The weekend before last we took the children up to Sister Bay in Door County to go camping. It was a first for Eliot and Peter and a first two-night trip for the cousins. We camped in an old canvas tent that my parents had purchased from a friend when I was a girl. It has to be at least 50 years old but still worked really well. It's one of those old cabin tents in which an adult can stand fully upright all throughout, so no crouching down, which made up for the fact that we all slept on the ground. I'd thought about bringing an air mattress, but I knew that all of the children wouldn't be able to fit on it. If some are on the ground, all are on the ground. Rissie fared a bit better. The pack n' play we'd brought for Nora didn't really leave much room in the tent for anyone else, so she and Rissie slept in Rissie's car with the windows cracked and Janet and I slept on the ground in the tent with our respective children snuggled around us. A poor night's sleep is all part of the fun, though, right?
There's nothing quite like camping for cousin bonding time and conversations around the campfire.
While we got the campsite set up the children explored. Even little Nora got in on the action.
Peter had insisted on bringing along his truck, Crayon. None of us we're especially enthusiastic about the idea of Crayon coming along and taking up precious trunk space, but we managed to squeeze him in. And as it turned out, he was the perfect camp chair for Peter.
By this time Peter and Nora had become buddies. He loves to make her laugh and she loves to laugh, so it works out perfectly.
Roasting starbursts over an open fire and planning the day's shenanigans.
The children all had a great time. There were moments of stress for the "grown-ups." Putting up this screen house, for example, just about put me over the edge. But in spite of it all the little ones couldn't stop smiling. After all, we were camping!
The next day we headed for Newport Beach State Park to have a paddle in Lake Michigan.
It was so fun to watch the cousins play. Moments after hitting the beach Eliot started a collection of rocks and sticks (in the foreground) and the other children quickly joined in. Here they're busily constructing a home for a little frog that they had found.
Peter asked what "that line" was in the distance. He was pretty impressed to discover that it was the horizon.
Everybody loves a lake on a hot summer's day! Lucy had come down with a cold and she was a little droopy-eyed that day, but it didn't stop her from enjoying the water.
Here's Maddie (our resident snake-charmer) with Flower, the patient--and ill-fated--frog. Flower was generally happy to sit quietly in the palm of Maddie's hand.
Upon returning from the beach we found GranDad, Noni, and little Nora enjoying the shade of a tree. Peter tried to entertain her with his go-to owl noises and the others joined in as well.
For dinner on our last evening we attended a Fish Boil. We gathered with other vacationers on wooden benches that formed a horseshoe in the middle of which a large caldron bubbled over a fire. The man at the center tended the fire and gradually added things to the caldron (potatoes, onions, then fish) all the while telling us about the Fish Boil. It is a traditional Scandinavian cooking method for feeding large groups of people and something that nowadays you can only see demonstrated in Door County, Wisconsin (or so the man told us). This is how it works: Potatoes, onions, and fish are cooked in a caldron of boiling water. As they cook, scales, fish scum, and other refuse rise to the top.
At just the right moment, kerosene is tossed onto the flames and a fire ball engulfs the caldron, consuming the scales, fish scum, and refuse--not something to try at the next block party.
Here were the reactions of the children to the fireball. It was quite the show.
The fish was served up with the potatoes and onions, along with a side of cole slaw and assorted breads. James, who had gone fishing during his last visit to Wisconsin, was delighted.
After the meal Eliot could not stop talking about how much he had loved the fish. He told me, more than once, that it had been his favorite part of the meal. This was really saying something since the meal was finished off with a slice of cherry pie.
All in all, Door County was a hit.
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