I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve chaperoned our annual seventh grade trip to Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota. This year was special, however, because it was Maggie’s turn to join the adventure. She’s heard about the trip for years, so she was greatly looking forward to it.
Camp Widjiwagan is on the north shore of Burntside Lake in northern Minnesota. It’s about four and a half hours from the Twin Cities. This is far enough that it is noticeably colder and snowier than the central part of the state. We left early on Monday morning and returned on Friday afternoon, spending four nights in rustic cabins in the woods.
Camp Widjiwagan is just south of the Canadian border in northern Minnesota.
This gives you a sense of the way the lakes are laid out in this region.
The only downside to the trip was that Maggie caught a stomach bug on her final day, keeping her up for much of the night. A thousand thanks to my colleagues, Cat and Mackenzie, who took good care of her in her cabin. They brought her over to the impromptu infirmary in one of the admin buildings where I was able to be with her for the rest of the night. By morning, she was over it, though I did sit with her on the bus home to try and reduce the spread of any germs to her friends. (The final pic in the gallery below is our selfie on the bus… we don’t look as sleep-deprived as we were.)
Most of the following pictures were taken by the ever-talented Bobak Razavi.
We all have a rare day off from school today due to extreme cold temperatures. The wind chill when I woke up this morning was -36°F.
Interestingly, that’s cold enough that normally pliable plastics become near solid. Practical example: Sarah pulled out our electric pump to put some air into a low tire on the car. The power cord was stiff and difficult to work with. When she plugged it in and turned on the compressor, sparks flew and the cable was severed in half! We think that the plastic effectively snapped in the cold, causing a short circuit.
This reminds me of an experience I had during my first year in Minnesota. I biked to school one morning when it was severely cold. (I rarely biked in the winter, but there was no snow or ice on the roads, so I chanced it.) My bike lock at the time was a heavy braided steel cable sheathed in clear plastic. I normally kept it coiled around my seat stem, uncoiling it to run through the wheels and rack. On this morning, however, I could not uncoil it, it was like a solid steel helix wrapped around the post. Putting all my strength into it, it finally gave a little and then shattered. I distinctly recall the sound of the plastic shards hitting the cement like tinkling glass. The steel cable itself was unscathed, but the plastic was unable to cope.
The cold does come with some bonuses besides getting a day off from school. Our sun porch, not as well insulated as the main house, forms spectacular window frost patterns.
Window frost on the window.
Close-up. (The faint leaf shape near the center is a sticker meant to deter birds from hitting the glass.)
Next week, Maggie and I are heading up north for a week at Camp Widjiwagan. This is the annual seventh grade retreat that I’ve chaperoned for many years. We’re both looking forward to it. Yesterday, however, I checked the weather report near the camp:
Morning temperature near Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota.
That’s seriously cold. Fortunately, the outlook for next week is balmier. With highs in the teens above zero, the kids will likely spend all their time rampaging through the wilderness while their long-suffering teachers tend to the fire in the cozy lodge.
In 2020, on the cusp of the pandemic, some of my gaming group joined me at the cabin for a wonderful retreat (pictured in this post). We’ve been wanting to repeat the trip ever since, but scheduling is difficult. This year, miraculously, we were able to make a second go of it in the midst of spring break.
This time we weren’t receiving apocalyptic text messages as the state shut down in the face of Covid, but it was a bit surreal arriving to the cabin in March with no snow and just a thin layer of ice on the lake. (It wasn’t nearly strong enough to walk on.) On our second day, however, temperatures dropped and we had a bit of snow.
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to get out into the woods to relax and hang out with friends. We played through J.C. Connors’ ice age horror adventure, Canyon of the Snow Cairns. This involved a mammoth hunt, mysterious disappearances, survival in a forbidding wilderness, cultists, and confrontations with things that man-was-not-meant-to-know. In other words: fun.
We spent a fabulous day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. We were wowed by sculptures by Simone Leigh, Yayoi Kusama, and Rodin. We also explored other worlds through an exhibit of contemporary Chinese photography, Laurie Anderson’s “Four Talks,” Mark Bradford’s 400-foot long “Picket’s Charge,” and John Akomfrah’s “Purple.” And food trucks. Obviously.
Due to our school calendar, we barely made it to Bethesda in time for Christmas. Fortunately, traveling on Christmas Eve is surprisingly pleasant — no crowds at the airport and plenty of room on the plane. This visit included Anthony and Andrew’s families plus Max. Dave, Nancy, and Raven spent the holiday in Utah. We missed them!
The Olson-Hammers outdid themselves once again with a magnificent holiday party featuring sweater-shaped cookies and a massive array of decorating materials. My sweater was intended to be creative, but I ended up accidentally crushing it in my hand just before the photo.
(Griffin’s photo is missing at the moment. We’ll remedy as soon as we track it down! )
As a bit of an April Fools day meteorological joke, we were hit with a fairly severe blizzard overnight. With 8.5 inches of snow at the airport, this puts us at the third snowiest winter since records began in 1971. And this wasn’t just a blizzard, it was a thunder blizzard. Lightning and thunder accompanied the billowing snow in the evening. Our power went out for an hour or so in the night, but was miraculously back on before sunrise.
View from the front door this morning.
And out back…
Ominous weather alerts.Our third snowiest winter.
For more details, check out this morning’s post on the Updraft Blog (MPR’s weather site).
A big winter storm came through this week. Two more days off from school. (First day was a false-positive… we could have easily made it to school, but it had already been called.) Today (the second day), seems much more justified.
Back porch scene this morning (with a few more hours of snow to come).
Actually, this is just for Andrew and Griffin’s school (SPA). Maggie and Oliver got three days off!
Tuesday, February 14, began like many other Valentine’s days at the Stocco-Roy household. The table was set with a surprise for the kids. Andrew got up early to make strawberry shortcake.
Griffin awoke and was frustrated that a lingering cold seemed to be getting significantly worse. He was tired and stuffy. We had him do a COVID test just out of habit. Meanwhile, we were all enjoying ourselves.
Valentine’s Day surprises (and Griffin taking a COVID test)
Laughter turned to shock when Griffin’s test came up positive. Panic! Everyone else takes tests. Maggie is positive too. What? How can this be?
First COVID in our house since waaaay back in November of 2020 when Oliver tested positive. That time was far scarier, of course, because it was pre-vaccine and we thought we would all catch it from him and it wasn’t clear how bad it might be. Now, even though COVID is rather hum-drum in the world around us, it was still surprisingly upsetting. No school for the two of them. Testing every day for the rest of us. Worries about sub plans and school.
Most importantly, we had a wild weekend planned for Presidents Day: three nights at a cabin in northern Minnesota, skiing, a sauna with potential icy dip in the lake, and a dog-sledding adventure (Sandy and Stape’s awesome Christmas gift to the family).
At first we duped ourselves into thinking that we could still go as long as the rest of us avoided the COVID. Griffin and Maggie would have to stay masked, but we could avoid others until Sunday when they would be in the clear. The dog sledding was on Monday, so everything would be fine. We had the kids packing on Thursday and were getting ready to load the car on Friday when Sarah realized that she wasn’t feeling well. COVID test was negative, but she was worried.
We sat down to think it through. Instead of focusing on how to preserve our plans, we considered how we would feel if someone else showed up at Du Nord (the place with the cabins) with active COVID cases in their family. We would think they were jerks for putting the rest of the community at risk. Sigh. So, we did the right thing and cancelled the trip. (Darn golden rule…)
This turned out to be a good thing. No further COVID cases that we’ve yet detected, but Sarah definitely had a stomach bug (not fun) and Griffin’s recovery has been slow. We managed to make it feel like a staycation, complete with the kids cooking a surprise feast for us on Friday night. The menu: fresh French fries appetizer (from scratch, hot oil and everything!), pasta with fancy sauce, fresh squeezed orange/mango juice, and butterscotch blondies for dessert. There was an intention to make a salad too, but somehow they forgot that bit.
This set a great tone for the weekend, where we chilled out, played lots of games, watched some movies, and managed to do some epic cleaning of the house.
We flew to Bethesda to visit my parents for about a week around Christmas. A major blizzard and arctic chill was kicking off on the day we left, so we were lucky to make it with only a moderate delay. It was cold in the DC area too, but not nearly as bad as places further north. It was a fun trip, overlapping for a few days with Dave, Nancy, Raven, and Max.
