Upper Canada Village Time Traveler's Camp

Guest blogger Ashley reports:

Upper Canada Village's Time Traveler's Camp was SO much fun. I was in a room with 4 other girls, 2 of which spoke French as a first language, one who was bilingual, and another girl who just spoke English. We became very close friends. We stayed up late most nights, having therapy sessions (these were started by the boys whose room was under ours, and on the second morning when we asked why they had been so loud last night, they told us that they had done therapy).

We also worked on room decorations for the room challenge at night and whenever we had free time during the day. Another thing I did was work on a story that would make my English teacher proud. It was about a man named Kevin Irving Lloyd who lived in the attic above my room.

In the morning our overnight/morning counselor (in our house it was Lindsay, who happened to be me and my roommates favorite, and I'm pretty sure we were her favorites) would "wake us up" (we were always already awake) and send us downstairs and outside for morning exercises. Then we would go to breakfast, come back and put on our costumes, and clean, in case the person who would check to see if our room was clean would come then. After that, when the bell range we would go outside, and head into the village and go to our stations where we would be like an apprentice. I went to the printing office, wool factory, Tenant farm (for cooking), and Ross house (for making a braided rug). After our 90 minute apprenticeship, we would go to school, then make sandwiches, and eat them outside.

Then we would play games, such as baseball and croquet. Next came campers choice, where you could either go fishing, walk around the village, crafts, or just downtime. I went fishing one day, and downtime the rest to work on decorations for the room. On the last day I went on the

boat that was pulled by a horse.

After that, we would put on regular clothes for dinner, then we went to the Chrysler hall to play evening games, such as capture the flag, and sardines. Then the people who had nighttime showers, which included me, took their showers and got ready for bed. Next it was story-time. This was hosted in my room twice, the boys room once, and a room in the other house twice. One of the counselors would read part of the book we were reading that week. It was some long book about a castle. During story-time I read, drew, and worked on my story about Kevin (I'll tell you it later). Then it was lights out. For my room this was when we read, decorated the room, talked, and pretended to sleep when Lindsay came in.

There was one night that one group had dinner chores, but they complained because they had already had them twice and the other groups had only had it once. So the counselors decided that we would do a competition where everyone would be quite all through dinner, and the first person to talk, their "family" would have to do cleanup. But they also said that if nobody talked, the counselors would do the dishes. That night was the funniest night at camp. Everyone had to find a new way to say, "pass me the butter please." My family almost had to do dishes because I apparently got two strikes for almost laughing. A boy diagonal from me had to explain it to me. I guess he saw the counselors miming it to each other. It took him a long time to explain it to me because I couldn't understand what he was trying to say. My friends and I got tired of not being able to talk to each other, so we took our corn kernels and spelled out things with them. The counselors had to do dishes. That was also the night that all the toilets in the house were broken. It was not fun.


We lost the room challenge by 0.03 points! Very disappointing.

On the last full day, we did a campfire and had s'mores, but we did not roast the marshmallows (shockingly, they don't trust us with pointy sticks and fire). That night, all the people in my house stood in the entrance way and sang "Beatles" songs. Lindsay was not happy when she walked in, 10 minutes before lights out, to find everyone wide awake and singing--not very well--at the top of our lungs.

On Monday we did Loyalists day. It was funny because I always learn about the Patriots, but then I could see a different side of the Revolutionary War.


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Notes from Jacquie:

Last year's report -- lots of similarities, but this year was 5 nights instead of 2, so more time to bond with friends. With the rain, there were a lot less tourists this year. Plus, she as there midweek instead of on the weekend.

This was the first time it was so cold at summer camp that they needed to hand out coats as part of their costumes.

Ashley is already thinking about returning next summer.