Last year me and my youth group went to a castle in Franklin Pa. for a retreat. Now, I have never been on one of these so I honestly didn’t know what to expect from it. Upon arrival I was a little shocked by the immense size of it because it isn’t everyday you get to see a castle let alone plan on staying in one. The castle was very large, formed with gray bricks, an umber colored roof, and white lined windows. Us boys were told we were sleeping in the dungeon with the girls sleeping on the top floor, I expected a creepy, dimly lit, brick lined hallway with rooms on each side. I was close, except there were light bulbs frequently throughout the hallway and made the dungeon well-lit. Our youth group was staying in a room close to the entrance, it was lined with bunk beds and had a small table on the side. I chose the bed in the far corner, and of course the top bunk.
It was a well planned weekend with many activities throughout it, from simple small group activities to the hide and seek in the dark. The food and helpers there were quite nice and I also got to interact with other young people from the other youth groups. In the mornings we would go to breakfast and chat with fellow guests, after breakfast we would do some activities either in the gym or we would have free time. After that time was done we would enjoy lunch, following lunch we would again either have activities or free time.
And then we had dinner and started to calm down the day, and then we had a bible lesson afterwards. But when it was time to head back to the rooms, I wouldn’t say there was much “hunkering down”. We started out playing a little four square and I don’t know how, but somehow it transitioned to WWE mixed with pillows and I decided to just play on my phone since I wasn’t looking for a concussion. On the last night when we were doing the hide and seek in the dark I hid with a fellow youth group member John, and we would have won the round if he didn’t start uncontrollably laughing when the seeker came. The weekend did turn out very well and everyone went home safely, it is a trip I would definitely take again.
