All Aboard...

Today we woke to sunny skies and so we put on our bathing suits and loaded into the bus right after breakfast. We headed over to Edgartown where we all piled onto the marvelous catamaran "Mad Max". The whole camp fit on the boat so it was an excellent experience. People in the harbor were looking at us with curiosity as we left empty wheelchairs on the shore and carefully brought each person aboard.


Things could not have been finer for our morning sail. Except a couple of people puked. But this was to be expected we suppose, and even those who felt queasy at the start were laughing and enjoying the sights with the rest of us by the end.







After the sail we had a picnic lunch at Memorial Pier in Edgartown...

...and then we decided to head straight to State Beach in Oak Bluffs to hang out and swim...


This is a photo of Jon's first swim in the ocean this summer. He was kicking away like a little seal!

Here's a picture of Dick being loaded into the back of the bus. The other day Dick asked why we don't have a mechanical lift for the bus and vans and this is a good question. The answer is we find manual lifting a lot quicker and more versatile. It's more fun too! Although many of our campers use electric wheelchairs at home, we ask that they leave the motors behind when they come here so that we can lift the chairs ourselves. Also, the all the sand at the beach would mess up the gears.

After dinner we had "Challenge Night" which was a lot of fun. Here's Manny being challenged to and arm wrestling match by Sharon. Sharon won:

And here's David G. and Cathy D. battling it out in a heated dance off:

And here's Jordan and Tyrone is a corn flakes eating contest. Tyrone got a bloody nose during this one because he was diving into the bowl so hard. He kept eating the bloody cereal too. Gross city, dude!

We're all very sad that Sierra is leaving tomorrow. We'll miss you and hope to see you again soon!

Viva Las Vegas!

Jo-Jo woke up early as usual and stared knowingly at the grey skies. "It's going to rain," she said. And she was right. It rained again this morning so we called and postponed our much anticipated trip on the Mad Max catamaran. We're doing it tomorrow no matter what.

Faced with a rainy indoor day, we decided to transport the entire camp to Las Vegas. Our flight landed at 10 am and we all walked into a fine casino (it was actually the main cabin, masterfully transformed into a game room). We played poker and blackjack and also chutes and ladders and twister, two games which aren't so popular in Vegas these days, but worked well for us. Here's some shots from the Vegas morning:







After lunch things appeared to be clearing. We decided it wasn't warm enough for a beach day, but too nice to stay inside. So we loaded the entire camp on board the bus and drove out to Aquinnah to see the famous clay cliffs, take an all camp photo, and eat some ice cream.






While we were gathering for the photo Michael J. Fox walked up to us and said hello to everybody. He talked to just about all the campers and took photos. He was very nice. Here he is charming Nancy:



Life at Jabberwocky is not without it's conflicts. Here we see Manny attempt to snatch Bruce's hat and Bruce retaliates. It was a spirited, though good natured fight and they shook hands and made up afterwards, of course.





Hellcat came again for dinner and taught us all a tongues twister. We tried to get her to dance hip hop style but she wasn't up for it. After dinner we went to a dance performance which was memerizing to those who didn't fall asleep. Mad Max tomorrow!

A Restful Rainy Day...

Today we all slept an hour later than usual and rang the bell for wake up at 8:30. This rest was very welcome since we'd stayed up late the night before and then marched and danced our way through Edgartown on the 4th. The morning was spent at art and video classes. The art class made a huge "Happy Birthday" banner for Faith and we sang happy birthday for her as well. In fact, we sang that song for her at least five times over the course of the day.

By lunchtime clouds started to roll in and rain began pouring down before the meal was over. So we decided to watch a movie together down in the studio. Jeff hooked a projector up to DVD player and we watched "The Chronicles of Narina" while eating popcorn and making loud comments about the events on screen. "Look out for the wolves!"

We had a nice surprise visit from Chad and Sybil before dinner and Chad played us a few songs, including one called "Right Me Up" which was written about our own Manny Furtado here at Camp Jabberwocky. We did a few sing along numbers as well, including "Amazing Grace". Here he is singing his heart out with Nancy Jesseau. Thanks Chad!


The Mimsey gang went out to Lola's to celebrate Faith's birthday and it was reported that they did a lot of dancing afterwards. The rest of us ate here and then went to Community Sing at the Tabernacle. That was fun. We sang "Bingo" and "America the Beautiful" and the song leader asked if it was anyone's birthday and David raised his hand so the whole place sang for him. His birthday isn't until September, but he explained that he wanted everyone to sing to him now since we might not be around on the actual day. Here's Jackie and Sharon at the Tabernacle:

Sharon is a new camper who arrived on Monday. She is legally blind and her mother had been trying to find a spot for her at Jabberwocky for eight years. Every year she would call up to see if there was any room, and this year she finally heard the answer "yes!". She was very excited about this. Jackie is a pre-med student from Georgia. She'll be filling out med school applications soon and she said working here has provided her with a lot of great material for those med school essays. Hey, that's what we're here for!

This is Matt sitting inside the Tabernacle. He's a new camper from Acton, Mass. He's been very patient with us as we read the long list of instructions his parents sent over and try to figure out basic things like how to put him to bed. He just laughs when we do something wrong, like brush his teeth with his skin cream. Just kidding! We didn't do that. Not yet anyway. Thanks for joining us Matt!

Tomorrow we get up early for a big sailing trip on the giant catamaran Mad Max! Everyone aboard! Oh yeah!

Happy 4th of July!

Today was parade day here at Camp Jabberwocky. We like to celebrate our nation's birthday by heading into Edgartown, marching in the parade and waving to all the people lining the streets. We stayed up late the night before making costumes and floats which could fit over the wheelchairs. The hard work was all worth it as we got tremendous cheers from the crowds. The Swedes made an excellent bull out of paper mache and a cart and we had everyone running around trying to avoid it's long horns. It was a fun day.













We were all exhausted when we got home and we had a delicious spaghetti dinner back at camp. Hellcat made her first visit of the summer and it was very memorable. She got up after the meal was over told us all we need to work on making our handshakes more firm. Then she recounted a few stories from the old days at camp and told Sierra she needed a haircut to get her hair our of her eyes. Then the room got quiet and Hellcat began her famous recitation of the Jabberwocky poem. It was a meaningful experience for the new counselors and campers alike to be able to meet the founding mother of this wonderful camp. They gave her a standing ovation. The ones who could stand did anyway. We hope she'll return often this summer.


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