“Lots of boys are tired,” allowed Mike Wiff over the weekend.  Nonetheless, a few trips went out and plenty of sports games were conducted on Saturday and Sunday.  Mostly, however, we held to Mike’s notion that an easier pace overall was the right call in anticipation of the fourth week of the session — always a fast-paced finale to the first tenure.

Stations games are one way to ease off the throttle.  Boys rotate through several different activities, usually as a cabin group, while the counselors stay put, adapting the rules and intensity of the games to each age group passing through.  Leisure games on Pines Field were a popular stop en route.

Board games on a lazy afternoon drew throngs as well as a sailing regatta and other waterfront activities in what is now a good heat wave.  It occurs to me now that most of these photos come from Saturday, which culminated in a movie down on the boating beach.  A gentle breeze fluttered, thus cooling everyone off while some dumb film was projected, much to the delight of the viewers, which did not include this camp director.

Sunday was another really hot day and we offered many of the same sorts of activities as we had the day before.  I went hiking with a group of 18 lads who trekked the full hour along the old Charlestown Road — defunct for over a century — past crumbling stone fences, through an ancient apple orchard, and gently up Aloha Hill to the Manning plaque — a tribute to a man who was killed in a train accident in 1924.  Manning was the chap who lived a gentlemanly and honorable life with an attitude of “clean mirth,” a touch of phrase we ask all the boys to ponder.

Last evening, I was drained by that effort in all the heat, so I sat on my cabin porch down by the water and watched the evening lake sponsorships through my binoculars.  I observed the quiet and happy flow of canoes, kayaks and a fishing troller — all Kingswood boats.  The last photo depicts the setting as the sun reached the near-end of its daily journey.  It was an exhausted,  but proud, camp director who hit the pillow on the early side last night.  Many of the boys did the same.