For this Spring’s High School Retreat, I decided not to tell them where we were going, or what we were doing.  I started advertising this “Mystery Retreat” with the idea that I would be the only one who knew the actual destination and itinerary.  I even threw some bogus items on the packing list so they couldn’t use that to figure out if we were heading north or south for the weekend.

I ended up confiding in the leaders for the trip, after deciding that if they didn’t know where we were going, it could make for a difficult caravan if we got split up.  When all of the kids arrived at our meeting location on Friday, I confiscated all of their cell phones, made them climb into a couple of vehicles, then took the parents and leaders about 60 yards away to let them in on the secret.  (I gave them a Parental Briefing Memo).

Anyway . . . I reserved a bunch of rooms at the Four Points by Sheraton, located in Downtown Washington DC, on 12th and K St. NW . . . right next to Franklin Square.  It was a great location, and I got the rooms for a great price by booking through this site:  www.hotelplanner.com.  They specialize in hotel rooms for groups. (especially youth groups and sports teams)

On Saturday morning, we met Mark, our contact from Watson Adventures, who sent us off on a scavenger hunt all over the Downtown DC area.  Each team had a set of 10 questions to answer based on the clues given, as well as 10 trivia questions to answer along the way.  (either by asking around, or whatever other resource we could find . . . I LOVE my blackberry, btw.)

My team won.

After the Scavenger Hunt, we had a bunch of free time in the city.  Some of us went to check out the monuments (I had never seen the WWII Memorial before) and the rest went to the Zoo.  We met for dinner at Ashleigh’s place, near Friendship Heights, where we ordered some pizza and did our closing Bible Study, which included a small mission project . . .

After the bible study, we had the kids each make a brown bag meal (sandwich, apple, pretzels).  Then we set out on the red line, heading towards our hotel.  We got off at Dupont Circle, and headed for the park, looking for some homeless people to give our meals to.  At first, since it was kind of a rainy night, we had some difficulty finding people to give our food to.  It was like another scavenger hunt.  Eventually we were able to give away all of the meals, but we had to make stops in a couple of other parks on the way back to the hotel.

One of the highlights of the evening was when one of the kids sent a text message to Mark, our MC for the Scavenger Hunt, inviting him to come join us for dinner.  I think he was a little surprised at the invitation, but was willing to come hang out if it was ok with me.  I said sure, and he showed up . . . and even stuck around for part of our Bible Study.

Sunday Morning, we packed up and headed over to Foundry UMC  for church.  They were very hospitable . . . and they even validate parking for first time visitors.  Score.

On the way home, we stopped at a shopping center in Frederick, MD for lunch, then got back on the road.

I think everyone had a good time, despite the rainy weather.  It was a pretty relaxed weekend, and it was a nice sized group for the activities we had planned.  At first, I was a little dissappointed that we didn’t have a whole lot of kids sign up to go . . . but I realized that as long as I’ve been working at St. Paul’s, I’ve always said that “numbers don’t matter”.  You can’t let the attendance decide the quality of the program.  I know those 9 students and 8 adults came away from the weekend with some great stories, and strengthened relationships, and we had some good discussion over the bible texts we studied. 

So yeah . . . I’d do it again.

But not the same thing . . . I like to keep things mysterious.