Hey, Snail Mailers!

Writing letters is really in the spirit of summer camp, but it’s such an appropriate activity for right now in the winter season—a great time to flex your writing muscle and practice this therapeutic and cheerful indoor activity as we venture into the holiday season! Here are some great reasons to sit yourself down today and write a letter or two to some of the people you have in your life.

Process Events
Writing things down is an extremely useful means of people cementing events as they come to pass during the course of our lives. All of the people you meet, skills you learn, and things you do—it’s great to review all of those new experiences you’ve had to help yourself process and reflect on what you learned. Writing about your personal perspective can allow you to explore what you’re feeling.

Say What You Mean
Writing letters gives you an opportunity to write down your thoughts and express your feelings. We tend to feel more comfortable saying things to someone by means of written word that might go unsaid in other forms of communication such as talking face-to-face or texting.

Preserve Memories
Don’t leave your memories behind! Put them down on paper. Write about your school, home life, memories of summer camp, etc. Sharing fun memories is a great way to cherish a friendship or family relationship you have with the recipient of your letter! It’s always good to revisit a cool moment or an inside joke we may have shared with someone close in our life!

These are just a few of the many benefits there are to writing letters to people. Make the connection and spread some cheer as we venture into the holiday season! Put your pen to some paper and see what comes out! Happy Letter Writing Day and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Dessert Devourers!

The campfire craving that has everybody asking for “some more”, these gooey dessert sandwiches consist of chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker. Today is National S’more Day. There’s really only one dessert to have when you’re sitting around a campfire. S’mores, though they weren’t always known as such, are the traditional campfire treat that have been around for roughly a century.

America’s traditional treat, S’mores are sandwiches of roasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate between two Graham Crackers. Short for “Some more,” this delicious dessert got its name because of what it makes you say after you eat it: “Mmm! Can I have s’more?”

A man named Alec Barnum is said to be the one who invented the s’more, though the dessert’s true history is somewhat of a mystery as its recipe appears in a book that was written by the Girl Scouts in 1927 called Trampling and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.

You can make your own variations to s’mores recipes. Some people add peanut butter, others add fruit; as long as you have the initial three flavors, you have a s’more. In fact, all the desserts I listed at the beginning of this post can be made s’more flavored—s’more cake, s’more pie, s’more pudding, s’more brownies, s’more ice cream, s’more cookies, s’more dip, s’more bars, s’more donuts, s’more rolls…that’s—that’s a lot of s’mores.

Of course, big s’more fans here at Everything Summer Camp, join our S’more Bucks rewards program for our online store. It’s a fantastic way to get free money for little effort that’s redeemable for the camping gear available on our site.

Learn more about our S’more Bucks and get signed up with this previous Blog post. Appreciate your S’more Bucks as well as the actual treat and, as always, thanks for reading. Now go roast some ‘mallows and smoosh your S’mores together. Cheers!

- John

Hey, Fire Fans!

Did you know today is Campfire Day! I could go on like I have in the past with fire safety tips like finding a suitable location and sitting at a safe distance (read more when you click here) or go over the different methods of starting a fire like I did in this previous post that you can find right here. But campfires are all about hanging out and relaxing, so let’s just take it easy for this Blog post and talk about why campfires are so cool!

The Snacking
Fires lend themselves to good food. Whether you’re just passing a bag of chips or candy or you’re using the flames to roast your treat like marshmallows and S'MORES, campfires usually indicate there’s some fun junk food going around. 

The Storytelling
Something about the darkness of night and the frolicking flames, the atmosphere tends to eliminate our inhibitions and incite our instinctive nature to tell a good story. No matter if it’s a funny story, a true story, a scary story, some sort of combination of those, or you just got some good jokes or something, fires are the perfect venue to try them out!

The Mesmerizing
While a campfire tends to get people in a talkative manner, it’s always good to keep quiet for a while and let the fire do the talking. The crackles and pops of dry wood are warming and cozy with a spectacular display that’s mesmerizing to say the least.

Enjoy the camaraderie that comes along with those who you sit down with to share a fire—they’re likely some of the closest people in your life. And the magic of sitting around a campfire together is that you will likely walk away feeling even closer. Fires feed friendship! Happy Campfire Day. Enjoy it today by enjoying your own fire this evening. As always, thanks for reading, Camp Folks!

- John

Hey, Mountain Men and Women!

Conquering a mountain is no easy feat. Breathing gets harder at higher altitudes and each step is work to lift yourself that much higher. But the feeling of accomplishment paired with a view that can’t be beat urges folks onward and upward to do what many others might say is impossible. Celebrated all over the world but on differing dates, today is Mountain Climbing Day in the USA.

You’ll want to have conditioned your body to be the best climber you can be.

There are a few different ways you can start your training. There’s no better practice than actually climbing—that’s for sure—but even before practicing, there are great exercises you can do at the gym or maybe even right at home. Here’s how I broke it down:

Upper Body Strength
Climbing, of course, takes a world of Upper Body Strength to hoist yourself into higher and higher positions. Any kind of muscle-building exercises will work—push-ups, pull-ups (if you have a bar available), or weightlifting (if you have the proper weights) are great ways to build strength in your arms and shoulders. Even more intricate of an exercise are Hand Grips. These will help develop the muscles in your fingers to build dexterity for those difficult-to-hold-onto-rocks.

Lower Body Strength
Sometimes when climbing, you’ll need your legs to make impossible strides upward and to push the rest of your body to the next point of pausing. Jogging is always a great way to build up those leg muscles. You’ll also want to incorporate some of the exercises we recommended for horse riding like Front Squats and Forward Lunges. Exercises like these are sure to sculpt your leg muscles for the job.

Flexibility
Stretches alone are a great means of training your body to be able to make far reaches and gliding steps. Sitting with your legs outstretched and touching your toes is one great way to extend the span of your stretching. For those with a chin-up bar available, you can practice what is called a ‘Deadhang’ in which you hold yourself up by your fingers. If you have a Finger-Board, that would be most convenient.

Rock climbing is fun, but extremely strenuous work. Make sure you’re ready for it when you head off to your mountainous adventures. Happy Mountain Climbing Day and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Fans of Nature Photography!

Today is Nature Photography Day. It’s a day to promote and practice the wonderful art form of nature photography. A true master of the craft, Ansel Adams is one of the most well-known names in the field of photography. I covered him recently as one of photography’s great pioneers! Check out that Blog post by clicking right here.

It is so much fun to simply go traipsing through your local wilderness whether that be a forested path, a beautiful shoreline, flat prairie, rolling hills, or rocky desert and capture the visual glory of the natural world all around you to share with folks who didn’t have the experience or to help people see a common experience from your unique perspective.  

While the beauty of nature is never lost, it can shift quite drastically from one season to the next. Summer, of course, is when everything is at the peak of its liveliness and so Nature Photography Day has been set for June 15^th, just a week or so before the official first day of summer!

Indeed, the summer air is always buzzing with an incredibly active energy. Life abounds! The vegetation is rich with a lively green. Creatures of all kinds are moving this way and that for one thing or another. Birds are chirping. Bugs are literally buzzing. It’s a party!  

Get out to immerse yourself in nature and see what you end up seeing! You might come across some deer or beavers if there’s water around. Everything of the wilderness is growing which means it’s ever-changing. What something looks like today may no longer look the same tomorrow. So capture its existence as it is in the moment you come across it.  

Learn about nature and enjoy capturing it on camera. Nature is all around us. You don’t need to be any kind of professional. Just take part with whatever equipment you have and whatever nature there is around you. Happy Nature Photography Day and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John