July 28
We interrupt blogging completion of the Russia trip because we went camping. Yes, boys and girls, it’s that time of year again. The first week of August, week 8 (and final week) at Camp Brosius, the Indiana University alumni camp in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The Callecod sisters, Ruthie and Rita, a/k/a, the Super and Reetz – en masse, “The Biddies” – have been recruiting family and friends to camp here for many years.
[A beautiful morning over Lake H2Obert the day we left Alexandria. Our first trip away from our new home of about one month . . . ]
[It’s a 470 mile, 7 1/2 hour drive from Alexandria to Elkhart Lake. Check in at camp is at 1:00 Sunday. Ergo (I believe that’s a Finnish term), we make the trip on Saturday and spend the night somewhere nearby – for the last couple of years it’s been in Sheboygan, hard by the shores of Lake Michigan . . . ]
[So, after arrival at our hotel in Sheboygan, we, all 10 of us, took a stroll around the neighborhood and whoa . . . a little music festival?]
[It was a beautiful evening – we wanted to have an adult beverage and fine dining experience down along the waterfront . . . ]
[So (again), here we are. Left to right, Katie, Bill, Kathleen, Cassie, the Super, Reetz, and Anne at Pier 17 (the restaurant). As I recall, Jami and Danny opted for a nap.]
[Lake Michigan in the background. I’m told it’s so big you can’t even see across it?]
[The two-masted schooner building (?) in downtown Sheboygan . . . ]
[A little playground/garden adjacent to the schooner building . . . ]
[These are the smiles of people being goosed by hand chairs . . . ]
[Existing in the gloaming of noncontroversiality . . . ]
[The ladies enjoying the evening stroll . . . ]
July 29
[Up early, head to the beach . . . ]
[Dueling photos with Anne . . . ]
[Bill decided to test the water . . . ]
[I likely would have tumbled face first into the water with that move . . . ]
[Our final venue in Sheboygan before heading to camp . . . ]
[The Kohler Art Center, just as we did last year . . . ]
[Jami models before a see-through (or crawl-through) fireplace . . . ]
[Or an artistic facsimile of such . . . ]
[No explanation, but I thought it cool . . . ]
[Like daughter, like mom . . . ]
[The entry vestibule . . . ]
[Art in the vestibule (nobody can use “vestibule” just once) . . . ]
[Found this to be quite beautiful . . . ]
[OK, I finally had to acknowledge – members of the family tree?]
[Or theirs?]
[And, of course, the bathrooms. If one arrives at Sunday morning opening, you are likely able to “visit” both the women’s and men’s facilities, acknowledged as having no peers . . . ]
[And shooting the entrance as we depart . . . ]
[Traveling through Plymouth (comparable in size to Alex) on the way to camp. We have spent Saturday nights here as well . . . ]
[Arriving in the town of Elkhart Lake (population almost 1,000), our first stop is usually here, an hour or so before camp opening on the far side of the lake . . . ]
[This, and above, are the Elkhart Lake lake part of Elkhart Lake, the town. It’s about 300 acres of clear spring fed water . . . ]
[The camp counselors, college kids from all over, greet arrivals with the Brosius song.]
[The we joined the greeters . . . ]
[Here comes Reetz with her 5 passengers. Kathleen drove from West Virginia to Reetz’s home in Nashville, Indiana. Katie and Cassie are also locals of the greater Nashville/Bloomington metropolitan area. The 4 of them then picked up Anne and Bill, from Fairfax, Virginia, enroute at the Milwaukee airport . . . ]
[Woo-woo! Indiana, our Indiana . . . ]
[I’ve traveled east and I’ve traveled west . . . ]
[And euchre games begin immediately on the Rappaport porch. About to be high school juniors, Katie and Cassie pick it up quickly . . . ]
[After the traditional opening night dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, and all the fixin’s, introductions all around of staff and the 124 campers . . . ]
[Staff introductions by song . . . ]
[All together now . . . ]
[Dos and don’ts for the waterfront . . . ]
[Opening night camp fire . . . ]
[Readings of the history of Elkhart Lake . . . ]
[Whoooooooooosh!!]
[I believe this was Katie on the left and Cassie on the right . . . ]
[A kumbaya moment . . . ]
[Attendance, and/or participation, usually begins to taper off with the arrival of mosquitoes. They were surprisingly quite polite this year . . . ]
Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business. ~ Dave Barry
Up Next: Days 3 & 4. Apologies for the publishing delay – we had to settle some remuneration issues with our carrier, WordPress.
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Great shots!! You make Sheboygan look amazing! We drove through town on the way to camp and it was a bit more industrial and old neighborhoody – still cool. We did drive along the shore and see some of the mansions too.
Did you notice that the name on the schooner through the building is the same as the name of a building at Brosius?
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