By Angel Echevarria, SPL
20 scouts and 5 adults attended Camp Cherry Valley and Universal Studios July 17-25. We arrived at Amtrak early in the morning at about 5:30 on July 17. There we checked in, got all of our bag tags, and got on the train at about 6:40. We arrived at Best Western Long Beach at about 6:05 PM. Saturday, July 18, we got up and spent the day at Universal Studios. It was a lot of fun, and Denise Rollins, Shawn Rollins, and Ele Yang also attended and was at the park with us also. The next day, we all got in buses that took us down to the docks. The boat arrived at about 2:00-3:00, I forget which, but it was scheduled to arrive at 12:00, so it was late.
We took the Catalina Classic to Catalina Island. When we arrived, we were introduced to our troop friends, T.O., Wyatt, and Cliff. They were all very nice and very helpful and we all became very good friends with them by the end of the week. From July 19-25, we all attended either merit badges or ACE (Advanced Camper Experience). We had and opening and closing campfire, Tribe of Torqua ceremony, and a game night, a few of which we have actually played at our meetings. The morning announcements were always a lot of fun, as they included role playing and funny calls for every staffed area. On July 25, we spent our last day at Camp Cherry Valley and with our troop friends. Every day, with the exception of the first day, we had inspections in the morning before breakfast, and on this morning, we scored a perfect 100%, which I a m very proud of the troop for doing. We departed from Camp Cherry Valley on the Catalina Classic and arrived back at Long Beach harbor at about 1:00. We took a bus to the Amtrak station and left at about 1:45. We arrived home at about 11:00 PM, very tired from our fun trip. That concludes our exciting summer camp trip, as it was very different and special than our usual summer camps. I think that the troop had a very fun trip, and I hope that the troop could visit Camp Cherry Valley again in the years to come.
