What's up, gang.
So this summer we enrolled the girls in a couple 'camps' through The Rock, a foundation that sponsors an after-school program for students, where kids can hang out at their school - work on homework, hang out with friends, screw around, whatever - until their parents get out of work and can pick them up.
We've relied heavily upon this awesome service since moving back to Michigan, it's
ridiculously helpful as it
a.) ensures your child is getting all their homework done
before they come home and you have to worry about it,
b.) they're being supervised until you can pick them up, and
c.) they're getting some social time in where they can burn off a day's worth of steam
before coming home and losing their shit at home.
And did I mention it was free?
Yeah, it's free, too.
 |
| Midland Community Center, a long ass time ago. |
Anyway, the Rock puts on these '
camps' throughout the summer for students in various age groups, but sadly, these are
not free as well. I use the term 'camp' loosely here because it's really just a week-long stint at the
Midland Community Center: students sign in at 9am, get breakfast, they do a series of activities and games related to the theme of the particular camp they signed up for, have lunch, have some down time (where they can play with other kids, play games, screw around on their phones, read, etc.), then a few more activities/games, followed by swimming in the community center pool, then a to-go dinner and parents pick up.
 |
| Abby's, Alayna's, and some friend's. . . um. . . feet. |
At something like
$125 per child, it's pretty cheap daycare - especially considering
all three meals are provided free of charge, as is
all the usage of the community center's amenities (including the pool.) For parents who work throughout the year, this would probably be a no-brainer to sign up one's kids for as many camps as humanly possible (and believe me, spots fill up ridiculously fast.) For Yours Truly, who sits around on his ass all summer long, it's a harder sell, seeing how I can take care of my kids, feed them, etc. . . for free.
 |
| The harbor of Mackinaw City. |
A couple things motivated us into pulling the trigger on three camps per Hough kid this summer:
1.) it would break up the monotony of the summer weekdays for the girls, and
2.) some company in town stepped in and
fully sponsored several fields trips for these summer camps (one field trip per camp, all summer long.) For the girls' first camp - some camp called
The Ancients where they learn about ancient civilizations - the girls spent one of their camp days up on
Mackinac Island.
Free of charge.
When you consider how much gas, meals, a ferry ticket, Fort Mackinac admission, and the Butterfly Gardens admission is, it's probably just about $125 per child for that day alone, so getting a whole week-long 'camp' for the same amount that includes a fully-paid day on Mackinac was pretty damn awesome.
 |
| Uhh. . . here's some kid. |
Obviously neither Kris nor myself went on this trip, but we gave the girls some souvenir money and made sure they had cameras on them and ready to roll. All the following pictures you're gonna see in this post were taken by either Alayna or Abby, so be forewarned.
With that being said, folks, I'll leave you peruse at your leisure - the Hough Girls' Field Trip to Mackinac Island:
 |
| I'm assuming this tram thingy shuttled people to the awaiting ferry. This pic was taken from The Rock's Facebook page - you can spot Alayna and Abby in the third row. |
 |
| Alayna is hidden by some chick's big-ass head, but you can spot Abby all the way to the right in the third row. |
 |
| The Mighty Mac |
 |
| Looks like the kids all sat on the very top level of the ferry. I made sure to tell the girls if they did this they had to stow their hats and other loose items in their backpacks and make sure they had tight grips on their bags and cameras. Remarkably, they actually listened to me. |
 |
| God, I hate this bridge so f***ing much. |
 |
| Okay, this picture of this lighthouse is pretty cool. Far more artsy than I'd think an 11-year-old capable of. |
 |
| Coming into port. |
 |
| Just in case you were curious as to which ship line their group took on this trip. |
 |
| Just in case you were curious as from which city their ship disembarked. |
 |
| Arriving on the main strip of downtown. |
 |
| A house. |
 |
| Bikes. |
 |
| A lamp post. |
 |
| A flag. I'm kicking all sorts of ass with these captions today, guys. |
 |
| Fort Mackinac. Coolest thing on the island, in my opinion. |
 |
| Walking up to the fort. |
 |
| The park below the fort, featuring the statue of that one guy. |
 |
| Gun holes in the palisade. |
 |
| Blockade House |
 |
| Informational placards. Always fun. |
 |
| This is new. Pretty creepy if you ask me. |
 |
| A cannon, trained on the harbor. |
 |
| Looking from the fort down to the downtown drag below. |
 |
| Classic. You can totally tell these girls are my offspring. |
 |
| Abby, the snappy dresser. |
 |
| I guess at this point in time they were walking from the Fort to Arch Rock (not a pleasant walk, if I remember correctly. . .) |
 |
| Why the hell is there a fire hydrant out in the middle of the woods? |
 |
| No idea. |
 |
| Another shot of that one lighthouse. |
 |
| Another house. |
 |
| Strolling along, seemingly in good spirits. |
 |
| Another group picture we swiped off the Rock's Facebook page. |
 |
| Some kinda flower. |
 |
| Pretty sure this is Lake Huron. . . |
 |
| Thank God we have a picture of this. |
 |
| Arch Rock. |
 |
| Abby, petting an enslaved horse. |
 |
| Just in case you could've used one more picture of that horse, here you go. . . |
 |
| An upwards shot of Fort Mackinac's palisade. |
 |
| Not sure which girl this is, but they're getting artsy. |
 |
| Yet another shot of this lighthouse. And some random guy. |
 |
| Abby on the 'beach' (if you can even call this gravel dump a beach.) |
 |
| Four of the Rock's 'camp counselors.' |
 |
| Abby on some rocks. |
 |
| Yet another group pic swiped off of Facebook. |
- Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment