Hey, Sports Fans!

Today is the culmination of the 2019 football season in which we’ll see the season’s leaders of the AFC and NFC go head-to-head. Today is Super Bowl Sunday. And, for this year—Super Bowl LIV, we have the San Francisco Forty-Niners going up against the Kansas City Chiefs. Can you feel the excitement in the air? This is ought to be a good game! Neither team has held the NFL Championship for decades!

The last time the Forty-Niners went to the Super Bowl was only seven years ago in 2013. They went up against the Baltimore Ravens and they didn’t get the victory. You have to go back 25 years to 1995 for the last time San Francisco won the Championship over the San Diego Chargers with the second-highest Super Bowl score in history—49 to 26. Tonight will be the sixth time the Forty-Niners are playing in the Super Bowl.

This is only the third time that Kansas City is playing in the Super Bowl. You have to go back a lot longer for the last time they went to the Super Bowl. It was 50 years ago back in 1970. But they actually won it the last time they played for the Championship (unlike San Fran), playing against the Minnesota Vikings! The Chiefs only other time in the Super Bowl was in the very first one in 1967 when they went up against our home team, the Green Bay Packers. Of course, they didn’t win that one.

You can read more about the original Super Bowl from a previous Blog post by clicking right here. Enjoy the game tonight, Everybody. And, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Popcorn People!

It’s National Popcorn Day! In the past, we’ve celebrated this and another popcorn-related holiday by discussing all the different flavors that are out there as well as taking an in-depth look at the scientific explanation of the explosive behavior of popcorn kernels.

When we think about heading to the movie theater, we tend to think about popcorn! Cinema and this salty treat seem to go hand-in-hand, but it wasn’t always the case. Today, we’ll learn some interesting tidbits about popcorn and its role in the theater throughout the ages.

It may surprise you to know that movie theaters initially didn’t allow popcorn. Theaters of the 1920's and 30's were built to architectural perfection and their proud owners considered popcorn to be too messy a snack to let people munch on inside their beautiful theaters in fear that the carpets and seating would be damaged. Considering how sticky the floors are in our current-day theaters, they may have had the right idea. 

Despite that the theater owners didn't permit popcorn, popcorn proved to be an unavoidable presence. As the Great Depression set in, inexpensive things grew wildly in popularity. Throughout the 30’s, people found that movies were cheap and popcorn was cheap. People kept sneaking this forbidden snack into the movie rooms with them until the owners finally realized they couldn’t stop people from bringing in their own popcorn, but they could at least make it at the theater and make profits. 

Everyone knows movie popcorn is horribly unhealthy for us which could lead one to assume that popcorn is an unhealthy snack. But actually, it’s all the toppings that they put on the popcorn that makes it unhealthy—it’s the oil the popcorn is cooked in, it’s the butter that’s drizzled on top, it’s the excessive garlic/salt that’s dumped on top. With the proper, light spicing, popcorn is actually an incredibly healthy snack.

Enjoy popcorn in whatever way you like it best—maybe with a good movie playing while you snack—and have a great National Popcorn Day! As, always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Happy New Year!

Today it’s time to wring out the old and ring in the new! Here we are in 2020, leaving the good and the bad of the previous year behind us and eager to build on an entire, fresh year that’s rolling out before our feet! From everyone here at Everything Summer Camp, we hope your New Year’s Eve celebration gave a warm welcome to 2020 and that you’re having a wonderful start to this new year!

While there are no real set traditions for the “common” festivities that we typically partake in on New Year’s Day, we all tend to celebrate in a similar fashion. Families are likely to get together and might have a nice meal. The day is usually taken in a laidback approach with lots of snacks indoor games or televised football events. After all, lots of folks are tired from the midnight celebration from the night before as it’s tradition to countdown at 11:59pm.

It’s no surprise that New Years Day ends up more or less of a lazy day. In fact, a good number of people do absolutely nothing! And that means literally, NOT a THING! It can be nice, enjoying a day that way.

For many folks, New Year’s Day is a holiday in which it’s perfectly acceptable to stay in your bathrobe until the afternoon, when everyone in your house takes a nap, and snacking on treats and junk food goes on throughout your waking hours. In other words, New Year’s Day is a giant break from the previously hectic season!

It may not have the thematic qualities of other holidays, but it’s typically one of the most relaxed ones. Be sure you enjoy yourself this new year and enjoy the last of your days off before your winter break comes to an end. Happy New Year once again and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Adventurers!

The outdoors become less accessible this time of year in a broad spectrum of locations across the country just as it is all across the world. When heavy snow falls, it certainly creates a beautiful, new appearance and atmosphere on the land. It’s enticing to get out to the woods or other remote areas where you can be immersed in the nature of the season. But along with the snow, also comes a more challenging terrain to traverse.

Of course, with the right equipment, you can still get out into the wintry wilderness and enjoy the surrounding beauty! One way that dates back a long ways is to go snowshoeing—essentially the winter version of hiking. Snowshoes are kind of like oversized tennis rackets that you wear on your feet. They help hikers to make their way through the snow with more ease.

Snowshoes distribute your weight over a larger surface area with the idea of suspension to a certain degree, keeping your feet from sinking completely into the snow. The idea behind this arctic footwear is called ‘flotation’.

As with many inventions, we saw the concept of the snowshoe already present in nature. Animals such as the Snowshoe Hare are how we developed the idea for our own feet. While the oldest snowshoe ever discovered dates back about 4000 years, historians believe snowshoes were invented another 2000 years prior.

While common snowshoes today are made of materials such as lightweight metal, plastic, and synthetic fabric, snowshoes were originally crafted from a hardwood frame with rawhide lacings.

So, if you, like many, are gifted with an adventurous spirit, don’t let the winter season instill the cabin fever in you this season! Get some snowshoes and enjoy the trails dressed in a wintry white blanket! It’s a marshmallow land in the winter! Have fun out there and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Fall Folks!

Happy Take a Hike Day! Enjoy the day by participating in this invaluable pastime—hiking is a great way to appreciate those beautiful days that draw you to get out and breathe in that therapeutic, fresh autumn air. Walking trails are typically accessible in residential areas and, for those who live in more rural settings, perhaps you can just walk out your back door and see where it takes you! An absolutely explosive time of year, today is right at the perfect time of year!

The trees around our parts here in the northwestern area of Wisconsin have mostly all dropped their leaves and left a beautiful multicolored carpet over the earth. It’s beautiful when the trees’ leaves lose their green sheen; you can collect a regular bouquet with the colors of the rainbow. But why do they turn so many different colors as they die and fall?

Ready to Drop
Why do trees lose their leaves? Trees get the most energy when they’re exposed to warm, wet, and sunny weather. As we move toward winter, the air gets colder, dryer, and we see less sunlight. It would require a great deal of energy for trees to keep their leaves throughout such an unaccommodating time of year so deciduous trees drop their leaves as a tactic to survive the winter season.

That lively gloss of green summer leaves comes from basking in the long hours of daylight that the summer season offers. Trees’ process of obtaining energy through sunlight is photosynthesis. Through this process, trees produce chlorophyll which is a stark green in most trees. The green tends to cover up the other pigments that are present in the leaf…until the green goes away.

Each leaf is different! Different trees have a different amount of pigments and chlorophyll that they deliver to their leaves and depending on what pigments a leaf has and how much green it’s lost. A leaf’s color depends entirely on the ratio of a leaf’s pigment and chlorophyll production. That explains how leaves in the fall are able to take on a handful of other colors.

Enjoy the cool colors of Autumn outside today by getting out on a woodsy trail and kicking through all the ones that have fallen. You can learn about the health benefits of hiking from a previous Blog post about Take a Hike Day—hop on over to it by clicking here. And, as always, thanks for reading, Fall Fans!

- John