PCE Club - Another Great Outing

We are all safely back from another wounderful outing this past weekend. Not meant to make you feel jealous for those who missed the trip, the trip was so exciting and fulfilling, but of course also exhausting (good for weight control though :-)) The kids were having extremely fun time together: laughing, running, water fighting at rafting and roasting marshmallow at the campfire etc...

Although we had some heavy rain on Friday evening, the weather at Kittatinny over the weekend was on the whole very favorable, especially compared to that in New Jersey. To camp in rain was actually another very memorable event in our life, after all how many people would choose to camp in rain? But we made it.

The very next day, mother nature really did us a big favor by showing us a great sunny day. Given the rain on Friday and today (Monday), we were really blessed to have two great days there on both Saturday and Sunday. Rafting on Saturday was much easier than it was last year when the water level was low with many very shallow rapids. This year it took us at least 1hour fewer to finish the 7-mile trip of the white water rafting. The boats were not caught among the rocks as much as it used to be. However the kids had the same amount of fun with water fighting even though they were advised not to shoot water to people to avoid coldness as the temperature was not that high.
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The food was definitely superb. With all kinds of dishes prepared by the different families, we practically had one feast after another. The calories we shed off during rafting were all regained :-)

While we had so much fun, we should not forget to say "thank you" to those who helped to make the trip successful.

James spent tremendous time and effort planning and booking the trip and negotiating for better deals with the business manager. Thank you very much, James, for your great effort and time.

As Chengwen mentioned, Dennis' unselfish contributions to this trip is also much appreciated. Tallying the fees and depositing and sometimes refunding the money can be very soul destroying.

A big "Thank you" to Jenny and Maggie for leading the work of food preparation and many others who helped to make the food, buy the items needed, etc.

I did not realize that Chengwen was such a good cook. He was our BBQ master, together with several other men whose name I couldn't recall.

Many thanks to Maggie, Cindy and Simon for the tedious accounting work to caculate the expenses on food and other needed items.

Simon's timely creation of the electronic registration form was very helpful for the registrants. Thanks for your expertise and prompt help.

Without the help of Chengwen, James Bao, Howard, several others with setting up the tents, our fun time would be much less. Helping with one another was really the key to having a successful group activity.

I was forunate to have a chance to have conversations with Lois and Claire, both at 15. They opened a window for me to see the world of today's young people. That world is definitely different from ours but very colorful, exciting and promising, and also challenging. Thank you, Lois and Claire for your willingness to share with me your thoughts and goals...

When I first started this message, I just wanted to express my grattitude for another great outing. By no means did I mean to write that long. Sorry about that, if I made you bored.
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Yingting