My first session of this year’s adventure camp was on Thursday. It rained most of the day, usually a gentle rain but with occasional downpours. I feared the rain would put the stream creatures into hiding, but mostly it didn’t. The kids caught a lot of things, including a lovely red salamander and a fat common toad, as well as the requisite number of tiny crayfish.

I’m sorry about the quality of the photo of the salamander. Due to the rain, I kept my phone in a waterproof plastic bag and took the shot through the plastic. Considering that, the photo turned out better than I expected.

Most of the kids didn’t mind the rain, or at least they willingly put up with it. A few whined about it, so I told them "This isn’t the Wizard of Oz. You will not melt." That quieted most of them, but a few still behaved as though getting wet was a fate worse than death. And this from the same kids whose feet were already soaked because they were tromping around in the stream. Most of the kids didn’t have rain jackets, so they were pretty soaked. One boy with a lovely rainjacket that covered him down to his knees complained the loudest and the most. Nothing worked with him. He was determined to be unhappy. Fortunately, that was the minority view.