Summer Camp, Making a Splash

I'll be spending the next few days catching up with the posts that should have happened during the summer.  In August Prima attended a sea cadet summer camp for two weeks.  I was so excited for her.  I went to cadet camp when I was a teen and had a great time.  I hoped that she would really enjoy her time there.

She went to HMCS Ontario in Kingston.  Normally, this is the site for the Royal Military College (RMC).  However, in the summer the sea cadets get to use the facilities for their summer camp.  Some of the different courses offered there are basic seamanship, boatswain, sailing, gunnery/drill and band.  The courses range from two weeks to six weeks in length.  The two-week course is a general training course geared towards first-time campers.  This is the one that Primus attended.  She got to do some sailing, play sports, tour Old Fort Henry, go swimming and all kinds of other things.

August 16 was the day of the whole camp's graduation parade.  Families were invited to attend so I decided to make the trip down.  I took my parents as well.  My dad actually used to work as an officer for the summer camp at HMCS Ontario.  He also worked at HMCS Acadia, located in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia as well.  Anyway, I thought that it might be a small trip down memory lane for him.  His short-term memory is going but his long-term memory is still quite sharp.  I was a little surprised that he didn't remember his time at HMCS Ontario.  I wonder if he would remember HMCS Acadia.

 Anyway, since my parents went with me that meant that I had to take the rest of the kids too.  We decided to make a day of it and left early enough that we could stop off in Madoc at the spash park.  My niece works at the snack bar there but unfortunately, she wasn't working while we were there.  We got some fries, nachos, hotdogs and slushies for lunch and then spashed away.  The kids had a blast (literally) in the water.  It's also very fitting that it was a nautical theme.

I have to say that I'm so impressed with the centre that Madoc has.  If you read the article linked above you'll notice that it and the buildings around it are quite unique.  The bathroom was built with the straw bale technique.  Also, the splash pad, itself, is very low in its water water usage.  Its playground is also amazing and it has a skate park with a place to rent skateboards.

My only complaint about the park is that it has a boat named HMS Waterplay.  Since it's a Canadian boat it should be named HMCS Waterplay.  (HMS = Her Magesty's Ship, HMCS = Her Magesty's Canadian Ship.)  The irony for us is that we were on our way to a sea cadet graduation at HMCS Ontario.

One of the first things you learn when you have anything to do with any military organization is "hurry up and wait".  When we arrived at HMCS Ontario we found out that there had been a mistake in the instructions.  The instructions had listed the parade as starting at 1600 hours which is 4:00 pm.  Someone doesn't know how to add 12 because the parade actually didn't start until 1800 hours or 6:00 pm.  We ended up leaving so we could get something to eat.




Since Prima was in the back row of the farthest back division, I really only had one chance to get a picture of her.  In this picture the parade is doing a march past where they each, in turn, march past the reviewing party.  Since she was in the back row of her division, when they wheeled around to the front of the parade square, she wound up in the front row.

During the march past, the band played along to keep everyone in step and impress the visitors.

I was somewhat apprehensive about the graduation parade.  I really didn't want my kids to be distracting.  Especially adding to the fact that they had already been in the car for well over 4 hours due to our extra early arrival.  We were fortunate that close to the parade square, behind the bleachers was the best sandbox the kids could have asked for.  They had a great time!  I wish that I had taken our beach toys.
This picture was taken while waiting for the parade to start, the bleachers were full by the time the parade started.