Lift Off

Sorry for the delay in getting a post up - some things that seem conceptually easy have practical hiccups...

That being said, we all left yesterday from NDV and made it to Curry Village in Yosemite.

I am happy to report that bus trip was uneventful...especially as I was not on the bus, driving up the "emergency" car, listening to "emergency" music and drinking my "emergency" coffee.  Safety first right....

We arrived in the early afternoon, about 3:00 on the dot, to a beautiful, sunny and down right hot Valley Floor.  Curry Village is right below Half Dome, so the kids can now all recognize this pretty easily:

Our tent cabins are also at the base of Half Dome, and I am sure you will all be happy to know that they are out of the land slide area.  That was one of the many nuggets of safety information that we got when the folks from the Yosemite Institute (YI) checked us in.  The Tent Cabins that got squished a few years back are on the other side of the camp, so unless there is a really unusual geological event we are probably ok.  Probably.  Speaking of Safety, I am happy to tell you all that there is a very nice lady on site and on call during the night watching over the tent cabins.  Her name is Security Sara, and like all the YI people she is very kind, nurturing and very good with the kids.  She gave us all the information we needed to know to keep the wildlife out of the cabins (mostly racoons and bears)  The kids are motivated to keep the doors closed as the racoons like to mark their territory (if you know what I mean) and no one really wants to deal with that sort of natural experience.  Security Sara is also the bear chaser away person, were not allowed to chase the bears away ourselves, which I have to say is not a bummer.  If they wander in one of Sara's jobs is to shoo them off.  She takes this very seriously and has lots of experience with it, and between you and me I am pretty OK that this particular job is someone else's. 

We all go to meal's as a giant herd of 6th graders, our assigned time is 4:55.  I know, it seems early, but it works well.  We get off trail between 3:30 and 4:30, so there is just enough time for fast showers and clean ups, and then were off to the cafeteria to eat.

 This is important as we have an evening program at 7:00 each night, and our fist night's program was about a mile and a half away.  In case you were wondering, everyone's flashlights are working just fine, as they kept turning them on and off and on and off and on and off...

The cabins are all clustered around each other, and the chaperones are interspersed throughout.  We roamed about last night making sure the lights were out by about 10 or so.  The kids have been extremely well behaved, they are getting along well with each other, being respectful to the adults and in general acting probably the opposite of what they do at home, which is to say, perfectly.