More fun in the Northwoods, August 2013

Dwight Peck's personal website

A visit to the USA, summer 2013

More annual lakeside fun in the Northwoods

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

And still more annual lakeside fun

William's betraying an early fascination with 21st century culture

Taking humorous photos of his mom, basically

A big party at Point o' Pines

Elke, Kristin, Leigh, and Dmitri searching into the significance of things

William drawing his own conclusions

More good food than you can shake a taser at

William and his mum trying out the trampoline

The Bearskin Trail

(photo by Alison)

Hair-pulling now, what's next? (photo by Dmitri)

Local resort facilities

Wisconsin wetlands . . .

. . . with comfy beaver homes

-- This looks very like a tree stump.

Nobody wants to leave.

William and his friends on a windy day

A naval expedition

Preparing the fleet, 24 August 2013

William and his crew

The Adjidau'mo Island Express

Choppy waves

Choppier and choppier

Taking a break

Unintended consequences

This is what we've come out here to see -- he's reliable (when the sun's out).

Now we can start back

We're out of the wind in the back bay, but . . .

. . . that won't last.

Exhausting

Valedictory dinner

The young gentleman is sad because he has to go back to Canada tomorrow.

Alison and Will -- leave-taking

Breaking in a new Samsung 7 Chronos

Big Party at Manor Mouse

Another Storm of the Century

The Older People's table

The Young People's table

Taya's table

The lights flickered off briefly, just enough to wipe out the telephone and Internet system for 10 days (the service department's shorthanded these days).

But otherwise everyone's having a good time.

Festive atmosphere

The "Wisconsin Desert"

We're back down in Spring Green, staying with friend David in Madison, and occupying our idle hours until the starting gun of our theatrical marathon by a vigorous walk through the "Wisconsin Desert".

"At Spring Green Preserve, sometimes called the 'Wisconsin Desert,' you can get a taste of the American West -- a land of cacti and lizards, sand dunes and dry grasses -- without going far from home" (unless your home is in Europe).

Zoom on the outcrop -- that's our destination, and we won't be deterred by cacti or lizards, but we have to take the long way round on the trail through the woods.

The circuitous route

Cacti and lizards are one thing (or two things) but in the forest there are mozzies -- Kristin's turning back.

The view from the outcrop on top of the ridge, and -- look closely -- there's Kristin returning to the carpark.

There.

We're back to the Up-the-Hill Theatre at the American Players Theatre for the afternoon performance

The heat is ferocious

We're here in the afternoon to see Arthur Miller's All my sons -- the performance was splendid; the play (to my taste anyway) . . . meh.

We're bursting out into downtown Spring Green to grab some dinner before the evening performance -- Hamlet, can you imagine? All my sons and then Hamlet; we'll be suicidal by the end of this.

Spring Green street scene, with the Spring Green State Bank

The State Bank of Spring Green is no longer a state bank. It's actually Freddy Valentine's Public House, brilliant.

The commerçants in Spring Green all know how to hurry up an order when you're "going to the play."

We're here for Hamlet, and friend David has joined us. There he is, there; see?

A full house for Hamlet, understandably. The performance was great, and the Hamlet actor did a very good job, but I didn't like their interpretation of Hamlet himself at all (too crazy! frequently almost hysterical!). After all these years, there will never be a performance of Hamlet that I agree with.

But, as if in compensation, here we are the following afternoon for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead -- stunning, hilarious, funnier than Samuel Beckett (to whom the play owes much), with the same Hamlet actors playing their own parts here. The brilliant comic actor Steve Haggard was playing Guildenstern (or was it Rosencrantz?).

Walking between the lakes

Kristin and friend Nancy battling foliage along the disused canal between the lakes

At the far end of the canal. Kristin took us through the canal on a speedboat back nearly 20 years ago, but it's all choked up now and impassable.

Which is a good thing, because the farther lake is infested with Eurasian millefoil and purple loosestrife, of which (with constant vigilance and frequent scouting parties) our lake is free.

Crossing an old lock from the timbering days -- the idea was to float timber from one lake to the other, but they got the water levels of the lakes wrong and they were floating things the wrong way.