Hey, Chocolate Aficionados!

Today is National Milk Chocolate Day. Everybody and their mothers like the taste of chocolate (unless you’re just some kind of weirdo—no offense)! Responsible for such heavenly treats like chocolate frosting, chocolate bars, chocolate candy, hot chocolate, and much more, milk chocolate has transformed the world of chocolate forever!It accounts for more than 85% of the chocolate that gets eaten in the United States. While dark chocolate is a less altered dessert, milk chocolate, on the other hand, is made of a mixture using cocoa solids along with dry or condensed milk. There are folks out there who enjoy a bar of dark chocolate (yours truly being one of them), but most people indulge in the milkier treat.

People didn’t start eating chocolate until we noticed our less-evolved predecessors doing it. That’s right! We saw monkeys eating the white pulp within the cocoa pods and…well—monkey see, monkey do! And we’ve been hooked from our first taste! But our first taste was nothing like the typical Hershey’s bar that most people think of when they think of chocolate.

No, the first tastes of chocolate were bitter-sweet and probably wouldn’t be very tasty in today’s sugar-obsessed opinion. But something about its intoxicating richness held our taste buds spellbound for nearly 4000 years until, in 1875, a confectioner named Daniel Peter mastered a recipe eight years in the making that resulted in milk chocolate.

Bringing an unprecedented level of sweetness to this once bitter treat, Mr. Daniel Peter created a treat that’s dominated the dessert world for almost 150 years! The many health benefits of chocolate dissipate when undergoing the process to make milk chocolate, but it’s still proven to make us feel better.

In fact, you don’t even have to eat it. Science says that even just the smell of chocolate increases specific brainwaves which are known to trigger relaxation. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling more relaxed already! Enjoy a milk chocolate treat for your relaxation as well as enjoyment today and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Frank Fans!

Tomorrow is National Hot Dog Day. Standing tall alongside hamburgers, hot dogs are one of the most iconic of fun, summertime foods. From the privacy of your own backyard to the crowded stadium park at the ol’ ballgame—hot dogs are enjoyable everywhere! Wieners, Franks, Foot Longs, Dogs—no matter what you call them, they’re delicious! But they sure have collected a lot of names throughout the years.

Pork sausages (the hotdogs’ predecessor) were first made in Frankfurt, Germany which is what led to the name Frankfurters and, of course, ‘Franks’ for short. Foot Longs are pretty self explanatory and ‘Wiener’, in German, translates to ‘little sausage’. So how did the incredibly common name of Hot Dogs come about?

Well, as it does today, sausage came in all different shapes. The thin, long ones were noted for their likeness to the shape of dachshund dogs and so they adopted the name dachshund sausages for a very long time. Following the rise of Frankfurter popularity in the United States around the 1850s, butchers from Germany found a new home in America and introduced these dachshund dogs. They were a big hit for street vendors as well as a fan favorite at baseball games. Our story takes place at a New York baseball game in 1901. Introducing a sports cartoonist named Tad Dorgan who, from his press box seats, overheard the vendors yelling out to the crowd, ‘Get your hot dachshund sausages here!’

Tad went home that night with the idea to depict the scene of the vendors among the crowd. He drew up the scene, but when he was writing the vendor’s word bubble, he realized he had no idea how to spell ‘dachshund’, so he just wrote ‘hot dogs’ down and coined the term overnight! Unfortunately the comic has never resurfaced.

Get prepared to celebrate Hot Dog Day tomorrow with hot dog bars so you can make your dogs up Chicago style, bacon-wrapped with blue cheese, with chili, or anything else you can think of. Happy Hot Dog Day and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Gamers!

Innovation and technology in the video game field have been sweeping the nation since they got their start in the 70’s. From Tetris to Mario, Donkey Kong to Madden NFL, the world of video games has boomed in popularity with advancing possibilities. A leading branch of entertainment, a lot of good can be said about video games and their proficiency in experiential learning—just check out this Ted Talk from gaming expert Jane McGonigal.

Ray Montgomery—founder of Choose Your Own Adventure books said, “experiential learning is the most powerful way for kids, or for anyone, to learn something. It’s not lecturing, it’s experiential—hands-on learning. To a great extent, that’s gaming.” Choose Your Own Adventure books give readers interactivity, multiple-choice, and multiple-endings to make reading less of an academic challenge and more like a game!

Most overnight camps don’t allow video games. But if games are a good thing, why aren’t they allowed at camp?

Summer camp experts Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski tackle that subject in their informative guidebook, ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’. Kids feel good when they win in a game they like. It boosts self-esteem and gives off a sense of ‘mastery’. Video games give kids control. And control is extremely important to kids who live in a world mostly controlled by adults.

Kids are told where to go, what to do, and how to do it all day long, but not in a video game. There the decisions are up to them. In a video game, YOU shoot the attacking zombies, YOU discover the secret exit, YOU defeat the boss. Video games sharpen skills and strengthen enthusiasm.

Camp, however, is a time to get back to nature. Camp does all the same great stuff of boosting skills and enthusiasm—it just does it among natural settings with the chance to physically participate in activities (not just virtually). As ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’ puts it, “The independence and self-esteem you gain won’t be spoiled by electrical blackouts, computer glitches, or soda pop in the joystick.”

You’re sure to survive a few weeks or even a month or more without video games no matter how much you love them. So look forward to a little hiatus with them and get out and enjoy the natural surroundings that you’ll experience at summer camp and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Today is National Log Cabin Day—a reminder of a simpler time when life wasn’t so media-saturated or web-centric. This is a day that encourages people to get away from the incessant beeps and boops of our household appliances and electronic devices and embrace a simpler existence. People have been promoting a simpler lifestyle since our cities grew tall and heavily populated. Here are a few examples of historical figures who sought out a quieter life.

Abraham Lincoln
Our nation’s 16th president was born and raised in a log cabin. Though his family moved around a lot, they went from log cabin to log cabin for nearly the first two decades of Abe’s life. You can get a much more detailed account of Lincoln’s travel from home to home with his family right here.

Henry David Thoreau
His most famous and celebrated essay, ‘Walden’ begins, “When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond…” This ‘house’ that he speaks of was a tiny log cabin that even the humble Ralph Waldo Emerson—a friend of Thoreau’s whose land he used to build the cabin—commented on it that it looked “too small to eat in!”

Aldo Leopold
Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau lived around the same time—born within the same eight years, their lives spanned decades and decades of the 1800s. Born a few years after the death of Thoreau, Aldo Leopold carried on the conservationist torch. As cities grew bigger and denser, Leopold recognized that it was not the lifestyle for him. Instead of accepting societal life, he took his wife and five children to the wilderness of Madison, WI and built a cabin.

Log cabins that Lincoln or Thoreau ever lived in are no longer standing, but you can still visit the cabin that squeezed a family of seven in the 1930s. I’ve been inside Mr. Leopold’s cabin which is an unforgettable experience. Set up your own visit with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and check out his famous writings in ‘A Sand County Almanac’ which covers humankind and our relationship with nature.

Maybe you’ll get to enjoy life in a log cabin throughout your stay at summer camp! And as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Swimmers!

Who doesn’t love a refreshing and exhilarating splash into the wet world of WATER?! You’re sure to get lots of time in the water during your summer camp stay. Swimming is the most popular activity at summer camp and since most boys and girls are like magnets to pools, I thought we’d celebrate National Swim a Lap Day on our Blog.

Obvious advocates of camp, we here at Everything Summer Camp recognize and understand the importance of swimming for summer campers all across the board. More than just a, invigorating, cool treat on a hot day—swimming is fun, it’s developmental, it’s social, and it certainly is EXERCISE!

That’s right! Swimming is just as physically taxing as it is fun—especially if you’re trying to improve upon your skills. A couple months ago, I posted a tips and advice series about proper fitness exercises in preparation for the rigors of summer camp. The final installment of the series gave great exercises to try for swimming.

lAnother way to spot our understanding of your love to swim is by the slew of swimwear and other accessories that we offer on our site. Dominated by Speedo, we’re proud to order such a quality selection for all your swimming needs.

Speedo uses advanced materials and designs which have been exclusively developed by themselves, giving their customers—and ours too—the freedom and speed that they need. It doesn’t matter if you’re just learning to swim or training for the Olympics, our selection of Speedo products can help you! We’ve got everything from swimming trunks and swimsuits to watershoes and goggles, and so much more.

Shop our site and exercise with our fitness tips to maximize your fun in the water this summer and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John