Camp Hazelhurst Retreat
October 4-6, 2002


(note: pictures automatically open in the same new window)
On Friday (Oct 4), we all met at Barb Hall's house (she bought all our groceries) to load the stuff into the van and Eva's Subaru. These first two pictures (1, 2) were taken just after I got into the van. In the front seat are Charley, Ronnie, and Ryan. In the middle seat are Sean, Jesse, and Sarah. (Kurt and I were in the back, but aren't in these pictures.) The first part of the drive was quite slow, through a very intense rainstorm which ended quite suddenly just before we got into Jackson. I thought the rainbow (3) was pretty enough to photograph, but then we got out of the car and I was even more struck with the beauty of the receding line of clouds (4) and of the sun setting over a strip mall (5). I love that a flock of birds was artfully flying across each scene as I captured it on film the camera's CCD. After stopping at a Wendy's further down the road (Jackson didn't have any good places to eat), we realized we still had a couple hours to go, in a virtually pitch dark van. In order to occupy ourselves, we did such things as converting candy corn into fangs (6). (Okay, so Sarah's the only one who did that.) Finally, about five hours after we met at Barb's house, we arrived at Camp Hazelhurst and unloaded all of our stuff from the van (7).

Shortly after we got there, Irene (Eva's daughter) decided a cupboard would be a good place to spend some time (8). Once everyone had wandered around the farmnouse a bit, we went down to the beach, which was really windy (9 - Ronnie, Peter (Eva's son), Sean, and Kurt). Despite this, and the fact that the air and water were both fairly cold, every one of us decided it'd be a good idea to go swimming (10, 11 - Kurt, Ryan, Jesse and Sean (who switched places between the two pictures), Charley, Sarah, Ronnie, and me). Then we went back to the farmhouse, dried off, and began making apple crisp (12). While that was cooking, we did a small group activity involving beads and, you guessed it, small groups. The last group to finish consisted of Kurt, Irene, Ryan, and Ronnie (13). While everyone else cleaned up from making the apple crisp, Irene decided to read a magazine in the doorway(14). Luckily, we were later able to prevent Ronnie from exploding with rage at the fact that some of us hadn't helped clean, but it was pretty tense there for awhile(15). Ryan then decided to parody the picture of Dave Thomas we made fun of at Wendy's, but someone else apparently preferred Dave's version (16). While wandering around some more, we discovered that I don't fit quite as easily into a doorway as Irene did (17). Perhaps it's because I'm a bit larger than she is. Meanwhile, the apple crisp continued to cook, but the topping Barb had prepared for us didn't include butter, and the recipie she had written for us didn't include butter. We decided to take matters into our own hands, but apparently none of us is particularly good at spreading butter evenly around half-cooked apples (18). The stuff mostly turned out to be good, except for the parts that didn't have any butter on them, which turned out to be just a tad dry.

On Saturday (Oct 5), we mass-produced sandwiches to pack for lunch (19), which we planned on eating sometime during a walk that occupied much of the afternoon. On the way to the beach, we took a footbridge over this pretty little stream that went through Camp Hazelhurst (20). The water was much calmer than it had been the previous night (21). As we walked up the beach, I kept noticing really cool sand formations that had been caused by water flowing back out of pools that had possibly been formed by the previous night's waves (22). Then again, that doesn't seem like enough time for algae to have grown there (23). We then encountered this yummy-looking wing (24), that apparently didn't look as yummy as the rest of the bird to whatever ate the rest of the bird. I also found thought it was cool that the erosion ended so suddenly where the roots of the beach grass began (25). At one point, Ryan decided he was a pirate (26), but clearly he's not, because you're not supposed to be able to see out of a pirate's eye patch. The seagulls probably thought they were escaping us (27), but then they turned around and landed only a few yards behind us.

The dunes were our destination for the day, and the view from the top definitely made the climb worthwhile (28). The group seems to think itself pretty tough for having made the climb (29, 30, 31), but what you don't see is that everyone collapsed shortly after those pictures were taken. After some of us found a good place to jump plummet repeatedly to the sand below a dropoff, we decided it was time to go the rest of the way down and eat lunch. Jesse (I think it was him) ran partway down and somersaulted partway down. Sarah ran the whole way down (32). Eva rolled most of the way down, but kept losing her momentum (33, 34). Everyone else ran down together (35, 36, 37). Then we ate lunch, during which Jesse managed to get stung inside his mouth by a yellow jacket. But his toungue didn't swell to a comically big size, so I didn't take a picture of it. As we began walking back, I saw a kid following his parents, and I felt like someone should have informed him that the bucket he was dragging along was broken (38).

On the way back, I saw some more cool formations that had formed in the sand, and of course had to take pictures of them (39, 40). Then, for roughly the first time, I actually found myself in front of everyone else, so I used the opportunity to take a picture of the deserted beach ahead of us (41). Then we all decided to stop, and Ronnie, Charley and I stood and waited for the water to bury our feet in sand (42), but it never really happened. Everyone decided that would be a good place to sit for awhile, so everyone sat there for awhile (43, 44). Jesse and Peter used a Mountain Dew can to make a volcano (45), which actually ended up being quite deep (46). After we left, our little spot was quite a bit more disturbed (47) than it had been before we got there (48). Once again, I found myself back in the rear of the group, which at least allowed me to get them all walking into the proto-sunset (49, 50). Then I rejoined the group and loaned my camera to... Sean, I believe, who proceeded to take a couple pictures of Sarah, Ronnie, and me (51, 52) and one of the three of us and Charley (53). When I got the camera back, I immediately reverted to photographing scenes completely devoid of any human beings (54).

Back at the farmhouse, we hastily began making pizzas with a bunch of really tasty fresh ingredients, including onions, garlic, and bunches of other stuff that is not known for causing fresh minty breath. I had a bit of trouble transferring my pizza onto the tiles we had put in the preheating oven, so its final shape vaguely resembled that of a kidney (55). After everyone had eaten bits and pieces of everyone elses pizzas, we returned to the beach (56) for Eva to perform a sunset service (57). This was, of course, occurring as the sun set over the water (58). As I looked around during a brief meditation period, I was reminded of the quote from American Beauty: "Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in." I was apparently not the only one who felt that way, which was evidenced both by what some of the other people in our group said, and by the fact that some other people seemed so content to just sit and look at the water (59, 60). After the service, we built a fire and then four of us went swimming again. It was during that fateful swim that my glasses and I became forever separated, so the rest of the retreat is a little bit blurry in my mind. (Luckily I had an old pair of glasses back at school, plus several pairs of contacts.) Then everyone huddled around the fire for awhile, being entertained by Charley and Ronnie, who magnanimously agreed to let their fingers freeze in order to prolong the music (61). The first picture I took of the fire (62) was mostly taken because I think every campfire setting that includes a camera should result in at least one underexposed picture of the fire itself. But later I found myself sitting on the other side, and was amazed at the number of different colors I could see, very few of which turned out in the picture (63). Sara was never able to warm up by the fire, so on the way back, Ryan loaned her his cloak (64). Of course, that isn't Ryan, but Jesse, and given that she wasn't prepared to be blinded by a flashbulb, I'm sure Sarah would just as soon claim that isn't her in the picture, either.

When we got back, everyone cleaned up from making pizza and prepared some sort of heated beverage. Then we went and listened to the radio, while Eva attempted to teach some basic swing steps (65). A little while later, everyone was going to form a massage circle, which wasn't working out too well considering we didn't have enough people. I've never been that big a fan of backrubs, anyway, so I agreed to be in the back of a massage train, instead (66). (Though I was obviously not participating when I took that picture.) When everyone turned around, I decided to take a shower, because the smell of stale woodsmoke is definitely not one of my favorites, nor is the feeling of sand in all of my clothing. After that, Eva started showing people some basic yoga moves (67), which I failed miserably to reproduce. But other people were noticeably more successful at another position (68). Over the next hour or so, the group diminished, one person at a time, until finally the remaining three or so people decided it was time for bed.

On Sunday (Oct 6), we made a bunch of pancakes for breakfast, then cleaned up and headed back to the beach for our last small group activity. My group walked down the beach one way, one of the other two groups walked the other way, but no one happened across my glasses, which wasn't particularly surprising to anyone. When we reconvened by the picnic table, we found some beach trash (69), along with a bent peice of metal he had affixed to his head. Then we returned to the farmhouse for the last time (70), where we finished cleaning and signed a tablecloth that will henceforth be used as an altar cloth at our meetings (71). On the way home, we stopped in the lovely town of Historic Marshall, where we ate lunch at a little Chinese restaurant (71, 72 - Irene thought she could avoid being in the first picture, but I'm too smart for that). I could write more about the last little bit of our trip, but I didn't take any more pictures, and I'm supposed to be to a MARAL training in like 10 minutes, so I'll just go ahead and post this as it is.