Meet the amazing, one and only SARA CONTRERAS. Ever since the first day of summer, Rachel and I have been trying to set a date when all three of us can hang out. And finally...WE DID! *insert applause here* So we picked Sara up in Rachel's hardcore mini-van, and set out for Raleigh. After getting there and dodging all of the construction workers (every single time I go to Raleigh, there's street construction which is pretty inconvenient), we parked on the side of the road, beside a house with a purple/blue/lavendar door (we all disagreed on the color) hoping that we wouldn't get towed.We first went to SchoolKids Records again, since Sara had never been. She bought a Yeah Yeah Yeahs album (yeah!) aaaaaand some other album that I can't remember. :P But it was on sale for 4 bucks! On our way out, Rachel and I saw this basket with stuff inside; the guy at the counter said it was free - so what do you think we did? Yep, the three of us stocked up with our hands full of freebies. We got a CD in a nifty, cute little indie case, Arcade Fire postcards!!, Wolf Parade magnets, and bumper stickers.
Then we just ambled around downtown Raleigh, stopping in a cute coffee shop and bought some goods from a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts place. We passed this pretty small building wedged between all the other stores that had a sign saying "Bowling Alley". Our curiosity kicked in - I mean who ever heard of a bowling alley in downtown?? So we went inside, up the stairs, and were greeted by this adorable old-fashioned bowling alley! There was only one guy working, and the rest of the place was completely empty. He let us snoop around, and we've already made plans to get a big group together and come back to go bowling sometime.
We were originally going to see that movie Date Night at the dollar-fifty theater, but decided to drive to Southpoint instead and check out Urban Outfitters. On our way there we decided to check out what was on the free CD we took from SchoolKids. The band is called Scraps, and I tracked down their myspace here. We all actually liked it and I think listened to the whole CD twice hah. Soooo we finally made it to Southpoint and headed straight to the huge Urban that has its own building. Since none of us had any money, we had to window shop which SUCKS and made us all cry (not really, but I felt like it).Overall a pretty good, well spent, Sara Contreras-filled day! :)
I read and listened to music the majority of the ride there; but as soon as I saw the first signs of beach houses and the air changed to that unmistakable beach smell, Rachel and I were hyped up. When we finally got there, everyone poured out of the buses and we took a gigantic group photo (above) - I'm pretty sure there were 88 of us, that's just our high school youth group, not including the middle schoolers. We were the biggest church there. Others had just like 20 kids!
All of the girls stayed in one huge building, in one big room. It was crammed full of bunk beds and it was like a mad house as everyone claimed their space. Just another part of Caswell you grow to love. In a row at the top, there was Rachel and I, our best friend Amy, and our lovely friend Amber. We unpacked and then headed straight to the beach. Everyone spent their free time there and found it hilarious at how pale we were. Ha ha ha. I even managed not to get sunburned the entire week!! :) After eating dinner, it was time for worship service - one of my favorite things about Caswell. I know that while singing, it's not important how awesome the music/praise team is or how great the lighting effects are, what matters is that we're praising God - but can I just say that my favorite place to worship is at Caswell. It is...unbelievable! The praise team chooses great songs, has amazing talent, the lights are fantastic, 
and I experience God's presence in ways that I don't back at home. Our speaker was 
So after lunch, we had free time until 5:30, which was dinnertime. During free time, we did all sorts of things. We sometimes went to the beach, and other times explored the forts around the campus. It's awesome - there are forts there that soldiers used forever ago during wars, that we campers now get to adventure in. We also went to the gift shop, smoothie shop, played frisbee, watched Amber climb freakishly tall trees, and took walks. After dinner would be worship service, and then all of the churches would split up and have church devotions (another thing that I LOVE). Our youth group would come together as one and share things on our hearts, growing closer to one and another. A lot of people made some great decisions and commitments, including yours truly. :) I'm going to try to spend more time in the Word. The speaker, Adam, opened my eyes at how often we take the Bible for granted; many of us just have it sitting on our shelf collecting dust, while others across the country are dying to just have the privilege to read a couple of verses. So I'm going to try to read one chapter a day out of the New Testament, until it becomes a habit.