No, Seriously.

I just got home from Girls Camp, which is a week long church camp for girls aged 12 to 18. We do it during Spring Break here in Florida because it's not as hot and we're less likely to have to cancel for hurricanes.

I led the 4th year campers (15 year olds) on the High Adventure, an overnight expedition during the first two days of camp. This year we went to Keewaydin Island off the coast of Naples, which is this tiny little deserted island with no trees and few bushes, but mostly lots of sand.

As the weather reports came in the days before camp, we started getting worried. The outlook was lots of rain and wind. Sure enough, there were tornado warnings as we were meeting before dawn for departure. We loaded the gear in the pouring rain, drove across the state in the pouring rain, loaded the boat in the pouring rain, and offloaded our gear in the pouring rain. One boatload of girls thought they were lucky because they left late enough that the rain had slowed. However, they encountered 10-foot swells on their way to the island and arrived just as wet as everyone else.

Once the rain stopped around 2 PM, the wind became a real issue. Sand washed over us constantly, as we had no shelter or protection from the elements. No tables or chairs, no shade, no trees, no nothing. We experienced some difficulty setting up tents because they kept blowing over, even once we had put the 5-gallon water jugs inside them. The fire took an hour to light, even with the help of liberal amounts of Boy Scout juice (lighter fluid). By the time we finished eating, sung a few songs and had a quick devotional, the girls were ready for bed. And the scant shelter their tents could provide. It was 8:30 PM.

In the morning, we had the sandiest eggs I've ever eaten for breakfast. We broke camp, loaded gear and headed for home. The girls got back to the main camp with some war stories to tell, and they were really proud of themselves. It ended up being a great experience for them, and helped them bond with each other. So despite the many challenges, I don't think any regret having gone. Also, they didn't complain about it once, at least not to me. Then again, who's going to whine about how hard it is to camp in rain and sand and haul gear while you're hauling gear with a woman who's 7 months pregnant?

We're going to have to come up with a different name for the trip. The term High Adventure shouldn't be so true every year. Seriously.