There is no greater feeling than the first drive back up to camp. You pass those familiar landmarks–the drive in movie theater, the ice cream stand (the best in town, no less), the elementary school–all things that remind you how much closer you really are to camp, and inevitably, the best summer of your life. Laura and I had flashbacks of this experience as we drove up to Ramah New England, mainly because we had a real live Palmer alumna, our office manager Eva Jablow, in the car with us. “Oh my gosh!” She shrieked as we turned left at the Gulf Station coming off the Mass Pike. “We’re almost here!” That same excitement you have as a camper is clearly something that stays with you well into adulthood.

We were super excited for this trip up to Palmer not only because we’ve been having a blast on the Reshet Road trip, but because we have many friends who work on Hanhallah at CRNE, and it was an amazing reunion for us.

Reunion!

Our first foray into experiencing Palmer culture started with a staff meeting with tzevet Magshimim, run by our dear friend and colleague, Hillel. The tzevet’s energy was incredibly high and they were so receptive to upcoming Reshet projects.

After our meeting, we joined B-Side for eruchat erev in the Chadar Ochel. It was an awesome time for us to meet several anafim, including Rosh Sport and several chinuch teachers. Over a delicious dinner of chicken stew, veggies, and yummy lemon squares, we chatted about creating more alumni programs in Israel and learning more about the histories of each of the tzevet members at our table. As is typical for CRNE, dinner was followed by a very exciting round of rikud, which was a great way to work off some of those lemon squares. Laura proved that no matter how old you are, you never forget the moves to Turkish Kiss.

Laura and Hillel show off their moves to Neshika Turkit.

Despite being totally full from dinner, Laura and I met up with the amazing participants in the Voc Ed program, who set up their extremely popular and highly anticipated Pizza Cafe in the Tzevet Moadon. As tzevet lined up for delicious pies of tomato basil, veggie, and good old plain, it was really awesome to see the strength of the Voc Ed program, one of the pillars of the CRNE camp community.

Voc Ed runs Pizza Cafe!

After a wonderful night’s sleep in Guest House 1 (what what!), Laura and I met with the amazing staff of tzevet Nivonim, the eldest edah in camp, with our awesome friend David leading the charge as Rosh Edah. As we shared some of our exciting Reshet initiatives, we took the opportunity to take a selfie that truly rivaled that of Ellen’s Oscar pic.

But first…let me take a selfie. #niv14

Once we finished our amazing chat with Nivonim, David took us on a quick tour of some of the newer buildings in camp, including the Beit Am Gadol, where we saw some beautiful artwork. After a brief stint at the Hanahallah meeting, we were on our way back to good old NYC, with our fourth stop on the Reshet Road Trip in sight. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement regarding our two newest stops on the tour, coming Monday, by following us on social media with the #reshetroadtrip.