STEM Camp

After a very challenging first day, lasting a total of 39 hours, made up of four flights and many renditions of happy birthday to Daniel, we arrived at Huntsville, Alabama. For the first two nights, we stayed at the beautiful Marriot hotel, with big soft beds, an omelet station, a gigantic swimming pool, and waffles the size of dinner plates.

With our first day being a real eye opener of just how humid America’s climate is, we ventured to the stunning Cathedral caverns, with its self-proclaimed “biggest cave entry in the world”, we moved through several amazing caverns linked by small walkways. The cave system was nearly 1km long but well worth the long walk. Then there was Space Camp, arguably our home away from home. In a barracks type set up, we were sorted into our respective camps, either advanced space academy or aviation academy, and then further sorted into our teams for the rest of the week. We were also sorted into dorms made up of seven people, so you can imagine it was a bit of a squeeze! Over the 5 days we completed a series of tasks such as rocket construction, head shield making and astronaut suit designing. We attempted a g-force simulator, moon walk simulator, a series of mars missions, team building exercises, flight simulators and scuba diving to simulate zero gravity!

Day eight saw us say goodbye to our new family in an emotional graduation ceremony and fly to Orlando, where we stayed at the Marriot again. Our first day in Orlando was in the everglades… if we could find them! With the bus driver having, let’s just say, a little bit of difficulty finding the turn off, the lovely Sharon Hocking stepped up as GPS, finding us the quickest route, getting us there only a couple minutes late. The everglades were stunning! With the sun shining overhead, we glided around on our air boats spotting all sorts of wildlife, including a mother crocodile with one of her babies sun bathing on her snout! This lovely ride was accompanied by a traditional southern barbeque. However, the highlight of the day for many of our travellers was the premium shopping outlet, which saw a couple of our boys spend collectively over a thousand in the first twenty minutes! Sorry parents!

The next day we found ourselves at the Kennedy space centre, home to the rocket garden, the Saturn V, the space shuttle Atlantis and even a lift off flight simulator! However, the highlight of our day was undeniably having lunch with astronaut Commander Fred Gregory who had been a test pilot for almost all aircraft including space shuttles, and even became head of the space agency before his retirement! Following lunch with Mr Gregory, we took a group photo before heading around the facility to the launch sites of shuttles such as Atlantis, and companies such as SpaceX. The following day we visited the magical Universal Studios! As we walked around the park all day, some of us braving two hour lines just for a Harry Potter rollercoaster (so worth it), and putting our ultimate fears to the test on the Hulk rollercoaster (a series of corkscrews, going upside down and more), taking the Hogwarts Express between the two parks and munching our way through some yummy snacks (including butterbeer), some of us may have forgotten to check in with our teachers… usually resulting in a “Are you still alive?” text. Despite the occasional panic attack from the teachers, we all managed to finish the day safe and sound, with everything intact.

However, the following day was a bit of a wakeup call, literally, with 20 bleary eyed students and five sleep deprived adults trudging their way down to the hotel lobby at five am for a rather cold and early departure. You could tell everyone was still wiped out from the day before as everyone fell asleep as soon as the bus started rolling towards the airport. After our flight to Seattle and a tour of underground Seattle including some hilarious information on its bootleg past and exploding sewerage system, we had an early dinner and were straight off to bed. Day 13 saw us go to the MASSIVE Boeing Factory. I kid you not when I say the hanger hosts multiple airbuses inside, was so large we needed to take a bus from one side to another and even had to have a special internal weather system installed to prevent it from raining inside… yes you read that right, raining inside. After our tour, we went to the much-anticipated Walmart, stocking up on a bunch of stuff, including a gigantic tub of cheese balls, onesies, Oreos and Reese’s peanut butter cups! We then had a smashing time at Microsoft HQ trying out their latest and greatest technology including a driving simulator that moved with you as you controlled the car. For dinner we walked around the local farmers market before going to dinner at the iconic Hard Rock Cafe! The next day we went to the museum of flight where it was amazing to walk around the museum and view all the types of planes, spanning from the very first glider to Air Force One. After a scrumptious lunch at Pike market again, we headed off to the Pacific Science centre, and I am not joking when I say its like the discovery centre on steroids, with its own butterfly emporium, virtual reality zone and a plethora of interactive activities to demonstrate just how much science goes into everyday occurrences. That night we packed our bags and mentally prepared ourselves for the long bus ride ahead.

The following day, after the excruciatingly long bus ride previously mentioned, we arrived at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park where we got to ogle at adorable otters, gaze and lazy grizzlies and play with spiky porcupines all day. With a tram tour included, we were taken around the breathtaking acreage of land, home to the many species of elk, dear, mountain goats and Ox we saw along the way. With a short drive following to the cozy little town of Eatonville, with a population of just over 1,700 people, we dropped of our bags in our room, had a lovely dinner out as a group in a local diner and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the much anticipated (and much a letdown) grand final. Yes, that’s right folks, some of us stayed up until 12 am streaming the grand final on a little television, only to have some trouble loading the GWS giants onto our screen.

The following day, we visited Mount St Helens and it was not a let down at all! When we arrived, fresh snow was everywhere, which of course, ensured the snowball fight that followed. After being introduced to the history by a short film on the catastrophic events that led to Mount St Helens being how it is today, we took a short trek to the top of a hill to get a better view of the landscape. After a quick pit stop for lunch, we arrived at the Ape Cave Lava Tubes, where we saw stalactites and stalagmites and were warned not to disturb the cave slime. After promptly forgetting the rule to stay behind our designated teacher, we ventured ahead by ourselves and found the end of the tubes. Luckily, we all made it out just as the sky opened up, and running, made it onto the bus before anyone could get too soaking wet.

After staying the night in Vancouver (Washington not Canada), we boarded a plane to Los Angeles, arriving just before midday. We then took a quick bus ride to the Getty Museum, where we saw many abstract sculptures, stunning views, an elaborate maze full of exotic flowers and even paintings such as “Irises” by Vincent Van Gogh, with most of us retiring to a grassy hill to sunbathe after a couple hours of looking around. Then we took our bus to our next hotel, which was, much to the shock of those who hadn’t read the booklet, the Hilton Universal Hotel! With our final round of rooms assigned, we all went into our rooms to check our super-soft beds, the huge showers, and for some of us, the view over the gigantic swimming pool and part of LA. We then took a short hike to CityWalk for a lovely dinner at one of the many restaurants.

The Next day was a personal favourite, as today, after one of the most delicious breakfasts of the whole trip, putting everyone into a rather jovial mood, we went indoor skydiving with iFly! Everyone was split into two groups, with group one heading inside to suit up whilst group two measured each other up (literally) in order to learn more about the science behind indoor skydiving. It was spectacular! No matter how terrifying it was being told to fall forward onto the fan, it was absolutely spectacular being held up purely by a couple horsepower of air and spun around by our show off instructors. For a couple extra US dollars, we got to be taken all the way up to the top of the tube, looking down on the giant fan and all the smiling faces of your team. What was hilarious was every time you tried to smile, spit would fly out of your mouth and if you’re really unlucky, slide up your face. After staggering around CityWalk t