alabama. We found a place in Fairhope, Alabama. When me and my grandparents left for our week long trip, we took a plane out of the Milwaukee airport. From there, we had to go to Dallas Fort Worth, Texas. Then we took a plane from there to Mobile, Alabama.          

 

          That night we stayed in a hotel. Since thye had a pool, I went swimming from seven to ten P.M. When I got back to our room, I took a shower. After that, I went to bed. Sometime during the night, I hooked my pernament retainer. I woke up around 5:30 A.M. crying from pain becasue it hurt and I didn't know how this would effect our trip at all. Fortunatley, my grandparents found an orthodontist in Fairhope. It took an hour and a half to get from Mobile to Fairhope.          

 

          When we got to Fairhope, we checked into our cabins for our elder-hostel trip. After checking in, we went ot our cabins. The rooms "connect" to each other by opening a door on both ends of the two rooms. My room "connected" to Owen's room. After we put our stuff in our room, we all went roaming around the campsite to see what our surrounding would be like for the week. Later that night, around five P.M., we were all caleld to the main corridor. There we got seperatedinto groups of four. Me, Hannah, Owen, and Erin were all in the same group. While in these groups we had to get to know each other as best as we could.          

 

          After that, it was time for dinner. After dinner we had about two hours before lights out. So me and Owen decided to just hang out on the front porch. There, our camp consoulers gave us glow sticks. Owen decided to break it open by wacking it against a chari and a few tables then on the railing outside. After it broke, he got it all over himself. We both did. It was amazing and funny. We put the glowstick in the garbage.          

 

          The next morning, as soon as Owen woke me up, we went to the garbage can to see if the glowstick was still glowing. It was faint, but yes, it was still glowing. At that point we were laughing hysterically. Today is Monday. We are going horse back-riding today. I kept pulling in front of everyone becasue I was the only one there with experience of riding horses already. When we got basck from doing our horse back-riding, we ate lunch there. Fir the past few days I couldn't eat anything so I was "surviving" on shakes and root beer floats for the past two days. I have had one root beer float and two vanilla shakes out of a total of four different meals.          

           I went to the orthodontist that afternoon. Everyone else went back to the camp grounds. While I was at the orthodontist, everyone else was searching for sea creatures and studying them in their natural habitat. The orthodontist office was about ten minutes away from the campsite, luckily. Dr. Stricklen took pliers and clipped the one side of my pernament retainer. I felt relief when that happened. I was greatful cause now I can eat, and my grandparent were especially happy becasue he did it absolutley free.         

 

          When I got back to the campsite that night, all the other kids there were playing tag. They were all excited I was back and wanted me to join in. I said 'sure' and then I joined in and satrted palying along with everyone. Everyone was asking if I was okay and what happened while I was there. I explained to them. Then I asked how the sea creature "hunt" went. They said it was amazing and unbelievable. After about two hours of playing tag, we switched to playing hide-n-seek.        

 

          We knew that there were bushes outside behind all the cabins, so me, Hannah, and Owen all hid back there. Scott was "it." While we were hiding, we would switch off being the "guard" to make sure he didn't come close. He did once or twice, but he still never found us. After he found Rachel, Christian, Marie, Nadeem, Erin, Sydney, Sam, and Meredith, he got them all to look for us. After a while, they finally said "we give up!" At that point me, Hannah, and Owenall met back in front of our cabins.         

 

          After we all meet back in front of the cabins, we all went into the main corridor. There we sat and talked amongst oursleves and drank coffee. Later our camp conselours came and got us to tell us it was time for dinner. We ate dinner then all met back inside the the cabin's "living room." While we ere there, Hannah invited me, Owen, Erin, Nadeem, Sam, and Rachel, to play all go in her cabin and play Jenga until it was time for lights out. When it was time for lights out, we all went back to our cabins and settled down for the night.          

 

          The next morning I woke up at five thirty A.M. to see the dolphins and the sunrise. It was so beautifula nd amazing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. At about six A.M. Owen came out and sat with me. We just sat by the ocean talking and admiring the sea. At seven thirty A.M. it was time for breakfast. Today was Tuesday. Today we were going to learn about reptiles and amphibeans. I learned that a rattle snakes rattle is actually made out of dead snake sking shed from around the tail. We also got to see different types of skeletons and I got to see a real turtle race!          

 

           We had a free afternoon. We all decided to go swimming. I was swimming in the pool, then we all "transfered" to the ocean and was diving off the platform. Almost all of us got sut by the barnacles on the ladder. We also went swimming yesterday, adn the same thing happened, too!          

 

          Today is Thursday and We are going to Alligator Alley. It was a half hour drive, and a very amusing drive, too. We couldn't help but laugh and share stories and our typical family day life. We we all excited to hear what one another said about each other. It all happened so quick, that we were in Alligator Alley by no time.          

 

          While we were at Alligator Alley, we got to see Captain-n-Crunch. He holds the world record for strongest bite ever. 3,200 pounds of force. The area there was so amazing, it made me feel like I was actually in the natural habitat of the alligators. We got there just in time for "feeding time," too. It was so cool to see the alligators in "action!" After that we went to the gift shop. I got a stuffed alligator and my grandparents bought me a T-shirt. I loved them both.

 

          After about three or four hours, we had to start heading back to the camp grounds. On our way back, we found that one of the seats turned a full 180゜so that they face each other. That seat was the only one that turned because they forgot to put the lock in it, o that it doesn't turn. Owen and Nadeem turned and faced me and Hannah. We sat there and talked for the rest of the ride back. When we got back, we found out it was cook-out night. But, because it was raining, the grandparents decided to eat in the screen house. Everyone else decided to just eat outside because the rain was starting to lighten up.

 

          While we were out there, we were talking amongst ourselves. The cook-out was amazing. While we were eating, we decided afterwards to play tag indoors. We played to the point where our camp consolers yelled at us, and we had to stop. So, at that point, me and Owen decided to "connect" our rooms and hang out between the two rooms. We talked and "swapped" stories.

 

          On Friday, we went to the Gulf Coast Zoo. There we explored "The Little Zoo That Could." I was so excited because I knew they had white tigers. They had all kinds of Endangered Species there. Although I was a little upset they didn't have Red Pandas, I was still pretty happy they had tigers, leopards, eagles and many more! It was an amazing zoo. We could even feed them. I loved it. It was so beautiful.

 

          On our ride to our lunching area, I slept on the bus. Because of that, while I was sleeping, everyone dared Owen to scare me. So, while I'm still asleep he came up to me and said "BOO!" I started yelling at him. Then he started to laugh, which made me laugh, which made everyone else laugh. It was so funny. We ate lunch by the coast at a restaurant called Sea-n-Suds. They had amazing food. After we ate lunch, we took group pictures. That took about an hour, since we couldn't sit still or listen.

 

          Then we went to the Gulf of Mexico. The waves today were so high and powerful. Everyone was getting "attacked" by jellyfish stingers. They weren't "active" becasue they feel off of jellyfish who were already dead. Me, Hannah and Owen always satyed together...for the most part. We were always holding hands and diving under all together. Whenever Hannah wasn't with us, me and Owen would still hold hands and just walk around the beach and talk. Then every once in a while, we would dive under together.

 

          At one point, I coudn't gget above the water when I was diving under on my own, luckily, Owen was there to helpme. He got me and pulled me up. Then we started to laugh, as doing that to myself was a stupid idea. On our way back, we were saying our favorite and least favorite thing about each other. Everyone seemed to like either my eyes or my hair. The least favorite thing that everyone hated about me was I had to live so far away from everyone.  

 

          On saturday morning, we had a free morning. Everyone went swimming for the last time together. We talked and said our good-byes. We got a lunch-to-go. While everyone was leaving, we were swapping emails. I got Hannah's and Owen's email. The emailed me and Erin's email. This is a trip I will truly will never forget.

 

              The End  

        

Author's Note

ignore some incorrect spelling and some incorrect grammatical errors.