Hello!
Dee Dee (My Grandma) and I just got back to KAUST late Sunday night. The first day especially I was really tired. I almost took a nap whenever I sat down. When I flew from Frankfurt to Denver earlier in the summer it took me only about a day to get fully adjusted to Colorado time. I was in Denver for 4 days until camp started. Then we drove the 2 hour long drive to Buena Vista, where A/U is. We got there at about 2:30. That afternoon I basically played Gockey and bounced on the tramp the whole time. Gockey is a version of mini hockey except they play with little hockey sticks and a squash ball. At first I was really bad. But because I kept playing and playing I soon got to be pretty good. That night the head of camp told us all the rules and things we should know about camp. The next day the mountaineers went up to the ropes course. I still think it was one of my favorite days at camp. We went on this awesome zip line where you were attached on by a carabiner. Its a good thing too because the zip line goes 25 feet up in the air. It is definitely the best zip line I've ever been on. A few days later the mountaineers went caving in some caves about a 45 minute drive away from camp. We had to hike a little ways to get to the mouth of the cave. The cave was really dark and dusty. We all either had flashlights or headlights. The caves aren't huge, but it was still really awesome. At one point we had to army crawl with our flashlights off. It was really freaky but really fun. When we were all done with caving we went back to the mouth of the cave to find that we were all completely covered in a thick layer of dust. A few days later we went to a place called Turtle Rocks. It is an outside climbing place across the valley. It was kind of shaped like a turtle. We did a few climbs, then we hiked up to the turtle's head. We had a pretty good view of the surrounding 14ers. The next activity the mountaineers did was climb Mt. Yale. It was a really fun 3 days. The first day all we did was hike up to a camp site at about 12,000 feet. The next day we got up really early and started hiking. We hiked the first 2 hours in total darkness. We peaked at about 10, having hiked uphill for 5 hours straight we were all very tired. On the way down we had to go through some hail. I got totally soaked even with a rain jacket on. The next day we hiked back down to the parking lot. Thank you so much for reading this!
Hayden
Hayden is a strong hiker, climber, and uncomplaining companion in the Colorado Mountains, where, in August 2010, he and I climbed Grays Peak (14,270-the highest point on the North American continental divide). With his grand parents, he re-connected to his American roots, after a year of multi-cultural experience which few 9-10 year olds can claim. He is very observant and shared his insights about the people in places where he has visited. He answered many questions posed by American adults interested in learning from his experiences. The time shared together this summer in Switzerland and Colorado has been bonding for me and is a big part of my memory bank. Boppop
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