Do you know the way to San Jose?

Angie and I do! This week on our day off we headed up Highway 17 for a little R&R in San Jose! Driving was a struggle because we are using the camp truck to get around. I drive a little Jeep Liberty and have pretty poor depth perception, so needless to say it was challenging. […]

Royals 4 The Win! And Cromberg

Hello Readers! Today was a glorious day indeed! We midwestern hearts were greeted by our very own Royals. They were gracious enough to come straight to Oakland so we could reunite once more. The day was warm, warmer in the sun than the shade, which is where our tickets placed us. Tim, Lisa, Tess, Donald, […]

The Top of the World

When I first thought of California, I expected beaches and palm trees, but Happy Valley is much different than that. The campground here is surrounded by redwoods, as many of you know, and because of the beautifully elegant trees, the hiking here is pretty amazing. My favorite trail so far has been to The Top of […]

Different Needs

Hello World! So as part on the intern experience we have all become members of the American Camping Association (ACA) and from the get go Tim had a couple of articles that he suggested we read. The one that I would like to talk about is linked below, and is titled Moving from Mainstreaming to […]

Lifeguard Training

Hello Dear Readers! For this blog post, I’m going to talk about our Lifeguard training. Now let’s get something straight real fast: I am not a swimmer. Yes, I can swim, but I’m the “doggy paddle” kind of swimmer. I hate swimsuits, chlorine, and drippy, wet hair. So, naturally, I would hate swimming. It would […]

Service with a Smile

“It’s really simple; All you have to do is BE. NICE.”-Tess Nichols Throughout the last couple weeks, I have learned the power of hospitality services. Happy Valley goes above and beyond to serve in many different ways, but one of the most obvious examples comes with hospitality. Every week we are shifted at least once, […]

Reunion

Hello Blog Readers! I am writing this on Wednesday the 17th of June and we are midway through our first and largest camp of the summer, the Community of Christ Reunion, with roughly 150 people! It has been really fun so far but it has been tough to adjust to having other people at Happy […]

Camp Creates Advantage

As part of our intern duties, we have to read ACA articles about informational things. (And even though my brain is fried from the school year, it isn’t too bad.) The article we read last week was titled “The Argument We Must Learn To Make: Camp Creates Advantage” by Erec Hillis. It talks about how […]

As a part of our Happy Valley Internship training we became High Ropes Course Facilitators. For two days we were shown “the ropes” (haha!) of tying knots, strapping on harnesses, and belaying so that we may help run a high ropes session. We had three different instructors throughout training, all very knowledgeable, so we gained […]

Interns 2k15

Breaking Action News from Happy Valley Conference Center! THE INTERNS HAVE ARRIVED! HUZZAH! Lynley, Karli, Angie, Courtney, Clayton, Christa, and Rony are here! We’re excited about what the summer has in store for us. Here are a few highlights of our fun experiences between our training times last week at HVCC! We went to the […]