Last week was Senior Trip for CVCA’s seniors. Every year, the seniors go on a four-day retreat to celebrate; it is a CVCA-sponsored event, and it has about one chaperon for every six or seven students. Since Mer is a teacher of seniors, she has gone along on the trip for six years now.

This year, the trip moved to Maumee Bay State Park, which is just outside of Toledo, about two hours away. Maumee Bay is right on Lake Erie, which is pretty cool, and close enough to Toledo to take advantage of some of the things Toledo has to offer. The park has really great facilities – the lodge is huge, and has a pool, whirlpools, racquetball courts, tennis courts, and more. The school booked most of the park’s cabins. When I say cabin, do not think small and dingy. These cabins were fantastic – they were bright and airy, they had gas fireplaces (which were heavily used since it was in the 50s for much of the trip), lofts, and screened-in porches, and some even had whirlpool tubs. This is not roughing it, by any means.

The seniors left on Monday, and came back Thursday afternoon (except for some who went to Cedar Point and then came back in the evening). I had told Mer I would take Wednesday off and join her and the seniors. I’m very close to the kids in this class, especially the girls in Mer’s cabin. So, I very much wanted to spend some time with the class. As a surprise, I popped out early and went over Tuesday evening, getting to the park around 6:00. I had booked a room for two nights in the main lodge, and I checked in and found out what cabin Mer was in. I made my way over there, walking in a light mist. It turns out her cabin was three quarters of a mile away, and Mer was not back yet from supervising (but not playing) paintball. I said hi to the girls, who gave me a fresh brownie, and then I went and checked out the park’s boardwalk that was nearby. The boardwalk is about two miles long, and winds through a swampy forest. Since it was sort of raining, I had the place to myself, except for the deer. There were deer everywhere, and while timid, they did not panic with me around. I walked a little ways down the boardwalk, but then I heard the engine of a bus, so I figured Mer was probably back. I walked back over to the cabin, and Mer was home, and was happy to see me. I got to go in and visit with Mer and the other girls while they had supper (I had eaten on the way over to the park).

Mer, ever the teacher, roped me into walking with her back to the lodge to get the car, and then delivering a few senior English binders that some of the seniors had not picked up. Ahhh, the romance of state parks.

Since I had the car, after we delivered the binders, I took off with Mer. I had seen a sign for an ice cream stand on the way to the park, and I wanted to check it out. We found it, and caught them just before they were getting ready to close early. I felt bad about that, but they were very nice to us. They had good ice cream and huge servings, and we picked up some ice cream to take back with us to give to the girls. The ice cream place was actually a parlor, and very cozy inside. I liked it and I’m glad we found it.

We dropped off the ice cream and picked up the girls and drove over to the lodge. Every evening someone spoke to the seniors, and this evening it was the physics teacher, Jon Bucciarelli. I would have liked to hear what he had to say, but I was very tired, so I said goodnight to everyone and I went to my room and went to bed.

I slept in late Wednesday morning, and got up around 8:00. I then went running on the paved trails and roads of the park, getting in a good five-mile run. It was fun to run next to the lake, and it was interesting to run somewhere completely new to me. After I showered and dressed, I headed back over to Mer’s cabin, where the girls were serving breakfast to their “brother” cabin. They had a ton of food, so I got to have some breakfast too.

After breakfast, the girls had to go take part in the various cabin team competitions that are a part of senior trip tradition. Mer was in charge of running the Trivial Pursuit competition, which she is very fond of. I excused myself and went back to the boardwalk to explore the entire thing. I really enjoyed the walk, and I found a two-story observation tower where I could look over a cattail swamp all the way to the lake. I again saw a lot of deer, and this time there were a fair number of people out. It was not sunny, but it was not raining, so I think people wanted to stretch their legs. I still had good sections of the walk to myself, and I took a ton of pictures.

I went back to the lodge and got to observe Mer running the trivia section. Not surprisingly, she is good at it and it ran efficiently. After a few minutes, I went and bought a snack, which I ate in my room. I rejoined Mer as she was wrapping up her game, and we waited for the bus to take people to the Toledo Zoo. The bus was quite full, so Mer and I drove, following the bus. I’m glad I did not lose the bus, because it was a serpentine route we took, and some of it was in pretty depressed areas of Toledo.

The zoo itself was small but fun. We got there late enough that most people decided to stay at the zoo all afternoon – the original plan had been to also head over to the art museum, but that plan got reduced to one van of eight people. Mer and I were happily joined by our friend and colleague, Liz Wides. Liz is also an English teacher, and she looks and acts very sweet, but has a wonderfully mischievous sense of humor. Liz decided that every time she saw an animal statue, she needed an action shot with it. I think we got about eight photos like that.

The zoo is small enough to be seen in a few hours. We did not see it all, but we took in most. The zoo has an excellent cadre of big cats – white lions, tigers, snow leopards, and cheetahs. We also took in the sloth bears, the aviary, the primates, and the polar bears. The weather cooperated, and we enjoyed ourselves. I was most impressed with the cheetahs and the snow leopards. They are beautiful creatures.

We headed back to the lodge, where I grabbed an hour-long nap while Mer went back to her cabin to get ready for the senior trip banquet. While not strictly a formal event, most people get somewhat dressed up, and the girls usually take time to do their hair. I met Mer in the ballroom, and we sat with Mer’s cabin. The food was very good, and dessert was cannoli, which I like and which I thought was a bold choice.

The cabin competition awards were given out (frisbees, kites, posters, and candy bars), and then we heard the evening’s talk, which was given by a Bible teacher, David Myers. I like David – he is smart and skeptical without slipping into full-blown cynicism. That means he finds lots of things amusing, which I am rather fond of. Anyway, David took the opportunity of the meal to talk about several Biblical meals. He pointed to where Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew, and showed what a failure that was for Esau. He then looked at Daniel, who refused to eat food that would have violated his Jewish faith. This was a good contrast with Esau, and showed how to stand up for your own beliefs. David then looked at the Last Supper, where our hope rests, and he ended with looking at the wedding feast in heaven from the book of Revelation. From the text, he pointed out that not everyone was at the feast, and we needed to keep looking to the Last Supper for our hope to be at the last feast. It was a well-done talk.

The dinner ended with Senior Share. Senior Share is another tradition, where students can stand up and thank people or exhort their fellow classmates. This year, there was a lot of thanking of the teachers in a general (not-called-by-name) sort of way, but after the dinner some shy girls found Mer to tell her how much they appreciate her. That was really great. The senior class was also encouraging to male students who were struggling with emotions, which is pretty mature for eighteen-year-olds. This was a pretty special class, and I will certainly miss them.

I was feeling pretty alert after the dinner let out at 10:00. I had to be at work the next morning, and my original plan had been to sleep at the park and drive back at 4:30 a.m. I decided to sleep in my own bed, and so I checked out. The receptionist was very kind and only charged me for one night in the lodge. That impressed me very much.

I gave Mer a ride back to her cabin, said goodbye, and headed home. It was an uneventful drive home, and I got back about midnight. It was worth the travel to have such a good time.