Well, it took an extra 2 months, but my vacation has finally arrived. I’m currently sitting in the left-side living quarters over the boathouse of Camp Ulvik on Ahmic Lake in Magnetawan, Ontario. My sister Dianne is residing in the right-side quarters, Dad is in the honeymoon cottage, about 100 yards down the lake, and Cy and T are in their usual cottage near the main cabin. As far as I know, no 
one is in the farmhouse at this point, but I think Dr. and Julie Peddy are due at the camp tomorrow.
I rolled into camp at about 2 o’clock this morning after driving for just about 19 hours from Duluth. I’m not sure exactly what took me so long this year – I usually plan on around 17 or 18 hours. Originally, I’d planned to leave the house at about 3 o’clock Sunday morning, but Chris and I went to the LSU/UNC football game at the Georgia Dome on Saturday night, and I didn’t get to sleep until about 2:00 AM Sunday. Got up at 6:30 and was on the road within an hour.
The drive up was fairly uneventful, although the weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire way. My check engine light came on a couple of times, but I was able to check and clear it with the handy-dandy OBD2 scanner that I got for my iPhone, which was really nice. Not knowing why the light comes on tends to make me crazy, so it’s great to actually SEE that it’s nothing important and just make it go away.
I talked to T when I was still in Ohio and he told me that it had been raining for most of the day, but sunshine was forecast for the rest of the week. When I finally arrived at the camp, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the stars were unbelievable. 
For those of you who haven’t had a chance to see a night sky with virtually no light pollution, it’s an amazing sight.
But I digress. The sky was nice when I arrived. The temperature was 38 degrees and there was a very slight breeze blowing. I crawled under the down comforter in my boathouse room and was asleep in seconds.
I slept until about 11 this morning, when I awoke to light drizzles and overcast skies. So much for the forecast. The temp was probably in the 50s and there was NO WAY I was going in the lake, so I took a shower in the farmhouse and them joined the family in the main cabin for greetings and lunch. Then we broke up for “quiet time.”
I had intended to take a nap (no kidding), but instead spent an hour or so practicing my tuba, which I brought with me this year. I’m glad I did, as I sounded pretty good. The boathouse gives a really
nice warm rich sound somehow. Between etudes, I laid on my bed and listened to the rain and wind whip around the boathouse – a very nice late summer storm helped to make it a perfect boathouse day.
Later in the afternoon, everyone reconvened at the main cabin and chatted awhile before being joined by Dexter and Carol Kelly who spend a few months every year at Indian Point, just across the lake from Ulvik. They livened up the evening talking about nothing in particular over cheese and crackers, and we talked them into staying for dinner, which was prepared by Dianne and T and consisted of some sort of beef stroganoff thing over rice, a mixed salad and a corn/onion/tomato salad. Very good stuff.
Dinner and dessert lasted until about 9 tonight. There was some 
discussion about playing cards afterwards, but I begged off – still tired. I did get in my first skinny dip of the season about a half an hour ago – the water temperature is lovely. I wouldn’t begin to guess what it is, but it’s not at all cold. It’s actually another beautiful night. Air temperature is in the high 60s and the ever-present Ahmic breeze is wafting through my boathouse as I type this.