Next to our garage, we have a ramshackle clematis. Hidden within the leaves and flowers is a sparrow nest with some just hatched babies. Meanwhile, a robin has gotten busy with a nest on top of the light fixture containing two bright blue eggs.
Last week, we managed to fit a glorious trip to Camp du Nord into our busy summer. This was our fifth visit to their summer program (see prior posts from 2023, 2021, 2019, and 2016), though we also stayed in a cabin there in January 2024.
We stayed in one of the original cabins, built in the 1930s, called Sans Souci. It was a tiny one-room cottage perched on some rocks on the shore of Burntside Lake. The cabin itself had a single full-size bed. Next to the cabin (but oddly out of frame in all of our photos) is a spacious platform tent with two twin beds.
How did a family of five manage this? Well, Griffin was only with us for the first night. On Monday we drove him and his gear over to Camp Widjiwagan, just a few miles east, where he’s embarking on a three week canoe trip into Quetico Provincial Park in Canada. We missed his lively presence for the rest of the week.
The week included a traditional “polar plunge” into the lake first thing in the morning with dozens of other families. (It’s something of a ritual to start the day… and quite refreshing, especially in the absence of showers. Note that despite the name, the water isn’t especially cold. We have all successfully survived real polar plunges into this same lake through holes in the ice in the winter.)
Maggie and Oliver joined their age groups for activities in the mornings. Sarah and I relaxed, read books, played cards, and walked in the beautiful northern woods. In the afternoons and evenings we went swimming, did art activities, enjoyed the beautiful wood-fired sauna, and played games. The week wrapped up with hilarious skits on the stage by the lakeshore.
On our final night, we experienced a phenomenal thunderstorm. There’s nothing quite like being in a tiny cabin on the short of a lake while mother nature howls in fury overhead. (Come to think of it, Griffin was probably in a pitched tent during the storm… I look forward to hearing his take!) We learned on Saturday that the storms were even worse west of us with tornadoes in North Dakota and 100+ mph wind gusts in Bemidji (about 100 miles from us).
In the pictures below, Maggie is usually wearing her purple hat.
Andrew awoke early on Wednesday morning and took this panoramic video from the rock below our cabin at 4:30 a.m. This was two days before the solstice. You can hear those “early birds” getting their day started.
Sarah has regularly completed the YWCA Women’s Triathlon around Lake Nokomis since her first outing in 2018. This year, however, Maggie decided to join her! They did the “Super Sprint” rather than the full Triathlon because Maggie’s not old enough for the full version yet (you have to be 14+). The Super Sprint consists of a 200-yard swim in Lake Nokomis, a 7.3-mile bike loop, and a 1-mile run to the finish line. Maggie had some trepidation going into it, but handled herself like a champ. She crossed the finish line at a full-on sprint.
Video clip of Sarah and Maggie as they head from the lake to their bikes:
Griffin has spent the last three weeks on a canoe trip managed by Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota. This year his crew traveled up to the Quetico area in Canada.
Griffin went with his good friend Murray. We pick them up tomorrow but just received this group photo from camp. Looks like a great crew!
This weekend we joined our friends Ellie and Kelsey and two of their kids at Wild River State Park about an hour from Saint Paul. It was our first time tent camping in years and Piper’s first trip. She was amazingly well-behaved—nervous when we bumped into some horses on the trail, but she never barked.
Griffin participated in a local fencing tournament today which was very exciting to watch. This was a small tournament, so Griffin’s cohort included high school and adult fencers. He was up against some extremely experienced fencers. And he is still a beginner. As always, he entered the fray with a positive attitude and had a lot of fun. His first words at the end were something like “That was fun. I’m glad I did this.” I appreciate that positivity.
Fencing tournaments begin with pools where you have short bouts to five points with each member of the pool. This establishes the seeds for the elimination rounds. Griffin won his first of five bouts in the pool. The other four opponents were far better than he was, though he did manage to score a point against one of the best fencers in the tournament.
To our relief, in the first elimination round, Griffin faced an opponent at his level. In the elimination bouts, you win with 15 points, so they last longer. Griffin took the lead initially, but then his opponent tied it up. They were neck and neck up to 12-12. Then Griffin found a hidden reserve and landed three quick touches to win, 15-12, with barely 5 seconds remaining on the clock.
His next opponent was the #1 seed of the tournament. 😬 Alas, no Hollywood victory. Griffin was soundly defeated, 0-15. To our great surprise, however, his opponent did not manage to win the tournament. Indeed, he was ultimately defeated in the final round by the fencer from Griffin’s pool that he managed to score a point against.
I see at least three things to be proud of here. First, and most importantly, Griffin’s positive attitude and sportsmanship. Second, Griffin’s hard-won victory in an elimination round. Finally, the fact that he managed to score a touch against the tournament champion!
Here are a few pictures of Griffin in action.
As a Father’s Day treat, we attended A Year With Frog and Toad at the Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis. It was a fantastic performance of the Arnold Lobel classic. If I could have only one children’s author with me on my desert island, it would be Lobel.
This week marked Griffin’s first time as an official, paid employee. He worked as a counselor at one of the Lego robotics camps that he used to attend. After a full week, he says he’s “ready to retire.”
Sarah has been meaning to tackle some of the invasives in our yard, starting with these two sprawling Japanese Barberry bushes. They came out more easily than expected and opened up a bunch of space near the side deck and sun room.
Sarah, Maggie, Griffin, and I went back to the fair on Tuesday evening for the Brandi Carlisle concert in the grandstand. It was Griffin and Maggie’s first big concert, and Brandi set the bar pretty high. It was a phenomenal show.
