“Lets go! We are going to be late!” My father exclaimed. It was time to leave, we had gotten up early just for this. My family, Eileen, and I piled into the car using up all of the seats in my van. We made the drive down to Christopher Run Campground at Lake Anna. It did not take but 30-45 minutes, but this time felt like ages. I heard the crunch of gravel under tires announcing that we had arrived. I hopped out of the car, so excited to be there. My hairs stood up on end as I quickly put my jacket on. I hoped that it would warm up soon.

“Look, I think they are here!” My brother shouted, pointing to a white van. I followed it with my eyes to the end of the parking lot. I followed the counselors that hopped out, making my way over to the dock. “ Here, get a life jacket then hop in the boat.” The male instructor said while setting down a box with life jackets. I obeyed, stepping into the boat, I was unsure what exactly to think. From the reports of my brother’s past experience, I was expecting it to be a tough workout resulting in sore muscles.

  We started up the lake until we got past the NO WAKE bowie. Then we picked up speed, I was pleasantly surprised by how much the front of the boat raised up making a movie like effect.

“Who wants to go first” Our driver asked.

“ I do!” I eagerly volunteered. Because of my ignorance of water skiing, I assumed I would go behind the boat. But luckily I was able to practice on a bar off the side of the boat.

“Come to the back of the boat and get your skis on.” The instructor told me. I got my skis on.

“Swim to the side of the boat and grab on to the bar.” She instructed. I am a natural swimmer and I love the water so swimming was an easy command, but with the weight of the skis weighing me down it took me some effort. I grabbed hold of the bar and waited for further instructions.  “Now grab onto the bar with your arms extended, and curl up into a bar.” She informed me. I heard the hum of the motor, and the boat started moving. It gradually picked up speed. As soon as the boat reached full speed, I was up! “Straighten your arms, and make your back straight.” She corrected, shouting over the wind and the motor.  It was surprisingly effortless. It was a little awkward though, because of the rapid wind my hair uncomfortably whipped my face.I was doing great, I was up for what seemed like an eternity. They then told me to let go, which I gladly did. They circled around. “Now we are going to throw you the rope, and you are going to grab onto the grip at the end.” Alex, the driver, instructed. I waited, listening to the rustle of equipment and people moving around the boat.

    I stayed in the water and they threw me the rope with a short bar at the end for gripping.

“This will be similar to the bar off the side of the boat.” The instructor projected over the motors of the other boats. “This will have a little less resistance on the bar but you will be okay.” She said trying to encourage me.

“Okay” I said unsure of myself. The instructor noticed the unsteadiness in my voice and tried to reassure me.

“You will be fine. You did great on the bar,and you didn’t fall off! Remember, if you fall over, put your hand up high, so that other boats will see you while we are circling back around to get you.”

I grabbed onto the grip and they continued a little bit farther forward in order to make the rope straight. I was nervous because in my mind there was no room for error, I imagined the embarrassment I would feel if I failed. I heard the hum of the boat and I quickly snapped into focus mode. I was as ready as ever. I was in position as the boat started. I jolted forward and surprisingly was up! I was so proud as I heard the encouragement and cheers from the boat.

  It was seemingly easy as I adjusted my grip for comfort. I was so proud, I was enjoying it so much that time flew by and it was the end of my turn. I let go and, like before, they circled around and I got into the boat. I had so much adrenaline. My family congratulated me and my day was complete. I could not wait until I could do it again. But my trip was not over, next up tubing!

It was hot and sunny outside.Grace and I were standing on the dock. The hot wood burned the bottom of my feet. We prepared to board the miniature vessel. Grace was visiting for the summer and my dad thought it would be fun to float around on a little raft of boredom for the day. I wish I was at the beach right now.

“Come on Hannah, lets go!” Grace had already gotten into the little raft.

“Here I come,” I walked over to the tiny vessel, climbing in very carefully trying not to tip the little boat. I had just dried off and I had no intentions of getting soaked again. I am not going to get wet again today. Grace and I got settled and started to row away from the dry dock. Why couldn’t I be standing on that wonderful dry dock right now.

“You know Hannah, sandbar sharks can live in water this deep, and they don’t like salt water so this would be the perfect habitat for a sandbar shark,” she gave me a smug little grin.

“Haha Grace, that’s really funny. There aren’t any sharks this close to shore.” I peeped over the edge scanning the sea floor. There are no sharks here, I thought to myself. Grace’s words kind of shook me but I quickly forgot the whole sandbar shark story. We slowly rowed away from the calm peaceful, not to mention dry, dock. We rowed a little bit further and stopped. I looked back at the tiny little wood stand far away.

I peered into the dark water again just checking to see if I saw a ghostly fin down below. The water was so deep I couldn’t see the bottom any more. I wouldn’t want to fall into that water.

“Hannah what’s that.” Grace’s forefinger directed my eyes to a dark shape moving down below in the water. Grace looked up our eyes met. We both knew what we were thinking. SHARK!

“You know that dock looks pretty friendly right now.” I gestured towards the dry wood stand, that now looked no bigger than my thumb. We both grabbed our paddles and prepared to head back to the dock. We had just pushed off when our little craft started to tip.

“Lean Grace lean!” we both shoved all our weight to one side. The raft started to lean the other way. We thrashed around like a fish out of water, scrambling away from the cold water and the big dark shape down under. Water splashed everywhere. We’re not gonna make it I thought. I gripped the sides of the boat waiting for a rush of icy cold, but it never came. The water settled around us and our little vessel went back to the calm movement that it had obtained when a low wind picked up.

“That was a close one.” Grace stammered as she caught her breath. I looked back into the water to get another look at the mystery shape that had been right under us.

“Hey, I think it left.” My eyes cut through the water like a hawk. Where’d it go? There was no sign of the dark object any more.

“What left?” She too looked down into the water.

“The big shape that we saw.” Grace’s face relaxed

“Look! There’s something else, but it’s much smaller.” Grace Pointed to a dark object in the water that was slowly drifting over  to the raft. It was much smaller than the first one that we had seen just a few minutes earlier.

“Wait a minute.” I reached my long oar down into the water.

“What are you doing? How do you know it’s not going to kill you.” Grace leaned back from the edge of the boat but not all the way still trying to see what was happening under the water. I lifted up my long oar, scooping up the dark shape as well. When my oar came above the water a big pile of seaweed fell into the raft. Grace and I both slid back. We stared at the huge hunk of seaweed sitting on our lap. High pitched squeals of laughter escaped from our lips . We plopped the mountain of seaweed back into the water, and with our faces red from laughter we rowed back to the dock. I’m so happy thats over. After jumping out of the tiny raft we ran as far away from that thing as possible. There was no way we were ever going to ride in that thing again.

The car screeches to stop my head jerks and I think in my head ‘’probably a jerk who doesn’t know how to drive.’’Mr.C says “Ronaldo you okay?” It’s not it’s a squirrel crossing the road he crawls past the car in a strut. We look at the squirrel wondering when it is going to move and sprints away. My brother and I start laughing. We keep going, sing songs and tell stories about our past memories and funny moments. We reach a part of the road that has hills. We start going fast and my stomach starts hurting from the hills but I don’t care its fun, so we just stick our head out the window and act like dogs. The hills end and we see horses in the distance we look in awe at them and ask if that’s it but Mr.C (The person who is driving and my friends dad) and he says ‘’no just a couple of minutes left.’’And we see another group of horses and we ask again and Mr.C says ‘’yes.’’. And we are jumping in our seats pushing to see. When I get to see I look in astonishment at the horses who roam around the field. I only get a few seconds to look before my brother (Larry) pushes me out of the way and I somehow find myself sitting in the car floor Bob, Jack, and Larry start laughing and help me back up. We stop and ask where is our campsite they say campsite B in a happy way we drive up a hill and then I notice the ground is too muddy and slippery to get up we start sliding down the  Mobile couldn’t go up so we back up all the way and we start  going about 60mph and we reach the top. And get our tents out and start setting them up.

      We set our tents up. My brother and I were going to share a tent so we put our stuff in the tent set up our sleeping bag and go outside to eat lunch.  I have a lunchables uploaded sandwich with creamy Oreos and a strawberry and banana smoothie.  I pick up the sandwich and take a huge bite out of it ,it tastes good not the best but it’s good. I finish it and start on my smoothie it is nice and creamy. And it includes Oreos my favorite. And finish eating.

      Mr.C walks out and said ‘’Want to go fishing? ’We all say yes in an exciting tone. We all grab fishing poles and sprint to the nearby lake. We have trouble putting on the hooks so we just let Mr.C do it, once we all have hooks on we have a decision live worms or shrimp I’m the only one who picks shrimp but they have trouble because they keep squirming and they feel bad to stick a hook in them but they end up doing it. We all bring our chairs to sit on so we won’t have to stand. Its slow at first but then Jack feels a tug and yells ‘’I GOT ONE’’ he starts reeling in and out pops out a nice orange and yellow fish I recall it being called a sunfish fish. It’s a decent size. Its catch and release so we let it go after taking a pose. He decides to put in the water and let it swim away. As soon as it touches the water it darts away we continue fishing. About 5 minutes later my brother yells ‘’I GOT ONE’’ he reals it in I can its big by the struggle he’s putting in. He finally gets it to shore it’s a huge on about 15 inches. I think it was a bass he takes a picture of it (all the pictures to show our mom) and apparently he wants to prove he can throw far and he gets a running start and just chucks it out in the pond he starts to laugh but inside I  feel bad for it ,but I keep on going. After about 5 minutes I feel a tug I think probably some seaweed but it tugs again it’s a fish! I yell out’ ’GOT ONE!’’ everyone comes to see I reel and reel bang its out. It’s an enormous fish. I think in my head probably it’s big enough to feed a family of 6 and in the end stuffed like a turkey on Thanksgiving. It’s half the size of me we take a picture of it and release it back into the water and that is it for the day. We put our fishing poles away and just sit till Mr.C ‘’Come on guys pack your things we are going horseback riding’’

         As we walk down the gooey and slimy road the dirt gets us all dirty. So we are hopping all over the place finding a patch that isn’t so muddy. In my head I’m thinking don’t get so dirty don’t get so dirty. And as soon as imp done with that. SPLAT! I look back and Jack is on the floor  on he isn’t that dirty I think in my mind then he stands up and his pants are covered in mud. He says ‘’Yay I get new pants’’ we all start laughing and walk back to the camp and wait till he is changed. As we walk back down we are even more caution about where we step so we take a stick and poke everywhere we are about to step on. Finally we reach the bottom. We knock on the front door to the lodge and ask if we are on time the lady says ‘’Are you guys the 1:30 group?’’ Mr.C says yes then she says ‘’Have you guys already gone horseback riding we all say yes then she says ‘’Do you want another lesson on how to?’’ we decided no. Then she says come, and get your helmets.  I think where is the smallest  one then  see a ‘’S’’ for small then realize that it is out of my range so im jumping trying to get a finger on it ,then Mr.C walks over grabs it and says “here little guy” I say thanks strap it on and walk outside where everyone is waiting for me.

 As we walk into where the horses are kept I see a couple of people riding out.  As we are walking I see a little ginger cat prowling at his prey. He bounces at his prey and stands up with a little toy mouse.  I ask what’s its name ,and is it a boy or girl. She says “that’s Buns, and it’s a boy “I look for it but it has disappeared. As we get to the barn I see about nine or ten horses tall and short. I see all the way in the back a small little horse the smallest one they have. They say pick anyone you want, and of course I dash all the way to the back.

   And right there a dark brown horse stands. A man walks over and says “So Ronaldo pick good ol Cricket fine little horse” I say thanks and he walks away. We all walk out and get on our horses then Erick walks out with a nice black horse its cool but I wouldn’t trade it for Cricket. As we are walking we just start talking until we reach this big hill. We climb up it with our horses  we keep on walking then we reach a small little stream. Its muddy so we go one by one we all get pass but our legs were sprayed with water. And I realize Cricket seems to be very hungry because he keeps trying to eat the leaves I don’t let him because its bad for him so I tug him away from it. I spot in the distant a red bird flying and just point at it and say a Robin everyone looks and says cool. Erick says “There is a feather of a Blue Jay we look down and right there is a nice blue feather we keep walking till we go down hill we all go “YAHOO” and trot down the hill waving our arms around like a windmill acting like a we are cowboys. But for some reason Cricket keeps on trying to eat the leaves I keep tugging trying not to let him eat it. It seems like a short ride then we all come to a flat plain of grass he tells us to stop. We all do and he says who wants to race the all time winner we all take up the challenge except Mr.C who wants to video tape it. He starts counting out loud, but I count in my head On Your Marks Get Set… GOOOO.

I woke up to the sound of loud music pumping from Andrew’s truck and arose, pondering the thought of what we might do today.  I was smiling, knowing that I was at the best camp ever, called Jeremiah Project.  Jeremiah Project is a christian camp that middle school kids can sign up to do at their church.  At the camp, you basically do charity work, rebuilding houses for those less fortunate.  I slipped on my work clothes, and joined the other campers.  Outside, I met up with Chris, the guy who played guitar and led the worships, my best friend Beck , and Andrew,  but he was half asleep in his truck because it was 7:00 in the morning.  The other campers moved like zombies as Ashley Chanted: “ JP CAMPERS, WAKE UP!!!”  and I sipped on some coffee.  We all went into the mess hall and I hesitated when I approach the lunch line staring at the sugar-coated french toast.  (I felt sick because it was so early) so I just ate some lucky charms. When we all finished, we swarmed outside and got into our work groups, anxious to find out what our assignments would be.  We all had designated jobs, and mine was “The Lunch Preparer” they chose me because I would always sneak in extra chips.  We loaded Glenn’s enormous chevy and were off.

   When we arrived at the worksite, we saw just how much we needed to work, and were mortified.  The roof was leaky, the gate was broken, the paint on the house was chipping and the grass was dead and full of garbage.  There was no way we could fix all of these things in one week, but we started working as soon as possible!  I was in charge of sealing the roof, which is the absolute worst job you could possibly have.  I was just about to finish, but the sky turned grey and gloomy, and I felt a raindrop hit the tip of my nose.  Then two, then three, and then it was flat-out POURING.  We all fled into the cozy house, and were shocked.  We had done so much work, but it would all be ruined.  The new paint on the house had not dried, and the sealer on the roof was giving way to the icy rain.  We all watched as small drops of water slid down the wall, and to the floor.  The project was over, we had lost to the rain.

   The next day, I was playing soccer with my sister and the ground was still slick with rain water, so when I lunged to the ball, I fell to the ground twisting my ankle.   I was in so much pain that I  cried.  I hopped to the nurse, who wrapped my ankle in an ace bandage and gave me a bag of ice.  Then, it was time to go to work.  At first, I knew it would be a bad idea to go, but then I thought about the poor family that we were helping, and I decided to tag along.  We hopped into the truck and left.  It had rained for two days, and we would leave the camp tomorrow.  We looked and saw that the paint had stayed on the house, but the sealer was trashed.  I could not get back up on the roof either, because of my injured ankle.  Our group leader was sealing, and I was picking up the trash in the lawn.  We fixed the fence, and prayed that it wouldn’t rain again, because the seal was still drying.  When we finished, we stood back and awed at our finished product, and it looked like a completely different house.  The family thanked us with a delicious lunch, and we left.  When we got in the car, Glenn took us to packs, an ice cream shop, and it was amazing.  I was full, and walked to the car.  We then left and got ready to leave the camp.  We packed up all of our stuff  and said goodbye to everyone there.  Then, we left for good.

  The clear blue sky was shimmering in the reflection of the water. The puffy white clouds looked like marshmallows. My ears burst from the sound of the motor boats. My hand touched the snorkel. The mouthpiece felt like gel. My arms felt the breeze from the cold New York air. Keuka Lake’s water was so cold, the coldness tingled up my spine.

“Snorkeling is going to be so fun!” I shouted to Caroline.

I have never seen a fish swimming in it’s real home. My face tightens from the goggles on my face. I knew I was going to have goggle marks this time.

  I have never snorkeled and I assumed it was easy. I was totally wrong. I tried and tried to breath without getting water in my nose. Why can’t I do this? Everyone else could do it but me. Water kept coming like a tsunami. I realized I needed to try breathing through my nose. My nose was numb and all I could see was the fog in my goggles.

    “One,Two,Three,” I said and went under the cold water.

With all the excitement I only saw a glimpse of the underwater environment. There was blue everywhere. It felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders, I knew how to Snorkel! I sprung out of the water and had a huge smile on my face.

“Caroline! I know how to snorkel!” I exclaimed!

 My hands went into action and cleared my goggles. I dove into the water. I was so excited I didn’t realize how cold the water really was.

  Green and Blue surrounds me. I went into a different world. I have never pictured the water to look like this. The vibrant colors, the reflection of the boats. How could this be an animals’ home? It went shallow to a deep black pit. My hands started shaking, where were the fish? My stomach was doing flips. I went up to breath but I quickly went back under.

When I went up to breath I said, “This is going to be so fun!”

I couldn’t just stop snorkeling, I haven’t even be in the water for 5 minutes, I thought. There was no way being scared was going to stop me. I have to be a fish instead of being afraid of the fish. Then, I felt like a fish swimming through the cold water. My feet were the tail and the snorkel were the gills. My gills were breathing in and out. Seeing a fish would be awesome. I imagined the fish, orange and black stripes down it’s back. I would follow it and follow it wherever it goes. I never wanted the fish to leave.

A sound burst into my ears as it traveled through the water. It’s the signal. My feet kicked like a motorboat to the sound. Caroline was there pointing at the fish. One, two, three, four and five fish were under the slimy green seaweed. I couldn’t believe the sight. We were screaming with joy. I shook my head and pretended to scream underwater to Caroline. I made out a smile even though I had the snorkel in. The butterflies flew out my stomach. I just looked at the fish, admiring what they are doing. Orange stripes were the fish’s coat. A long tail was the fish’s protector from it’s predators. I wanted to dive straight to the fish but I knew I wouldn’t be able to breath. When are they going to get scared, are they trapped? The moment lasted forever. From all the excitement I started breathing like when your crying really hard. My breath microphoned through the snorkel. Caroline snapped her head and put one finger up to her lip.

She made out the words, “Stop!”

I stayed still holding my breath, not to make any noise. Everything went silent. My whole body froze. I hope they don’t leave.

The family of fish reacted and flapped their tails as fast as their body’s could make them. I closed my eyes from disappointment.

“No!” I scream through the snorkel.

 I thought of all the excitement I had from seeing the fish. I just needed to see them one more time.

  We reacted and followed the family of fish. Water bubbles were behind us looking like a hot tube. We were hidden from all the bubbles. Caroline and I went up to have one more gasping breath before we went exploring again.

“I want to keep looking, I said.

Without responding we went back underwater. We tried to do everything we could to find the fish again. Caroline went left and I went right. Searching and searching for the fish. The family of fish knew we were following them and went to every seaweed hiding place in the lake.Where in the world could they be? My eyes got tired of looking for them. I gently close my eyes and just listened to the boats, and the little splashes the water made against the shore.

  I knew the fish were gone. Caroline and I met up. My toes felt the rocky slope while I walked toward Caroline. She could tell I was disappointed.

“We will just keep looking,” she said, while putting her snorkel back into her mouth.

I touched the snorkel ready to go back into the water. I felt like a real diver. “SPLASH!” went the water when we dove into the water. I imagined the water looking perfect and then us disturbing it. Ripples circle around the area we were in.

Caroline and I didn’t scream to make the signal. There was no fish to make the signal. We probably scared all the fish away, I thought.  But that’s ok. There are always more and different fish in the sea. Any fish big or small, blue or gray, and purple or pink will come eventually, I thought. My hands grasped the snorkel and pull it out of my mouth.

“That was fun!” I screamed to Caroline.

I forgot that I didn’t see the fish and thought of the great joy and excitement from snorkeling. Next time I will see even more fish and still have a great time.

It was a hot muggy summer day in Wyoming. My family and I were in our rental car with the A/C blowing air.Our car was on a bumpy dirt road en route to the trail head. Then after a thirty minute car drive from our campsite we reached the parking lot with only two other cars. We stepped out of the car. Sitting in the trunk we slipped on our boots, I wasn’t very thrilled because my back ached from sleeping on rocks for the past three nights. My face scrunched up to the wretched smell of wet, dirty hiking boots. Then our mom took out her phone and checked the forecast.

“Rain….. that’s great weather for a hike,” my mom said sarcastically.

“Oh it’ll be fine, a little rain won’t hurt anything….. will it,” My dad asked.

“You’re right lets go”!!! my mom exclaimed. We were off down the trail.

Crunch, crunch is the sound of our boots stomping along the trail. By the way the sky looked it looked like we are in for something special.

“Wow,”I exclaimed as I bowed my head to the left. There I saw a majestic river  flowing like silk in the wind. Also to our left we gazed at a beautiful wide pasture with a small bison herd. “Nature at its finest boys”, my dad declared. Further down the trail we could faintly make out a crashing rumbling sound of a waterfall. “You guys hear that” my brother said.  ” yup”, I replied.  We made our way down the trail and the roaring noise got louder until we got to the waterfall.

“WOW”, I exclaimed upon  looking at the first and most majestic waterfall! I looked over at the green flowing water rush over the edge. Then it dropped forty feet to the rocks below!!!.

“That is downright amazing”, Owen my brother said. Of course we were all speechless as we stared at the immense glory at the trail.

“There are two waterfalls here so let’s get going down the trail. But, as none of us knew we were in for a big and wet surprise later.  Soon down the trail we came to the second waterfall, this one was way down in the valley.  We stopped here and took a little rest break  and ate some food.

“Great, a great big hike ahead”, my dad said while looking at the map.

“What is it”, I asked?

“Look”, he said.

I looked over his shoulder at the map. I could now tell why, because the map showed a one thousand foot incline in ½ of a mile to the overlook. After our little break  we started down  the trail  and looked up. “Uh-Oh”, I said in astonishment. The trail was a thin heavily wooded tail that was at a twenty degree angle. We marched on and up.  The towering cumulonimbus clouds started to take place!!!

“Huh,uh,uh,uh”,  we panted heavily just as we reached the top and get to the overlook. At the top we gazed at a a massive view of the valley.

“Isn’t that pretty”, my mom said in astonishment.

“Those clouds over there are awfully dark and low”, my dad said. Just after he said that, pip-plip the noise of rain drops. That’s not good we all thought, we also thought that being up high on a mountain in a thunderstorm isn’t too good. Then BOOOM  the thunder roars like a jet’s engines. “Ah”, my mom shrieked as the water came pouring down on us.Only one thing occurred to us, RUN and that’s exactly what we did.

Our family booked it down the trail, fast. We of course were soaked as we swiftly sarcastically. “Yeah, really”,I retorted. CRACK BOOM, is the monstrous roar as lightning flies down on the mountain above us.”Let’s get going”, I inquired, we made our way down the trail yet again running. The rain got thicker, the visibility got less, and the trail got sloppier.  We quickly passed the first waterfall and marched up to the parking lot.  We definitely had to watch where we were going because there was a lot of rain and mud on the trail.

“Whew”, we all said with relief as we sat down in the car soaked from head to toe. we hopped in and grabbed a few towels.  Our hair was dripping with water, I felt like a million pounds because my clothes were heavy and wet.What a great day, its now ruined I thought angrily, but at least  we got a refreshing little thing to cool us down after a big hike. That was the good part.

“Quite the experience”, my dad said,

“Definitely”, Owen said,

“It was definitely the Yellowstone adventure”, I concluded!!