alexandriacardinals

Thank you, Paulina!  🙂  OK, this is from the previous day, International Day.  I just thought it deserved to be displayed “above the fold.”

This was always our first view as we stumbled down to the lake each morning for breakfast.  And each day I felt compelled to take the photo!  😉

Yup, I like this view!

Then I walk onto the dock and shoot back at the Roundhouse, on the point.  This is where we have our pre-breakfast cup of coffee.

How can you not like a “Hugging Bench” as a place to sit and look at the lake?

This morning was the lake walk.  Whoever wants to go joins in for a lovely jaunt around Elkhart Lake.  It’s a good 2-hour walk.  And what makes it unique is that most of the way around the path cuts through peoples’ yards right along the lakeshore.  Can’t imagine that around here?

And when you finish, it’s time to eat again!  Lunch, anyone?

The view from the public access back to the Roundhouse.

Well, it’s not really.  You just walk through yards.

Now we’re on the other side of the little northern bay from camp.

Hi, camp!

As you cross in front of the Johnsonville Brats house . . . well, the people who own the company.

One of my favorite sculptures.  I don’t know why?  😉

Getting farther from camp.

And on we trudge.  One must always be alert to tree roots and other things that try to trip you up.

A stop to check out the kaleidoscope viewing of the flower pot.  The property owners encourage walkers to do so.

Chris’s dad, Ed, takes a peak.  This was his and Elke’s first trip to the camp.

Because I have done this walk many times, it was more than an hour before I took my next photo.

We’re almost back to camp now, and we believe this sculpture to be the inspiration for the one in front of the Johnsonville Brat house.

Back home, to Rappaport.

After lunch, we took a trip to a local apple winery.  The owner, on the right, gave a very impressive tutoring of all that goes on here.

Her orchard consists of many dwarf Honey Crisp apple trees, each of which she planted herself (so she knows each by name!), a few peach trees (which she knows is a gamble, they’re lost if the temperature goes below 11 degrees below zero), and something else that my feeble mind has forgotten.

A whole lot of work!

The trees have to be pruned back during the growing season to expose the apples to air and sun.  The row on the right in this photo is yet to be pruned.

Honey Crisp!  A product of science at the University of Minnesota.  🙂

Apples make generally sweet wine.  If you’re an oenophile, it has to be WAAYYYY sweet to be good (well, to our tastes).  They had an apple ice wine that was probably pretty good, but it wasn’t available for sampling.  It was quite a bit more expensive than the other wines.

The sampling bar.

Back home, it was “adult” dinner night.  I know, there are times when “adult” has  negative connotations.  But on this night, it just meant we kicked all the kids up top to the fire pit where they had burgers and dogs.  And we, here displayed by The Biddies, had either almond-crusted walleye (Rita) or prime rib (the supervisor) with a little vino to help wash it all down.  Everybody even gets a little dressed up if they so deigned to bring such apparel.

After dinner, The Biddies pose in front of the flowers outside the dining hall.  Woo-woo!

We took the “long way” home from the dining hall, taking the road rather than the steps.

We encountered the “swinger” again.  She was the first person was saw when we first drove into camp on Sunday.  😉

The first morning, Beth and I are, as always, first ones down to the lake.  So, as is the tradition, I take her photo, sitting on the bench looking out on the sail boats.

The breakfast bell is rung at 8:00 – the first morning, with 120 campers, the line was out the door and across the patio!  I stayed in the Round House for a while longer, sipping my coffee.  As the week went on, that morning breakfast line got shorter and shorter . . . ha!

The camp office building is beyond repair – I think the original buildings are approaching a 100 years old.  So, as with all institutions, over time, it’s time for a fundraiser to replace the existing facility.

So let the camp games begin!!

Paddle boarding his become a big sport . . .

So, guys, invite your lady friend for a ride – it appears Katie (about to enter 6th grade) has latched on to one of the three Normile brothers here.

It looks like . . .

It is . . . Katie and Will.  🙂

It was International Night at camp this year . . .

Somehow the supervisor remembered, and knew where to find them (?), this attire I had purchased in Okinawa some 40 years ago and had kept in a storage bin ever since.

We represented Japan, of course; Rita, Mexico; Katie, Spain; and Jami and Danny, “Tye-Land.”

General milling about among the people of the world . . .

Since nobody brought passports, there was some concern about the legality of all this!

But then the “administration” stepped in to try to document events in case a future defense was necessary . . .

Either that or Laura was just simply bemused . . .

Some times it’s best to just close your eyes to everything . . .

Or break out the professional camera for your own protection.

The supervisor and I found our “homeland.”

Tom and Raven were in charge of cotton candy.  OK, I’ve never understood cotton candy?

The kids found another “Tye-lander!”:

The supervisor as photographer.

The Biddies . . .

Serialized . . .

In fine form.

Katie entered . . .

The jump rope contest . . .

Where she jumped . . .

Her little heart out . . .

She said she loves sports and plays everything!  🙂

The rest of Rita’s Mexican “family.”

Tom came out for a breath of fresh air . . .

And decided to boogie . . .

Not bad for someone who’s at least a quarter Norwegian!  😉

Then it was time for the re-scheduled camp fire.  It got rained out the first night.

People congregate to . . .

To watch Tom (on the left with the torch) come in as one of the braves of Elkhart Lake lore.

The history of Elkhart Lake is read . . .

Beth and Rita wait patiently . . .

Come on, baby, light my fire . . .

And we’re ablaze!

Clap and sing . . .

The supervisor begins to ponder the arrival of mosquitos?

The darkness settles in . . .

The supervisor’s comfy in her Bug-A-Boo Bay sweatshirt . . .

Tom gives a thumbs-up from the totem pole!

And now it’s time for bed!

[So . . . now you know!  😉 ]

In case you hadn’t noticed, blog manage-ment and staff have been on vacation for several weeks.  Something to do with the usual mid-summer maladies – company, family, hot humid weather, and a desire to basically not do much.  Nevertheless, the crack staff photographer was on the job the entire period and his escapades will be issued at later dates.  Until then . . . we are required by local household law to first present, “We Went To Camp!”

Camp, as you may recall from past performances, is Camp Brosius, in (and on) Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  It is the Indiana University alumni camp, and both The Biddies are loyal and proud Hoosiers!  So, every year about this time, we pack up the car and leave a perfectly good lake in West Central Minnesota to drive all the way across our fair state, and Wisconsin, to the far eastern reaches of the Badger State to stay at another perfectly good lake.  It’s at least a 7 1/2 hour adventure . . . which could also place you in the Black Hills.  But it’s a family and friends annual reunion, so go we must.  And this year we had the added bonus of having Grandson Tom, who in the spring completed his freshman year of college (Purdue), the minimum requirement to be a camp counselor, be a counselor at the place where he has been a camper from the time he was in the womb (as his mom says).

We left last Saturday morning.  Son-in-law Danny lead the way . . .

The day was a tad on the dreary side.  I fired this shot through the sun roof.

We spent Saturday night in West Bend.  Although we couldn’t check into camp until 1:00 on Sunday, the supervisor doesn’t like to be rushed.  We dropped by in the morning . . .

To pick up the Grandson and take him to brunch in beautiful downtown Elkhart Lake.  We had to get him back to camp by noon . . . because he had work to do in preparation for the camper onslaught.  The summer camp period is 8 weeks long, with a new “shift” of campers every week.  Our 8th-week group would have 120 people!

Our brunch place!  That’s the supervisor’s sister Rita, a/k/a Biddie 1,  in the lower right foreground.  Above her in the white top is her daughter (our niece, under the Eskimo kinship system), Beth, and her “granddaughter” (we won’t go into that here), Katie.

As we strolled through the market on the way to the restaurant on the far side, it’s always good to be greeted by this reminder.

The restaurant rocks at 10:00 on Sunday mornings!  😉

Restaurant instructions.  Remember, Elkhart Lake is one of those cool little (population about 1,100) artsy communities – is it any wonder why I like it?

It’s the kind of place where the restaurant walls make you think.

Beth, Rita, the supervisor, Tom, and Katie patiently await their cool artsy food.  Note the women on the far wall for very soon future reference.

Son-in-law Danny has joined us at the table.  To show we are just a normal, All-American family everyone is viewing their social media devices.  Heaven forbid someone may have missed a tweet?  😉

This may have been used on my headstone . . . if I’d ever planned to have one.

Remember those women on the far back wall.  I pardoned myself and asked if they’d mind letting me shoot this photo.  Their reply was, “You don’t want a picture of us?”  Annie O’Flynn, of local Skilly & Duff, and Salty Dogs fame recently opined that “Free Beer” would be a great name for a band.  The advertising, of course, would read “Free Beer here!”

This is Elkhart Lake.  Camp Brosius is up on the far upper left (Northwest) corner, on the peninsula that juts north.  The town is on the lower right (Southeast) corner.  The lake is 300 acres in size, and you can walk around it in about 2 hours.

We had time after lunch for a little meandering about town . . .

The Biddies prepare to board one of the little cool artsy places.

The whole yard to the place is one giant garden – not a blade of grass to mow!  🙂

The supervisor is teaching “the kids” all about the joys of shopping.

Hmmmmm, I bet I could put the Cub Reporter to work making something like this for home!!   (Seeing those thoughts turning in her head, I immediately fled from the premises!)

Seating is available for those loathe to shop.

The place we just toured.

Just down the street . . . a wine and beer store!  🙂

We brought the boy back to camp.  We were still too early for check-in, so we snuck out the back way . . .

So we could drive in the “front door” again to be greeted by the counselors singing the camp song.  We were first!  ;- )

The “product” we’d just purchased at the wine store.  For you oenophiles out there, that is indeed a bottle of Sauterne on the left.

And Rita brought me a birthday present (still a month away).  Needless to say, said present was used exclusively by The Biddies!

Our porch, where much of the excitement would take place!

Katie and the supervisor visit Jami and Danny in their room in the Annex.

[The 63 steps from our place, and the cabins, down to the lake front and the dining hall.  Oy!  A climb a minimum of 3 times a day!

[This is how you can tell The Biddies are sisters!  Identical nappers!  And Rita has confiscated my bed!  It was a long drive for all to get there.

Our first meal, Sunday night, is Thanksgiving!  You can see the turkey through the screen door, being carved by Chef Larry.  🙂

Mom & Dad find their son, the counselor!

Going through the chow line . . .

Staff introduce themselves to the campers.  At our table, Nephew Chris, his mom Elke, and Katie, with Tom as the counselor on the right.  His fellow lady counselors all thought him cool and very smart!  😉

We are Brosius born and Brosiue bred . . .

Our porch, with Rita’s special lighting, from the top of the 63rd stair climbing back up.

Hot action on the porch.  I always thought they should rename the place Camp Euchre.  Euchre tournaments begin the night of arrival and continue all week.  While we lovingly know them as The Biddies, at camp they are known as The Dreaded Callecod Sisters!  They paired and blitzed through the fields in 2 tournaments, making the finals in one and the semi-finals in the other.  Rita claimed extenuating circumstances in the tournament where they only made the semi-finals – she said their opponents gave them too much wine!

Apologies to our Alex readers as this, and the next several following entries, will be mostly a family diary for those at camp.  We had a great week of weather . . . for those such as me.  It’s an older place with no air conditioning, so I was delighted that at night we had to don sweatshirts or jackets (note the photo above).

p.s.  Kudos to both the Alex Legion and VFW baseball teams for making their respective state tournaments!  🙂

Another week has passed.  As I approach my 66th birthday, life seems to be going by at warp speed.  Summer has definitely arrived . . . wielding a substantial mallet!  You can cut the air with kindergarten scissors; you can’t see the lake in the morning because all windows are fogged over.  (I wonder if one can get a property tax rebate for that?)  I miss winter.  Cold, crisp air . . . no bugs!  Yeah, I know – it’s never the right season.  😉

The kids were here last week.  Danny has been up working on their harn (house barn) in Clearwater County, north of Itasca, for several weeks now.  Jami came up from Indiana.  The supervisor, ever aware of her motherly duties, stocked enough food for 42 days for their three-day visit – and we usually ate out.  The harn has been an ongoing project that will ultimately be their retirement home property.  This year’s late spring has delayed their home construction – all the contractors were backed up this summer, so they have decided to make part of the harn a living space.  Harn developments have been of interest to some of the blog readers, so we’ll lead off with developments from there . . .

[Danny, which he entitled “old man on a ladder.”]

[Danny has done this interior work in the pole barn over the last couple years, whenever he can get away from Indiana for a few weeks.  The double doors used to be the front doors for our house.]

[If they’re going to live in the pole barn, they’ll need windows!  😉 ]

[And a place to shower . . .]

[And access to news . . .]

[And neighbors . . .]

[And other neighbors, from near . . .]

[And far . . .]

[And close up neighbors . . .]

[And the neighborhood . . .]

[Pretty, if you like that sort of thing.  😉 ]

[I’ll have a double chocolate latte, with cinnamon sprinkles?]

[Back at the harn, let there be light!]

[More windows, please.]

[Back to the BIG one.]

[All done!]

[A new “front” door.]

[With the new BIG window.]

[Home, sweet home.  Even as we speak, Danny advised he has the electricity up and running now.  He dug a trench from the road, laid the wire therein, and just the day before they arrived here, the power and phone companies came in and made all the connections.]

[The out buildings.  And he has a portable solar panel that he has been using for power.]

[“The guys” making the final connections at the top of their power pole.]

[Thursday morning we golfed.  The kids arrived late Wednesday night, so they’d be sacking in.  We thought we’d have a chance to be the first to play the new No. 7 at the Alex Golf Club, but it didn’t “open” until the next day (?) for the member-guest tournament.  Nevertheless, we played phantom shots there just for the photo op.  Can you name this famous Alex ’67 alum?]

[Can you name this famous Alex ’67 alum?]

[Can you name this infamous Alex ’65 alum?  (He was out on parole this day.)]

[The next day we roused everybody from their afternoon naps for our usual weekend music venue.  Josie Nelson was performing from 2 – 6:00, but the clan was have trouble shaking the cobwebs.  Plus, have you ever noticed that once the driver is in the car (that would be moi), all the passengers, without fail, have to make one, or more, trips back into the house for additional whatevers?  We were lucky to catch Josie’s last set.]

[Once we were there, we were obviously tourists having great fun!  🙂 ]

The last three times we have seen Josie at the winery, there were 30 mph winds.  We noted that to her and that we were still waiting for a calm day to get some videos without background whooshes!  She delighted me by knowing I was going to request:

“Don’t Know Why” –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFWxPiLGiQ4

[The kids thought she was terrific . . . and unbelievable for a 13-year old.  I took their picture with her so they could some day say they knew her when.]

“Hallelujah” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPUGk2lgi8

[Staff at the winery is a family affair.  OK, they’re a hockey family!  But Robyn Kopischke works the wine bar a couple times a month, and Dan works Saturdays as his daughter’s, Alia, assistant making Panini sandwiches and pizzas.]

“You Are My Sunshine” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNCmVk9Z6Fw

Josie’s CD – http://www.youtube.com/user/guitarjosie

[We were then going to do Friday night ribs at the golf club.  We knew the member-guest tournament was going on but thought we’d give it a shot.  Nope.  But it was great to see the club buzzing with thousands of people.  The kids suggested Bug-A-Boo.  Just down the road from the club, both the Zorbaz and Bug-A-Boo parking lots were over flowing.  Commerce was happening big time in Alex!  We did get an outside table – and the supervisor and Jami immediately went over to visit some local celebrities.]

[Dave & Jesse provided the music, we provided the audience.  They were quite good – hadn’t seen them before.  See if you can spot Jeff Berg, Alex ’60 alum?]

[Totally unaware at the time, did I capture identical twins?  And are they going to be hockey players?]

[As we bid adieu to Bug-A-Boo, I stopped for a photo op to show off the Mediterranean cruise outfit the supervisor had acquired for me that very day!  It just shouts, “American tourist!,” don’t you think?  Josie liked the shirt.  😉 ]

[Back at the winery the next afternoon.  We were fortunate to just get there in time for the final set, again . . . after a morning of competitive shopping by the girls and an afternoon of competitive napping by all of us.]

[We were there for Uncle Willie’s Gut Bucket Blues Band . . .]

[Which, as you know, is composed of, in no particular order, Terry Kennedy, Erik Schultz, and Al Lieffort.]

[Terry seldom sings, so enjoy . . .]

[Danny doing his impression of a cub reporter . . .]

[But note his hair length . . .]

[Jami with the guys . . .]

[Note her hair length . . .]

[It’s shorter than it was the day before . . .]

[She had her pony tail cut off that morning.  Every two years or so she cuts her hair to donate it to wig makers for cancer patients.  Danny does too.  🙂 ]

[And the guys created two new fans!  🙂  Terry doesn’t know this yet, but  we drove over to his place to show the kids his guitar making shop.]

Sunday produced another all day rain.  We’re sorry to say we missed the Salty Dogs at the winery that day.  The kids were leaving.  The supervisor had to drive Danny back to the harn, and Jami had to head back to Indiana and her job.  We’ll see them again in a couple of weeks at camp.

When the supervisor returned from dropping Danny at the harn, she had a copy of The Dorset Daily Bugle (Published once a year in Dorset, Minnesota, whether there’s news or not!).  This week’s Top Ten list comes from The Bugle:  Top ten songs heard on Dorset Public Radio (in no particular order):

Eat It by Weird Al Yankovitch;

On Top of Spaghetti by Tom Glazer;

Jambalaya by Hank Williams;

That’s Amore by Frank  Sinatra;

Sugar, Sugar by The Archies;

Tequila by the Champs;

Beer Barrel Polka by Will Glahe;

Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffett;

Dixie Chicken by Little Feat;

One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan

I was subsequently advised by an ink-stained Bugle employee that my favorite, You Stomped on My Heart, You Squashed That Sucker Flat, just missed the Top Ten for the 41st consecutive year coming in at No. 65.  Weird Al just missed a first-time Top Ten double when Like A Sturgeon registered a 13 rating!