Bear Mountain

On Saturday, John and I accompanied 100+ kids to Bear Mountain State Park. About an hour outside of New York City, Bear Mountain offers a wide variety of outdoor activities, including hiking, a lake, beautiful scenery, a zoo, and even an ice skating rink.

The field trip was part of our work with Operation Exodus Inner City (www.operationexodus.org), a Christian mentoring program for students living in Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. John has volunteered with Operation Exodus for the past year, and I joined John as a volunteer in September. During my two months of involvement in the program, it has been a joy to see the impact of the gospel and positive adult relationships in the lives of our students.

On Saturday morning, we loaded 100 kids, about 20 mentors, and 200 sandwiches into 3 school buses. The drive out of the city was just beautiful. I really enjoyed seeing the fall colors.

After arriving at Bear Mountain, we soon saw why it is called "Bear Mountain."

Don't worry, this cuddly guy is in the Bear Mountain zoo.

The kids loved riding the carousel in the Bear Mountain Lodge.

Isn't it beautiful?

After lunch I went with a group of 4th and 5th grade girls on a hike.

We hiked all the way around this lake.

We stopped to test the "echo" over the lake. Much shouting and screaming ensued. Oh, to be a 5th grade girl again and have an endless supply of screams...

After our hike with the girls, we met up with John, who had taken his boys to the zoo.

We arrived back home at around 5pm, exhausted but refreshed by the beautiful scenery, lovely fall weather, and fun memories with the kids.