Here Comes The Sun

My favorite vacation spot in the world is the North Shore of Kauai Hawaii. Specifically, Hanalei Bay… from the beach you can see more than 10 waterfalls, some of which drop thousands of feet to the shore below. It rains a lot but is also very sunny. I remember sitting on the beach on a towel and using that towel as a tarp every time it would rain. It was never worth going back to the house, because the rain would end after about 5 minutes and the sun would be out again.

That is what it was like yesterday afternoon. Sunny skies and very light rain… at the same time! It was fantastic camp weather, the perfect setting for our concert by Mocking Bird Sun. The concert was a lot of fun, but so was the casual feel of the evening. Most of the girls went crazy in the Pavilion, dancing and singing along with the band, but some of the girls took the time to hang out on the Pagent Court (running, swinging, catching fireflies, sitting on the chairs by the lake). The whole evening was really perfect. The band has honed their craft since last year- they are really, really good and gave a FANTASTIC concert.

Between the music, the food (Flank Steak last night was amazing, I ate about 1 pound of steak myself… which was a mistake), the sun, the clouds, and the ice-cream—- it was a magical evening.

Today we anticipate sunny skies, scattered showers, warm temperatures, higher humidity… today we expect our first “normal” day of weather of the summer. North Carolina summer weather is going to be humid, warm, and marked by scattered afternoon thunder storms. While I love the low humidity sunny 70 degree weather, it is foreign to me. Feels like San Diego… REALLY nice weather, but not home. This is home and we all love it.

Time for the Food Blog:
Who doesn’t love Eggs Benedict? Well, we did Eggs Benedict for the entire camp this morning, a feat that is worthy of note.

I know what you are thinking: “they scrambled eggs and put them on a slice of bread with ham and some kind of sauce and call it Greystone Eggs Benedict”. NO… this is the real thing. Poached eggs (with the yolk still runny), Canadian Bacon, English Muffin, and Hollendaise Sauce. It is quite simply amazing.

Gervais had to crack every egg individually and place them into special “poaching” racks that go into the fancy oven. Press a button and the oven perfectly poaches a thousand eggs in a matter of minutes. The Hollandaise sauce is made from scratch, the English Muffins toasted, the Canadian Bacon lightly fried, then the whole thing is assembled just before serving time. It really is impressive if you think about it.

Most of us don’t take time to cook any more. We get our food on the run or pick up something from the grocery store that is almost ready to serve (heat it and eat it). We have lost the luxury of a long afternoon spent building the components of a really great meal in the kitchen. Julia Childs would be so disappointed! But at camp we have a whole team who are true believers: good food is their whole focus for ten weeks every summer. Their passion shows!

Lunch today is smoked turkey sandwiches (on home baked bread of course). Dinner will be a huge hit: Mac and Cheese (we use three kinds of cheese that we grate ourselves from huge wheels of aged cheese that are in the walk-in) and ham.

Tonight will be Movie Night! The Junior Group will watch a movie in White Hall Lodge (we can start it earlier and get them to bed earlier) with the older girls in the Pavilion; all will be served popcorn and sodas (we serve these little cans of Shasta… a Greystone tradition). Good times.

Cheers Everyone…. thank you for reading.

Jimboy