Family Campout

The weekend before Easter Island (back tracking now), we went to the annual Cub Scout Family Campout.  About an hour south of our home there is a campsite that was the site of a World Wide Jamboree about 20 years ago.  The campsite is maintained by a private company now that rents sites and cabins out.  We used a site and put a whole bunch of families and their tents on it.  It involves a lot of bikes, boys, and fun activities.  It is a two night event.  But our family went Friday afternoon until Saturday night.  So we didn't miss much just a night in the tent and breakfast.  Otherwise kids got to learn knot tying, first aid, using a compass, art projects, biking, hiking, ultimate frisbee (learning from an international medal winner of the sport), swimming, cricket, and a whole lot of friends and fun!  Mason opted not to go because there aren't a lot of kids his age, but no worries he had a lot of fun with friends in Santiago.

 Go Easton and Jayen!

 Hey friends!  Ian and Drew

 And Christian and Dallin.  Same age, big height difference.

 And the beauty of an international school, your kids learn to play cricket at a scout camp!

 It was a hot fall weekend.

The last little bit

So Monday we had to be at the airport by 12:45pm, but we definitely used our time.  Of course we slept in, because it's vacation.  We spent some time at a beautiful spot on the coast.  Then on to the post office to get our passports stamped.  And finally some souvenir shopping.  A quick bite to eat and then on to the huge airplane for a 5 hour flight.

 Correos de Chile for our passport stamps.

 In the airport eating chocolate moais.

This was definitely one of our favorite places.  We could have used the whole Monday, but needed to get home to get Mark ready to start the next part of our Hamilton family adventure!

Day Worth Remembering

The next day we started with a half day tour that went two places.  The first place we learned all about the bird man and the spring tradition of swimming to this little island to get the first egg of season from the birds that nest there.  The men would wait for the eggs in their spring homes.  The men would only sleep in these cave like buildings with very small doorways.  These homes are built right next to a crater.

 This one was left open for a reason so we could see the inside.

 Then on to this cave of paintings.

 Cave paintings.

 I love this rock.  It shows so well the lava and building of the island.

 After the tour we went back to our hotel, had lunch, and then headed out in our rental car to see some of the things we wanted to on our own.  We felt at this point we had enough background that the paragraph explanations were enough for us to understand.

 The quarry for the topknots.

 These seven moais face the ocean and represent the original 7 men who found and scouted the island for original inhabitants. 

 On to explore the lava tubes created by the volcanoes.  

After the caves we set off to the beach and then dinner.

The beach was wonderful and the water warm.  I went in and jumped waves for an hour and I am fair weather swimmer.  If it's not warm, I sit in the sand.  We didn't take the camera on the beach with us because the sand was so fine that it got on and in EVERYTHING.  We were worried about the camera.  So instead we enjoyed the water and built sandcastles.  Great Memories!

After the beach we cleaned up and ate at a great restaurant.  It began pouring rain half way through.  But luckily we were warm and dry and enjoyed listening to the rain falling as we ate.  At the end one of us was lulled to sleep by the noise.