Bringing Alaska to Kansas

The past week it has been hot-- really hot.  Triple digits about every day.  I can't tell you how many times this week alone I found myself daydreaming about spending my summer in a cooler locale-- such as Alaska.  I feel in love with Alaskan summers last year when I worked at a Bible camp just north of Juneau for 3 months.  This year I couldn't return to the land of the midnight sun because I have to take summer classes.  However, this past weekend I beat the heat with some really cool gals as we tried to recreate Echo Ranch Bible Camp in Kansas.  Two of my fellow counselors from camp last year happen to be from Kansas.  Since none of us were able to travel back to Alaska, Brittany, Kimberly, and I met up for a mini camp reunion weekend.  Last year throughout the summer we would talk about some of the things we were missing from Kansas-- sunsets and wheat fields-- but this weekend all we talked about was Alaska and camp.

We met up in Lawrence for the weekend (Brittany and Kimberly are both KU fans and I still love them despite of this-- even enough to go to Lawrence which I usually avoid like the plague).  We kicked off the weekend with s'mores.  Kim and I had a trial run with the s'mores before Britt arrived just to make sure they were up to par.  Nothing says camp like eating s'mores and having melted chocolate and marshmallow ooze out all over the place.  We then started watching the highlight videos from each week of camp-- there were 12 videos in all so we paced ourselves and watched a few at a time throughout the weekend.  It was so fun to relive these memories with these girls and also see our campers on the videos who we spent so much time with during the summer.  Throughout the weekend we switched back and forth between Alaskan time and Central time-- Kimberly even still has her watch set to Alaskan time.  So while it was really midnight we pretended it was only 9pm which is the time all the counselors can get on the internet at camp.  We were able to chat online with a few of the counselors we worked with last year and we tried to make everyone jealous that we were having a glorious weekend in Kansas-- it think they were especially jealous of the Kansas part. 

The next morning we got up and Kimberly whipped up some baked oatmeal for breakfast.  I think her sisters thought we were a little strange that we carried on about how excited we were during the hour we waited for it to bake.  Baked oatmeal was a treat a camp-- if you saw it on the menu you counted down the days until it was served all week.  Kimberly nailed it with this batch.  I have made it a couple of times in the past year and it has been good but maybe it is just 10 times better when eating it in the company of fellow Echo Ranchers.  Of course one of my favorite weekend activities in Alaska was hiking so next we headed off into the wilds on a hike.  We headed out to Clinton Lake for our trek.  The first bit of the trail was paved sidewalk but it progressively got more wildernessy until we found ourselves somewhere in the middle of the woods without a trail surrounded by what appeared to be a large amount of poison ivy.  At this point we were wishing we had on hiking pants and knee high boots instead of shorts.  However all of us escaped unscathed.  We meandered down to the water to walk along the beach.  I found a piece of drift wood which made my day-- one of my favorite past times at camp was sitting on some drift wood along the beach.  We also found some dead fish-- just like Alaska.  I will say the dead fish didn't stink to high heaven like they did at camp but there was probably only 5 instead of thousands washed up along the beach.  We found our way back to the trail and continued our leisurely hike.  At camp the guys usually insisted at hiking double time but since there were no guys with us we got to set a much more enjoyable pace which allowed for more chatting and enjoying the surroundings.  We eventually emerged from the woods and walked on the road down to the marina.  Sitting at a picnic table on the edge of the water we watched a few kayakers float by-- we were pretty jealous of them.  Instead of seals, eagles, and whales there was a blue heron. 

Later that afternoon we spent some time just floating around the pool.  The water was warmer than the frigid 40F that the ocean at camp was and we actually got to work on our tans.  As we were floating in the water relaxing it hit me that while it has been a year since we had all been together yet we were able to jump right back in to sharing life together-- this is always a sign of an incredible friendship if you can pick up right where you left off even though you haven't seen each other in ages.  At camp we were a family-- we spent three months living together in close quarters, working together, playing together, and serving together.  Christian community builds this type of strong bond because we are held together in our love for Him.  This summer we are also all sharing the experience of wanting to be in Alaska serving at camp.  Each day a piece of our hearts are at camp-- we are checking Facebook for any updates about activities at camp, if our campers from last year came back for another week of camp, how the staff is doing, thinking about the campers hiking around the cove or if pizza bagels are on the menu for lunch.  My friends and family have heard story after story about Alaska but it is wonderful to share these stories and memories with the people I made them with. 

That evening Kimberly's mom made us supper which was delicious and we sat around the table with several of Kimberly's sisters.  I don't have any sisters so it is always fun to watch how sisters interact with one another.  I can't imagine ever asking one of my brothers if my shoes went with my outfit.  Also we babysat that evening-- after all how could this weekend be complete without us taking care of at least one kid.  Luckily at camp the youngest campers were at least 7 year old while this little girls was 18 months.  I do better with older kids but she was so cute and a lot of fun.  To finish off our weekend we watched the DVD made for all of the counselors which recapped the entire summer-- have I mentioned that there were so many wonderful memories.  We headed out to watch a Kansas sunset since that's something we really missed in Alaska.  However, the sunset was not one of Kansas' best but actually looked like an Alaskan sunset.  We also went out to get some frozen yogurt-- a perfect treat for a summer evening. 

Sunday morning we had baked oatmeal again-- it is one of those foods that is just as good as leftovers as it is the first time around.  We then attended church with Kimberly's family.  To end the weekend by worshiping together was special.  We reminisced about attending church each Sunday in a barn at camp.  I love the fact that no matter where I am in this world or who I am with if two or three are gathered in His name His presences is there.  Kimberly introduced us as her Alaskan friends even though Brittany and I are both native Kansans.  While at times I would love to go back to Alaska for another summer at Echo Ranch I am so thankful that God blessed me with the opportunity last summer to serve Him in a beautiful place with some wonderful people and that I made amazing friendships with these Sisters in Christ.