Sorry I knew it was only a matter of time before my time management would mess up and my regular scheduled blog posting would just be screwed. But I’ll make up for it and come out with a new one today and Thursday.

Last week I picked up my sister from a summer camp that she had been at for three weeks participating in biking, canoeing, and hiking. The camp is called Merrowvista and is located in Ossipee NH. For years I traveled to this camp and went on many adventures with a group of 9 kids who I grew up with and still am in contact today. However instead of rambling for paragraphs about this camp, which I could, I instead will be talking about the final trip I went on called Voyageur.

Nah I didn’t play rugby. That photo of the group on the front page is my camp group but the rugbys take on a much greater meaning. But more on that in a bit. The voyageur trip is known as the 2nd to last trip (last for me since I hated hiking for the following year) where your group would be taking a ferry to Nova Scotia, Canada and bike along the coast for 14-16 days. Over the course of these two weeks our group traveled 538 miles along the lower peninsula and taking in the sites the province had to offer.

The Nova Scotian coast was beautiful but for once I was mostly focused on what the trip meant and that after 8 years of doing minor trips this trip had become somewhat of a right of passage. Now I’m sick of the “loss of innocence” crap english teachers repeat so thats not what I’m trying to say. But throughout the years of bonding with this group I’d learned so much about myself and the world around me that it was overwhelming to think that it was coming to an end.

I’m sure I’ll do another blog post in the future about the sights of the trip when I’m feeling nostalgic, but for now I just want to say that camp Merrowvista really was in a way my Hogwarts. Yeah thats a harry potter reference. Foreshadowing...

The rugbys themselves were given to us on the last night back in camp at what is called Grand Council. Grand Council is a ceremony where family and the community are brought together around a fire to share in what had happened in those three weeks. The rugby color’s are a surprise to the current voyageurs and are handed down by past voyageurs in the audience or by those at camp. The idea behind them is that no matter how far we travel, when we are brought together the lines of the rugbys connect symbolizing the bonds we had created. It sounds really cheesy but it couldn’t be more true.

I’ll admit standing up when they asked those who had been to the camp a decade made me feel very old. But seeing faces of my group now leaders of the younger campers made me proud to wear my old rugby. It also made me incredibly jealous of the 2011 Voyageurs as they received their rugby’s. (Even though the colors were so ugly)

So when I watched my sister at her council I just thought I can’t wait for the day she is waiting for me to pass down her rugby.

I’m on vacation. Away from the 9-5 desk job and actually stretching my legs in the vacation state of Maine. Even though I’m on vacation sadly I still have to deal with the outside world including my Psych final coming up this weekend. I don’t mind writing this blog as I stare over the balcony of the house we rented.

My dad seems to like spending his hours at home shopping for lake houses for the annual trip. It’s strange enough that us Geary’s travel with the Leary’s every year, but the usual location my father works out is equally as scary. In the past we’ve gone to a campground called Papoose pond every year for a good 18 years and the following year we stayed at a house on Old Orchard Beach... at least we thought it was a house... the condition was more of an overpriced run down shack.

This year however we decided to head to northern Maine and for a while I doubted the house even existed due to the fact that the house owner only answered our emails every 3 weeks and kept avoiding the question of what the address was. But when we pulled up to the brand new log house I think both families were surprised.

So far the place has an amazing view, fully furnished kitchen, 3 bathrooms, and a TV thats bigger than the one at home. Theres plenty to do in the area and I’m sure its going to be an action packed  week. 

So its over?...Really? I sound like Radcliffe talking to J.K. Rowling. I haden’t seen a Harry Potter film in theatres since the Order of the Pheonix and I’m glad I saved the best for last. I went Sunday because I knew any other day of the weekend would be insane (yeah I missed the midnight sales) and it was decently crowded in the 2D theatre. My friend had only seen up to Goblet of Fire so I’m sure trying to figure out what the hell was going on was fun for him.

I hate 3D, what does it do? The picture is in focus on the “3D Object” okay. That’s worth extra money. Sunday was the 2D day and I’m really glad I chose to see it that way. Overall the movie itself was by far my favorite Potter film because I’m more biased to the action/special effects aspect of the movie and after the wizard fight in Order of the Pheonix I was dying for more. I won’t give spoilers since some of you haven’t seen it, which is terrible, but I will say I was very impressed with the ending (I only read up to Half Blood Prince so sew me). At the end of it though I was longing for more. I didn’t want the screen to pan out.

Tuesday I decided that I would fork up the extra cash and go see it in IMAX 3D... there was no IMAX 2D. My sister and I had already seen it so we knew we’d be talking about some of it and just enjoying the added effect of the bigger screen and sound. For once in my cinematic life I HIGHLY recommend seeing this film in IMAX 3D. The sound and sights alone make it worth while as the castle explodes and the theatre shakes you truly almost grab your seat. The 3D was annoying and not needed but the experience I had was very satisfactory. So if you can do it I definately recommend forking out the...$17 to....wait. $17? For a movie?! Well I’ll save that over pricing for another rant blog post.

As for the future with potter all we can do is...

Happy 4th everyone! Hope you enjoyed your barbecue, the beach, or my personal favorite fireworks. Sadly its back to work after the long weekend and after the yard is littered with leftovers from what looks like an exploded piñata. Of course watching the spectacle some of the chinese-imported glossy tube fireworks is well worth the cleanup required afterwords. Living in the state of Massachusetts of course means that fireworks are prohibited and not sold.

However, it really is convenient to live next to states that do allow them. I myself didn’t purchase the color assorted cases of a pyromaniacs fantasy, but chipped in some cash for my friends to take the drive and pick up the cases. Phantom Fireworks is so interesting in the fact that it is by all means a grocery store, but instead of the shelves stocked with store brand food products, its filled with different shapes and sizes of fireworks that always seem to be a little too stingy with the fuse.

I’m not sure why but this reminded me of the Family Guy episode where Peter is trapped without a passport and goes to find the “black market”. As a joke the black market is a grocery store where the shelves are filled with fake IDs and guns. The show jokes about this sort of thing but is it really too far off to think that guns could be sold in a grocery store when explosives are?

Anyway I definitely recommend Phantom Fireworks for the avid lover of fireworks and the passive participant who is happy with the simple sparkler and pop rocks.