Sutter's Fort Environmental Living Program Day 2

At night, groups take turns keeping a “night watch” while the others are sleeping. Less than an hour after I had laid down, one of the parents came to wake up my group. We had a heck of a time waking up a couple of the kids.

Our first stop was the armory. One of the parents had made wooden rifles for all of the kids.


We spent the next 30 minutes going around the fort checking the door and windows. Two adults spent the night playing the role of bandits. After checking a wanted poster and following a trail of clues, the kids captured the bandits trying to steal cookies from the kitchen. The kids tied up the bandits and took them to jail. Afterwards, we fed the kids some hot chocolate and cookies and then put them back to bed. We were up for about 45 minutes, from 12:15 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.

The bell to get up rang about 7:00 a.m. We got everyone up and started to pack up all of the stuff. Breakfast was cinnamon rolls that the kids had help make in the bakery the day before. We then spent over an hour sweeping, vacuuming and policing the yard. By the time, we were released it was almost 9:00 a.m. and I had spent almost 25 straight hours at Sutter Fort.