our yearly pilgrimage

 

Days filled with sunshine

Nights of quiet rest

Sunset's ever changing hue 

Glowing in the west

Perfect vacation, camp we all adore

God bless Arcadia forevermore! 

I packed while watching the latest Gentle Knitter podcast; I always seem to overpack the wrong things, and this year I was determined not to.  Ha.  I still overpacked a little, but I forgot the most important thing: a sweater for cold Michigan evenings.  Michigan weather feels like the most delightful fall teaser--a tiny reprieve from the summer heat and humidity, a foretaste of the delicious weather of October.  This year was much cooler than last year, with more rain and fewer beach days.  No matter!  I embraced the change from our usual sweltering heat.

We crossed a threshold this year, with three of our kids allowed to be unsupervised at our vacation spot.  Their curfews stretched into the wee hours as we learned to trust them. With our two oldest together, we figured they would stay out of trouble, which they did.  This year, too, was another sick year for us.  We seem to have them every few years while we vacation.  G had an ear infection and the rest of us came down with wicked colds that we're still fighting two weeks later. (No, we're pretty sure it's not the c-word.) Despite feeling a little run-down as the trip finished, we still managed to cram in goodness: cherry burgers, Stormcloud Brewing Co., beach days, petosky hunting, petosky polishing, craft shop visits, card games, nature hikes, monarch searches, senior portrait sessions, cones and cones of that heavenly new kind of s'mores ice cream, square dancing, Amos-Moses-ing*, rock painting, church visiting, a college interview, moustache wearing...oh, it was a time of much-needed rest and renewal!

With the big kids absent, G, Little M, and I visited the archery range frequently.  Little M just this year was old enough to use the bows.  Oh, my! Was it ever sweet to see her using all her strength to draw the Tiny Tiger Recurve.  She has been listening to The Chronicles of Narnia over and over this summer, especially Prince Caspian and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  As she would nock her arrows, I could tell she was picturing herself in the heat of battle. 

One afternoon the weather turned on the lake, and Z and Big M got stuck out on their paddle boards.  Or maybe I should specify that it was Z who was paddling in circles; it took M an hour, but he made it back to the launch spot by his own efforts.  Z just couldn't fight the current that kept pushing her northward.  Fr G rowed out on a kayak to help her, but that was touch-and-go when he flipped and had to climb back onto the kayak.  The water kept getting choppier and choppier as I watched and fretted from the shore.  There's a picture above with tiny specks showing just how far out they were.  Thankfully Fr. G had the presence of mind to help Z ashore at a different, closer beach--we picked up the paddle board and drove it to the launch beach.  And really, despite the danger, we managed to have a good laugh at all of the things that went wrong (and could have been disastrous). Maybe someday, if you come for a visit, I will show you all the pictures I took and we can give you the whole story.  Maybe we'll be able to keep from laughing too hard while we tell it, but I doubt it.  

Little M and I found just about all the milkweed we could.  She spotted several tiny, tiny monarch caterpillars.  Alas, we have none on the milkweed in our backyard!  I was tempted to bring a caterpillar home just to watch its life cycle, but my husband reminded me that our hot and humid weather might be a shock to its system.  

We're back at home now, drinking copious amounts of soothing tea; my husband is downing DayQuil and NyQuil just so he can breathe, and we're taking lots of naps.  Someday next week we'll be all better, and I can begin to wrap my brain around a few things: starting school on August 16, shipping Z back to Michigan so she can work at our vacation spot on the end-of-season staff, and ferrying M to his job and to cross country practice.  Whoo-boy! So many good things on the horizon...I am praying for discernment about where to begin my preparations.

*Our version is a little different than this one. Still a line dance, with the quarter turns and claps, but lots more arm action.  It's been a favorite for years!