A Week Later

A week later..... boy do I miss the Adirondacks. This class gave me some much needed time to reflect on life in general. I am a person that is constantly on the go never taking the time to stop enjoy the small parts of life. This class gave that opportunity and it has helped me as a person (to the point that I can almost be happy :) I consider myself lucky to have gone to Raquette Lake with the group of people that I did. I met several new people and learned a lot about them, not only people from our class but the professional development group as well. Beth, Karl and Tim, you have created an amazing class. I cannot stress this enough, an awesome opportunity to achieve 3 graduate level credits.

This class has made me reflect on my impact on the environment, I still will not buy a hybrid. I do understand that a change has to happen, and I am doing more to help. The world is a beautiful place and I would hate to see it any other way. I have always been a believer in outdoor education, and this class helped me remember why I push for my students to get outside. There is so much to learn just by going for a walk and observing. When we went on our walk to the Kirby camp, and Tim's kids stopped to walk up the log and stopped to enjoy the bug swaying in the breeze, the phrase just let kids be kids comes to mind. However it is not just the kids who need to be able to do that. Adults must stop and enjoy the small wonders of life. That is what I gained from this class.

Thanks to all who were part of making this trip enjoyable for me. It was a great experience and I will never forget it. This is my last post for this blog so Good Bye.

~ Dave Starr ~

Day 5

Its our last night here at Camp Huntington. I am glad that I was able to finish up my project last night so I had a free night tonight. We played a lot of frisbee today and we also did the low ropes and high ropes course. Both of the courses were a lot of fun. The high ropes course was amazing. It was a little scary at first but then I got the hang of it. We all went out for a nice kayaking trip, John swam and Lee tried but I ended up towing him out. Mike towed him back in. I will miss Camp Huntington but it will be nice to be back home. The class was well put together the lectures and classes were meaningful. The instructors were all very helpful and I met a lot of new friends. I do not think that I could pick a favorite Karl and Tim are now kicking us out of the room telling us to stop working and to get out and enjoy ourselves. I am out for now

Dave

Day 4 continued

I forgot to mention that the day started off well with a nice 6 AM kayak out into the lake. Mike and I decided to go out for an early morning boat trip, John could not wake up in time even though he was woke up. I was amazed at all of the information that these two museums had to offer. I finally came up with the idea for my project for the course. I was going to keep it a surprise but I will share it with you, because I am sure no one is really reading my blog on a daily basis. The plan is to write up a plan for a "meaningful" guided tour through the Adirondack Museum. I put meaningful in quotations because we had conversation earlier in the week about how guided tours are boring and not fun for students, unless well thought out. So, with that said my goal is to create a powerful, meaningful tour throughout the Adirondack Museum. Alright, I am out for now.

Dave

day 4

Day four at the Adirondacks. We visited two museums today the first was WILD Center and the second was the Adirondack Museum. The Adirondack Museum was amazing. There was so much to see and do. We only had about 2 hours to see everything, not nearly enough time. I did enjoy the areas that I did see. The hunting cabin was really neat to see but the best part of the museum was the Woods and Recreation area. They went through the history of hunting and fishing in the adirondacks and it had a ton of information. This area is where I spent most of my time. Seeing all of the fly fishing rods and guns and also all of the old pictures of Adirondack guides was very interesting. The WILD center was a lot of fun, a lot to see and do, not the best place for a person who has a short attention span. Well its dinner time I will finish this up later.

Dave

Day 3

Day three not what I expected. I did not bring my rock climbing gear. Our nice little hike up Bear Mountain was much more rigorous that I expected. Being a fat out of shape guy did not make this hike any easier. It really was fun though. The view on top was worth risking my life climbing the smooth rounded rocks of the mountain. There was slight confusion with what road to take at a certain point so the group was split up. I did not get to see the bog today as I was helping people get rides back to their cars. It was a fun trip. I am out for now people, I am just glad I lived to blog another day :)

Day two

Day two at Camp Huntington. Such a nice day, the sun was out there was a little breeze, perfect for kayaking. Once we were out there in the water the breeze picked up to more of a gusty wind (at least it seemed that way on the water). We had a nice journey as a group out into the lake. Kitchen duty is officially over for me. It has been hard to adjusting to such a tight schedule (it seems like a tight schedule for me) I am not used to eating three meals a day and definitely not at set times. It really has been fun up here so far. I am looking forward to visiting the museums and also the rest of the week.

day one

We had a great first day. Camp Huntington is beautiful. The day was very relaxed and we learned alot of the history of the camp. I am looking forward to being able to kayak this week as the water is so peaceful. Well its time to get ready for kitchen duty this morning. Until next time.

Dave