Need I say more? Here in SF, our week of building an underground world, one with mine shafts snaking through, a giant boring machine, and and some super fancy carts for traveling around underground. But also wooden rocks and watermelons. How did we get here from there?

Lucile works on illustrating one of her masterpieces.

Dany and Calvin working on making some wooden rocks.

I'm glad you asked! We got here through lots of collaboration with new friends, trying really hard, and learning from our mistakes and failures. Today, we got to add some awesome details to our projects, and test the interactive features of our work for safety and functionality. We realized that we would finish some things, and not others. And some of our projects failed in interesting and telling ways.

You can still make new friends on Friday! Mateo explains his design for attaching the casters to Maia, Beatrice and Vida.

Jake and Oakley write a menu for their diner car, duh!

After lots of work this morning on our train cars, the giant boring bit, and the final archways for the tunnel, we had a train cars ready for a safety check. First up, Graham, Preston and Carter's train car! These folks worked really hard together all week, and we all could tell. First, we took their train for its maiden voyage with no kids aboard, to figure out how to navigate the maze of mine shafts (and tree trunks).

Graham, Henry, Kalel and Elijah help push.

Then, a bunch of campers piled in for a loaded test-run back to the project area! Thank you Dany and Keean for helping push!

I noticed that many of the folks from the tunnels team spread out to other projects today to help wherever they could--thank you! We were out of 8' lumber anyway because they used the whole rack by the end of the day Thursday! I think that's a TS first!

Emily, Amelia and Calvin took a moment to write some 'no mining' signs though; apparently this mine is no longer operational.

After park time, we reminded the group to work slowly and carefully, to really make our last hour of building together count. And they really did. I saw so much focus, particularly from the boring machine crew as they worked to prepare their giant drill bit to be mounted. And then, the time came. Parents started to trickle in, and it was time to reset our space and materials to get ready for expo. The boring machine crew planned to mount their boring bit and safety check it at the end of our closing circle.

Madeline, Anika, Carys, Cole, Ved, and Kiran help pick up the boring bit to hold it in place nest to the box. Jack stands by to slide the bolt through.

Jack helps the group aim the boring bit for the bolt as they hold the heavy structure in midair.

Unfortunately, as we lifted the bit, we heard a few cracks--some of the angled pieces that formed the unique cone shape pulled off of their screws. After trying really hard to slide the bolt in the rest of the way, we decided to set the boring machine flat on the ground. Moments like this are bittersweet. We have to remember that we set out to try really hard, not to end up with a perfect project. We have to look to our teammates and new friends and remember that even if our project isn't perfect, we have made a beautiful community.

Don't forget to check our the flickr for so many pictures from our week!

Wooden rocks and watermelons, Underground, Day 5, Week 3, SF