Happy New Year!

It's been a busy month for Bobbee and me! We had an amazing honeymoon adventure in Thailand and Cambodia, and returned to the office August 17th. Our marketing team had continued working while we are gone, and we've been churning out marketing materials left and right. We now have a 6-foot banner, carabiner key chains, a 6x9" postcard, and most importantly, a beautiful new website! Over Labor Day weekend, we sponsored the rock climbing wall at LimmudFest, a Jewish learning retreat held at Camp Ramah Darom. You can check out pictures of the event on our Flickr channel.

We'll be hitting the road again tomorrow as we head out to join the Adventure Rabbi, Jamie Korngold, for her annual Rosh Hashanah retreat in Winter Park, Colorado. I'll be leading the music for the evening and morning services, as I've done for the past 5 years.

After Colorado, we're heading out to Hilton Head for the American Camp Association's Southeastern Regional Conference. Bobbee and I have been invited to present a session, entitled "Deconstructing the Magic," where we'll share some of the strategies we've learned over the past year for making explicit connections between goals and intended outcomes to individual camp activities.

For those of you who are teens or parents of teens, registration for this coming summer will open October 1st! We're offering $1,000 discounts to the first three campers to enroll, and generous early bird discounts to everyone else as well.

Shanah Tovah!
Adam

Off on our honeymoon...

Bobbee and I are off to Thailand & Cambodia for our honeymoon. Blogging will resume late August!

New names!

Bobbee and I are back on the west coast, as our crazy summer travel continues, and we have two exciting new names to announce! First (and definitely most importantly!), our own new names - Mr. Adam & Mrs. Bobbee Griff!! That's right, we finally tied the knot. Last Sunday, on a beautiful evening in Golden, Colorado, Bobbee and I were married. It was so wonderful to celebrate with our friends and family from all over the country.

And, the second new name that you've all been waiting for...drumroll please...the new name of our outdoor adventure camp is ADAMAH ADVENTURES! The word "adamah" means "earth" which we think is a very fitting name for our camp. At the end of the summer, we'll be rolling out a new website, new blog, new email addresses, etc. but for now, we'll keep posting updates here, so stay tuned!

We are currently in San Francisco, where we've spent the weekend with the other camp directors in the incubator. Tonight and tomorrow, we'll be meeting with the board and staff of the Jim Joseph Foundation (the source of our funding) along with cohorts from Hillel, Birthright Israel, and BBYO, who have also received Jim Joseph grants. We're excited to tell more people about our camp, and learn about other new innovative Jewish educational programs!

From west to east

Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to upload pictures from our three days in Moab, but I promise they'll come soon!  We are now in Pennsylvania, visiting Trails End Camp and Chestnut Lake Camp, outside of Honesdale, PA.  As part of the incubator, we have a mentor named Marc Honigfeld, and he is the owner of these two camps.  We'll be spending the weekend shadowing Marc and his staff and picking their brains!  Trails End sends a group of teens to Utah every summer, so we'll definitely get some good tips about that itinerary.  We'll put up the Moab pics next week when we get back to Atlanta.

Shabbat Shalom!

Adam & Bobbee

Weekend of Water

Over the weekend, Bobbee and I got a good taste of Utah's rivers. Friday we hiked "The Narrows," a very popular hike up the Virgin River in Zion Canyon. I have to admit, we were a bit hesitant to jump into a COLD river, but the hike turned out to be amazing. Hiking up a river is a challenging experience - because you have to concentrate on every step, you never quite get into a rhythm. Nonetheless, the scenary was incredible!

Friday afternoon, we said goodbye to Zion, and headed back west to I-15. Along the way, we stopped at a state park to check out a resevoir we'd heard about. We were driving and driving, and didn't see any sign of water, and then...all of the sudden, there was a HUGE, bright blue expanse of water. The resevoir has a great beach, and we will definitely add an afternoon swim to our itinerary.

We spent Friday night at a motel in Beaver. The motel's check-in desk was inside of a gas station, so we weren't expecting much. When we opened the door of our room, we were blown away by how large and nice the room was! It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. On Saturday, we drove up into the Fishlake National Forest. As we gained altitude, the scenary quickly changed to what looked like the Colorado mountains to us. We had plans to hike Delano Peak, the highest peak in the Tushar Mountain range. Unfortunately, the access road was closed, so we took some pictures, and then hit the road again to head east to Green River.

On Sunday, we returned to the river...this time the Colorado River. We spent the day rafting the Westwater Canyon with Holiday Expeditions. It was neat to compare this to our experience just two weeks ago on the Chattooga River - there were so many differences. The Chattooga is narrow, with many rocks and other obstacles to avoid. The Colorado is wide, and had waves that almost felt like the ocean! We also used very different rafts. On the Chattooga, we were in paddle boats - each of the six passengers had a paddle, along with the guide. On the Colorado, we rafted using two large oar boats tethered together. Because the river is so high right now, this is the safest way to raft. Hopefully, when our campers come next summer, they'll be able to use paddle boats, and have a little more of a participatory experience. In any case, we had a great day! One highlight for me was seeing two bald eagles! We didn't bring our camera, but here are a few photos of the canyon I found around the internet. We're now in Moab where we'll be until Wednesday night. I'll plan to post again either Wendesday evening or Thursday morning!

All I can say is...WOW

Bobbee and I flew to Salt Lake City on Tuesday, and after buying some maps at REI, headed south. After spending the night in Cedar City, we continued to Zion National Park. Words can't describe the beauty of this place. (It's a good thing we have a camera!) We did a day hike yesterday, and got caught in a bit of a thunderstorm. This morning, we met our guide, Greg, from Zion Rock and Mountain Guides, for an amazing morning of canyoneering. Basically, we rapelled 150 or so feet down into a canyon, and then spent the rest of the morning climbing, scrambling, and squeezing our way through. This afternoon, we drove all the way through the park, and a couple hours farther to Bryce Canyon. WOW! Tomorrow we're hiking the Narrows, one of the most popular hikes in Zion. More to come later, but for now, here's some pictures!

The real fun begins!

We know many of you are anxiously awaiting the new name...but we're waiting to get clearance from our lawyer before we announce...so stay tuned!

In the meantime, Bobbee and I got to spend this past weekend checking out sites and outfitters in northern Georgia. Man, we have a tough job ;) We drove up to Chattanooga on Friday afternoon, stopping on our way at Fort Mountain State Park (that's where we got this gorgeous view!). Fort Mountain has a 8-mile backpacking loop trail, which we are considering using for an introductory one-night backpacking trip.

On Saturday, we met with Rod Thomas, from Granite Arches Climbing School. He took us to an area outside of Chattanooga called Rock Town (not to be confused with Rock City, a popular tourist attraction). Rock Town will be a fantastic place for our teens to learn to climb - it is nice and shady, with many climbs suitable for all ability levels. It is also very spread out, so there could be several different groups climbing in there without getting in each other's way at all. Bobbee and I each made it to the top of several routes! It was great to meet Rod and learn a little more about his background - he is certified by the American Mountain Guides Association as a Certified Rock Instructor, which is one of the highest levels of certification. Rod's worked with many different clients, including a boys camp, and his style of instruction will be perfect for our groups.


After our day of climbing, we took a scenic drive across southern Tennessee and back into Georgia. We spent the night in Clayton, and then woke up early to spend a day rafting on the Chattooga River. The Chattooga offers a spectacular rafting experience. Because the river is protected by the Federal Government as a "Wild and Scenic River," there is no commercial development within a 1/4 mile on either side. There are only three companies that are permitted to guide on the river, and they are each limited to just a few trips each day. While we were out on the river, we really felt separated from the rest of the world - it was great! We rafted with Wildwater Ltd Rafting, a well-established company that has been guiding on the Chattooga since 1971. All of the guides were professional, friendly, and clearly loved their jobs. We're now debating whether to do an overnight 2-day rafting trip, or to spend one day rafting and one day kayaking. One of our long-term goals is to offer treks that are more focused on certain activities. We're looking at the Georgia trek as an introductory trek that will expose campers to a multitude of activities, with the hope that they will return and try a new trek that is more focused. Along those lines, it may make more sense to offer both the rafting and kayaking... We'd love to hear your opinions, so let us know! Next week, we head out west to Utah, so we'll have more great pictures to share soon.

(These last two pictures are from the professional photographer that kayaked along side the rafts...we decided not to buy the pics, but here are the proofs!)