After a 7.5 hour drive on Monday, I arrived safely in the bustling metropolis of Blue Lake, MI. Population: Me + about 3 other people, and a crap ton of bugs. Excellent. But the scenery is gorgeous and the weather isn’t too bad either, despite un-airconditioned cabins nestled in the shaded woods of Manistee National Park. And in this area of Michigan they have these beautiful, silky-looking, really dark brown Canadian squirrels that I just love. Monday evening after the drive I got all checked in and settled in my rustic cabin, found the local Meijer store to pick up some basic eats, and walked to the lake for a pretty sunset view. Things are going to start getting crazy busy crazy fast, so I probably won’t have time to blog much in the coming weeks, unfortunately. Today is all about faculty and department meetings, campus tours, and getting myself organized schedule-wise for the coming weeks. Tomorrow we meet the campers, hold auditions, and start with an evening intro class. Boy, does this ever remind me of the excitement of going to theatre camps at Texas State for two-weeks when I was in high school! Only now I’m faculty instead of camper, and being that this is an actual camp, in the woods, with real live insects and rustic living and stuff (instead of a college dorm in a city), and my staples include Deet bugspay, sunscreen, and campfire roasting sticks instead of microwaves and cute clothes. Bring it on.
Before I left was able to spend a whole week of quality time with Ted, which was just awesome. We did so much and relaxed so much, and before I left I was hoping to have the time to do a nice blog post about it all but, turns out, packing for 6 weeks in the forest will suck that time right out of you! So we’ll settle for the abbreviated version. Most of it I’ve already blogged about (beach, etc.), so I’ll just focus on the weekend.
We:
- Went bowling!
- Went on a Haunted Cincinnati walking tour Friday night
- Went blackberry and blueberry picking Saturday morning
- Went on a Cincinnati Civil War and Newport Gangster walking tours on Saturday afternoon (It was about 107 degrees out, by the way)
- Got some FroYo at the new FroYo place in Anderson
- Used up a Groupon to try Bayou Fish House for some delicious Fish n’ Chips in Newport
- Watched a few movies
- Checked out the brand new, beautiful Washington Park in downtown Cincy
- Had a goodbye lunch at City BBQ and goodbye breakfast at The Original Pancake House
- And of course, we packed, loaded my car, cleaned the house, cooked some meals to freeze, loved on the crays, etc.
I have pictures, lots of pictures, but wi-fi in the woods isn’t what I’d call superb, so most of those will have to wait for another time. Here’s a few to tide you over. More later!
