Reunion 2018

Way back in July of 2016 we had our first official family reunion at Mt Rushmore, South Dakota.  At that time, those that were able to make it decided we should have another.  And thus the plan to have a family reunion in 2018 was born.  And we did it!  We created an event on Facebook, picked the date, and began all the planning.  A place was picked, we decided to camp again and were able to find the right combination of lodgings.  Reservations were made, meals were planned, vacation time was reserved, and travel plans were made and booked.

At long last the day arrived and it was time to pack up and hit the road.  Actually, for some the travel began sooner than others because they had farther to go.  So a day or two before the day to check in at the campground, families began arriving at our house and final preparations were underway.  The prize for traveling the farthest went to Stachellbeere who came from Hawaii.

Pretty soon all the cars were packed and loaded.

People were ready to jump in and get on the road!

At Mt Rushmore we had a cabin but those were harder to come by this time.  But we found a place with some yurts which proved to be almost as good!  The only thing they didn't have that the cabins had was bathrooms and air conditioning.  But camping is roughing it, right?  Besides, the ceiling fans turned out to do a pretty good job so it worked out just fine.

All the comforts of home.  Well, enough, if not all.

Besides, you don't go camping to spend all your time in doors anyway.

So some of us were in yurts and the rest were in tents.  We ended up in two tent sites and two yurts, which met our needs quite nicely.

I really liked that this campground was so heavily wooded.  It gave a nice feel f privacy, that and the fact that most of the days we were there were weekdays so there weren't that many people around anyway.

Right up to the edge of the camp site the trees were thick and tall.  Even the day it got windy it wasn't all that noticeable because the trees kept it out.

We tended to congregate at Moosebeere's camp site.  That's where all the food was done, the games were played, the stories were read, the talk was done, and the campfire was enjoyed.  It worked out very well.

If fact, we brought the big, nice chairs from the two yurts over to Moosebeere's site and set them around the campfire.  Those, in addition to all the camp chairs that everyone brought proved to be  more than enough seating.

Moosebeere proved to be quite good at getting the campfire going.

The first night we had "walking tacos" (a term that has always seemed odd to me, but what the heck.).  Everyone fixed whatever they wanted in their "taco" and everyone was quite happy with dinner.

After dinner it was seating and visiting around the campfire until bed time.  A very nice first day.  The talk lasted a while until everyone drifted off to their tents or yurts and off to bed.

Breakfast was bright and early, the kids saw to that.

After breakfast the days activities called for some sight-seeing.

Twiner shirts, quite unplanned but pretty cool nonetheless!

First stop was the Cana Lighthouse.  First time I was there the causeway was high and dray and we rode our bikes out to the "island."  Next time we were there the walkway was awash.  We figured it was because there had been a lot of rain just before our visit.

This time the walkway was under a foot of water and there was a wagon ride across.  It really is an island now.

A very bumpy wagon ride because all the nice crushed granite on the trail has washed away and now it was just big rocks.  Apparently they no longer try to keep the causeway serviceable and just provide the wagon ride.  That was funner anyway.

This lighthouse is a real nice place to visit.  The group that maintains it does a real nice job. 

While the lighthouse is a working lighthouse, it is fully automated and maintained by the coastguard.  It no longer needs anyone there to keep it operational.  So a local group of volunteers keep the grounds up and maintain the exhibits that are there.

This time I made it to the top.  The other two times I didn't but this time I did - all 97 steps!  Because they don't allow kids under five years old up, and because they limit the number of people that can go up at a time, it took us three groups to all get up there.  That worked out pretty good because that way there was someone to watch the kids that couldn't go up. 

So after everyone had been up that wanted to go we just walked around the grounds and took pictures for a while.

It was a pretty nice morning.

We got some pretty nice pictures.

And the kids had fun when we walked out the path to the lake.

They got to look around, some played in the water, wadding a little bit.

Soaking up the sun.

And, yes, throwing rocks into the water.

After a while at the lighthouse we headed over to Sister Bay to have lunch at Al Johnson's restaurant.  This is the place that has goats on the roof mowing the grass.  Unfortunately it was too hot for the goats to be out that day.

We had seen them up there on our other visits but not this time.

Stachelbeere made some comments about how we ought to try the pickled herring so we got some and those that wanted to tried it.  I have had it before, when I was in Germany.  But it was new to everyone else.  I like it.

They didn't have a Ruben on the menu but they had a corn beef sandwich that was pretty close to the same thing.

I think my lunch might actually have been more healthy than Brombeere's.  That's a role reversal!

It was a good lunch!

After lunch we went to the beach park across the street and played in the water for a while.  Heidlebeere had brought her paddle board so everyone had to have a turn.  For the kids, that meant Heidlebeere took them all out.  A number of the others also gave it a try.

And, ahem, some were still getting the hang of it.  But at least Blaubeere was in there trying!  She actually made it quite a ways standing up before taking this spill.

Then it was back to camp for dinner.

Two little cousins catching up on all the happenings since they last saw each other.

The second evening's menu was tin foil dinners.  What camp out is complete without tin foil dinners, right?!

For this crowd that means a lot of tin foil dinners. 

That is not a tin foil dinner that Erdbeere is holding over the campfire.  Its popcorn.  She was trying to do pop corn.  Unfortunately, it didn't go too well.  But the tin foil dinners turned out really well.  Yummy stuff!

And Himbeere took one of the beef patties and put it between two waffles to make a slightly unorthodox hamburger.  But it was good anyway.  Anything cooked over a campfire is good, right?  Well, not always but this was.

Dessert was peach cobber cooked in dutch ovens.  I think this was the first time I had ever seen dutch oven cooking where the ovens weren't buried in the coals but it turned out very nice.

The cobbler cooked faster than the ice cream churned so it had to stay warm next to the coals while the ice cream finished.

But in the end it turned out very well.  An excellent dessert!

The next day was spent pretty much chillin' in camp.  We talked about a few things we might want to do but in the end we all opted to just stay in camp and enjoy the scenery and quiet.

That was a good thing.  It brought some very nice relaxation to the whole affair.  Some people were more in need than others for some relaxation.

This was a very nice part of the whole reunion, just relaxing in camp, enjoying one another's company.

Someone had the foresight to bring some books.

Dinner that night was brats and dogs over the campfire, followed by marshmallows and s'mores.  This was a camp out, we had to have campfire dawgs and s'mores!

All too soon it was time to pack up and head back for home.

When Heidlebeere took down her tent she found out she'd had company the whole time.  Interesting.

Then it was time to pack it all back into the cars and head for home.  This time it took a little less space because of the food that had been eaten. 

So now the reunion is history, a memory, memorialized by a refrigerator magnet.  It was a very good time.  Nearly everyone was there, though some were only able to be there part time.  Still, it was so good to see everyone again and spend some time together.  And guess what?!  There's already talk of doing it again.  We talked of the next reunion being in three years because we have a graduation in two years that will involve significant effort to attend - it will be in Hawaii!  So stay tuned for more details to come!