I can say that I did it!

I would be hugely remiss if I didn't blog about an overnight field trip I went on with Audrey and the entire CCC summer camp crew.

Last Wednesday, we loaded up in numerous cars and drove to Muskegon to visit the Great Lakes Naval and Memorial Museum. My small caravan of three cars arrived an hour later than everyone else due to a few (cough) detours, but I digress. Let me just say that I was not leading the pack.

The point of this 3-hour trip was not merely to visit Lake Michigan and take a tour on a boat. Oh no. This overnight trip involved sleeping on a submarine. Yes, that's right. We spent the night on the USS Silversides.

With 40 kids.

Oh joy.

We had only one casualty - a nine year old boy, Teddie, just couldn't hack it so Laurie had to sleep with him in her van. My favorite memory from the trip was during our initial tour of the sub. We worked our way down the teeny-tiny opening and the teeny-tiny staircase into the sub and landed in the first sleeping quarters (of which there are three - plus a few of private cabins). I looked around, breathed a sigh of relief and said, "well, this isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be." However, on the other side of the room (not even an arms length away) one of the mothers bemoaned, "this is much worse than I thought it was going to be."

There she is, the USS Silversides.

Tanya, Becky and Lainey discussing how crazy we all are. Lainey is the one that found things much worse than I did.

USS Silversides saw lots of action in WWII.

Looking down a torpedo shoot

The engine room.

Here's most of the group!

Our sleeping quarters.

Of course, Audrey had no interest in sleeping in the private cabins - she wanted to be where all the action was. And she wanted me to sleep right next to her.

I have my limits. I opted for a top bunk at least. We were right next to the engine room. My sleeping bag still smells like diesel.

My bunk is on the upper right. Audrey's foot is the lower left.

Audrey and Nina.

Thankfully, Nina was happy to take my place and sleep right next to Audrey.

A view down the hall.

The other direction, plus a piece of the teeny-tiny mess hall.

Audrey "posing" in front of the sub the next morning.

Another pose by Lake Michigan. She doesn't take a normal picture these days.

The next day, we all went to the beach for a few hours of play and lunch before making the trip back to Ann Arbor.

A group of us walking back from the lighthouse

It was too cold to swim for some of the kids.