[Me, the supervisor, niece Beth (Rita’s daughter), Katie (Rita’s “unofficial” granddaughter), and Rita (the supervisor’s sister).  This is at the Indiana University (IU) alumni camp, Camp Brosius, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  Once again I am badly outnumbered!]

Note:  The publisher, editor, and staff of this blog would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have continued to visit the site over the past week even in the absence of anything new.  How sweet!  The supervisor and I traveled the long, lonely highway from western Minnesota to eastern Wisconsin, where we can sit and enjoy the same bugs and humidity that we do back home.  Nevertheless, this annual adventure is a family reunion of sorts – even with those who aren’t family.  The set-up here is very similar to what I believe they do at the Minnesouri Club on Lake Miltona.  Camp is open for 8 weeks every summer, the guests turnover weekly (about 100 each week), and most folks get the same week every year – for us, it’s the 8th and last.  The lake is smallish by our home standards, but its 300+ acres of spring-fed, crystal clear waters attracts a large audience from the nearby population centers of Sheboygan, Milwaukee, Chicago,, et al.

[We arrived last Saturday in this delightful lilttle village.  We have been coming here since I had hair.  Rita and family have been coming for 34 years!  (And, of course, any reference to girls basketball.)]

[First we checked into Siebken’s, a 100-year old inn downtown.  Then we went to the Lake Street Cafe for a nosh and a brew where we watched the USA women’s volleyball team beat Korea.  Pretty much was the one and only Olympic event we have seen.]

[There was a mermaid in our pool!  I did not file a complaint.  😉 ]

[Little did we know Elkhart Lake was hosting the annual Midwest Acoustic Music Festival.  Music all day (and night) long under a tent next to the Lake Street Cafe.  We pretty much spent the evening there.  Became a fan of Chelsea Z.]

[Chelsea Z (from Madison).  Not my photo.]

[ . . . and they lived happily ever after.]

[Always travel by rail!  Downtown Elkhart Lake hard ahead.]

[And this is our room.]

[His dad and I worked in the same agency at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., 7o’s to early 80’s.  We just discovered that this year.]

[The classic, and annual, Camp Brosius photo.]

[Our first morning the supervisor and I took a pedal boat out for photos from lakeside.]

[Classic morning waiting-for-breakfast photo.]

[The supervisor says, “I’m in!”]

[And then she Zumbaed!]

[Camp always has Euchre tournaments!]

[Why don’t you just go away and take pictures of yourself?  So I did.  In lieu of air conditioning, wet washcloths rotated through the freezer seemed to help.]

[Beth & I are usually first ones down in the morning.  She is a computer professor at the University of California, San Diego – in a field I can’t possibly comprehend.]

[I have a stick in my chin?]

[The Biddies with a statue at Abler Art Glass in Kiel.  German seems to be the prevalent language here.]

[We went by this on the way to Kiel.  I wanted a photo.  The Biddies said on the way home.  We took a wrong turn on the way home.  I had to drop off The Biddies and go back to capture this magnificent scene.]

[Rita called “Bingo” for the designated drivers.]

[The lake walk.  You can walk the shoreline most of the way around Elkhart Lake, on paths that cut through private property.  Really neat that we can do this.  It’s a little over 4 miles around the lake and takes about and hour and half, depending on how many photo and potty stops one takes.]

[A reader along the lake walk path.]

[The Indiana University tree (at least I dubbed it such), on the lake walk.]

[The IU logo.]

[On the far side of the lake, a champagne drinker.  This was in front of the Johnsonville Brat house.]

[The Johnsonville Brat house.]

[Camp Brosius from the far side of the lake.]

[Without looking, over the back of my head, at the horseshoe tournament.]

[The supervisor fires a shot in the cornhole tournament.  We were upset by ringers from Ft. Wayne!]

[Scott, a/k/a DOM, fires an unattached horseshoe into your living room!]

[“Friends of the Blog” will recognize Karina.  She and grandson Tom were partners in many events last year.  This year Tom is in summer school at Purdue and had to miss camp.  And he and Karina miss each other.  😦 ]

[In the adult games, 12 “adults” allegedly made it over this wall.  Rita and I, being of sound mind, stayed home and sipped chardonnay.]

[Full moon over Elkhart Lake last night.  For the 2nd year in a row, we could have enjoyed a full moon on the Thursday evening pontoon ride.  It will be clouded out tonight.  😦 ]

[My adopted “personal valet” for the week.  Kailyn Goeglein will be a sophomore at IU.  She is from Noblesville, Indiana, which you will recall from your past readings, is the home of our grandson (and, thus, his parents).  She did not go to Noblesville High School, however; she lived on the city boundary and went to the school on the other side of the border.  I think she had a green card.]

[Today – our first rainy day.  We have had nighttime thunderstorms which helped cool things off.]

[And a BIG Happy Birthday to the HQ (on this day)!  Long may she reign!  🙂 ]