A Trip of Epic Proportions.

I'm home. It feels really strange to be here. I've only been gone for a week, but it seems like a month's worth of events have taken place. That being said, I don't think I could do the trip justice in just one post, so I'll start with the first part and post again later.

The purpose of my trip was to attend the annual conference for Rural Life Mission Inc., which is the mission that oversees the operation of Round Lake Bible Camp, which is the camp I volunteer at every summer. I officially applied in March to be year-round staff for camp, and the board of directors wanted to meet me and interview me before taking me on. The idea was that the conference would be a good time since it would give everyone a chance to meet me and spend some time with me before my interview. So, I met Mark and Christy at the airport at 10:30 on tuesday morning. Mark and Christy are the directors of Round Lake Bible Camp. We hopped on a plane and were of for Toronto. We spent just over an hour navigating the Toronto airport to find our baggage and our rental car and got on the road right away. (right after I found some take-out sushi for lunch of course)

The conference wasn't actually starting until Wednesday morning, so we had that whole day to do whatever we wanted. Since I was Mark and Christy's tag-along, I got to go to a town called Vineland with them to visit Christy's great uncle Don and his wife Vivian. They were great people! We spent a little time visiting at their house and then they took us out for an early supper at this cool little diner where I enjoyed a phenomenal greek omelette. We went back to their house after that and looked at some old (very old!) pictures of Christy's family. It was a really neat time connecting with them for sure. They had lots of neat stories about life in the air force and as a candy maker and other cool things. Don is also a painter, so it was neat to get to see some of his artwork. He also takes pictures of his paintings and makes them into notecards and he gave me a couple of those, so that was cool too. So, that was a really great part of the first day.

After we left Vineland, We set out for the cottage on Lake Erie where we stayed for the duration of the conference. We made a stop in a place called Selkirk which was right on the shore of the lake. Mark and Christy had found a really amazing place where there were huge rocks full of all different kinds of fossils. It was such a neat thing to see! I wish I had had a camera to take pictures! Every rock had a gazillion fossils in it. It was cool to speculate as to what they could have been before they were trapped in the rocks. The waves were crashing the whole time we were there and the air was fresh and crisp. It was a moment of beauty that I won't soon forget.

A short drive from Selkirk was the lovely cottage that we called home while we were at conference. It was such a nice place. 3 big bedrooms, a nice big bathroom upstairs and one downstairs too, cozy couches and lots of windows looking out on the lake. The sound of the lake when the windows were open was really relaxing and we enjoyed our time there immensely.

We played a little Scrabble that first night and then got to bed so that we could be well-rested for the start of conference on Wednesday morning. Overall, a great start to our trip. More to come later.