This weekend was just wonderful. The girls and I went with my mother and my sister Betsy to stay with my Aunt Susie (my mother's younger sister) at Washington Island.

The Sisterhood retreat From the left going clockwise: Fiona, Aunt Susie, Betsy, Mom and Delia.

My mother's family has owned property on Washington Island for over a hundred years. Mom's family grew up spending their Julys on the Island. In fact, her father had also spent his summers there as a boy. I believe the first in the family to buy property was my great grandfather. Besides the cottage called "the Big House," the property also included a small boathouse, which was eventually turned into a little artist retreat by my great aunt Katherine Evans. My grandfather's family (the Floyds) and my great aunt's family (the Evans) split their time at the Big House, with the Floyds visiting in July and the Evans in August. My mom and her four siblings all had shares in the cottage, with their cousins, but the Floyd shares eventually were sold to two of the five siblings, my two uncles, and they passed them down to their children. The Evans, too, eventually concentrated their shares in just some of the descendents' hands, and the shareholders (now the fourth and fifth generation) have formed a LLC which manages the Big House property. At one point during the weekend, we went over and visited the Big House, where Mom's cousin Kate Evans showed us around. That was great fun. The bathroom is papered with newspaper advertisements from the early 1900s that they discovered when they removed the old cedar shake siding. The boathouse was particularly special: Kate's mother Aunt Katherine was a children's book author, and her delicate, whimsical art work was featured throughout the lovely little artist retreat cottage.

My aunt Susie, however, bought her own house on the island, where she has spent some of her summer months, and that's where we stayed this weekend. Betsy has come up every summer to spend a long weekend with Aunt Susie for the past twenty years, and two years ago she invited the girls along. This year, I was invited too, and I was just ecstatic to be included.

Every year, Betsy said, her visits with Aunt Susie has had a theme, and this year, the theme was sisterhood. We had three generations of sisters: ( my mom and Aunt SusieCollapse )( my sister Betsy and meCollapse ) and ( Fiona and DeliaCollapse )On Washington Island, time slows down. There is no internet, and we don't watch TV. (a sign at the Albatross, the local burger joint, explains the idea well: ( here, you are 'north of the tension zone.'Collapse )

So we just relaxed and talked over cups of coffee, on Susie's deck overlooking Lake Michigan. ( Fiona did puzzlesCollapse )( Delia doted on Susie's dogsCollapse ) and started a weaving project. There's a wonderful store/school for a huge variety of fabric arts that takes place on the island, and ( Delia got a book on card weaving and had a lot of fun with itCollapse )( I did soul collage and made three cardsCollapse )We visited the Red Cup coffee shop, a variety of the little shops (Delia was delighted with the consignment artwork at the little shop called "What Do We Do During the Winter") and ( stopped at the Albatross (a necessary pilgrimage)Collapse )( We also stopped to see the beautiful Stavkirk Church, a replica of a church built in Norway in 1150 A.D.Collapse )

It was just a perfect weekend. Mom and Susie told family stories, and it felt so right to be in this place that has meant so much to our family.

Mom's been coming to the Island for over eighty years. This weekend, as the ferry slipped away from the dock, I totally understood why.





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Fiona leaves for college in a couple weeks (well, technically, she trundles down the street to a location about fifteen minutes away and moves in with her new sheets and towels, the old microwave, and the clothes that are presently scattered all over the floor of her bedroom). She's not ready--she has to finish her summer paper for the Youth Theological Seminar, and get her transcript extracted from the Minneapolis school district and sent to the college (belated due to summer online gym) and finalize her loan and decide what to do about her banking and buy clothes and and and

and I'm not ready.

I can hardly believe that we've reached this point. Everyone warned me, and it's true. Those eighteen years passed by in a blink.

Delia's switching schools this year, too. She was unhappy at her former school and we had a number of wrangles with the school administration and so now she'll be attending a charter school in St. Paul, which runs on a collaborative basis, using project-based learning. I desperately hope this will be a better answer for her.

We can't take a vacation this year, but the girls and I are going to take a long weekend this weekend, driving up to Washington Island in Wisconsin (Door County), where my extended family has property. We'll be staying with one of my aunts, who summers up there. The girls have gone the last couple of years with my sister Betsy and my parents, but this is the first time I'll be going long. Poor Rob is left at home to hold down the fort.

Lordy, lordy, I need the break.

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where we had a simply splendiforous time. The girls were extremely satisfied and we count it as an entirely successful vacation.

Infinitus was held at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. I moderated the luncheon panel on Friday, about fanfiction. I was able to relax and enjoy the conference more once that obligation was over. The panelists all seemed to think it went quite well. There were papers delivered about the books, but a large part of the draw, of course, was the newly opened park. On Friday night, there was a special event held privately for about 1500 of the conference attendees who were fortunate enough to score tickets: a private party, just for us, held in Hogsmeade, between 10:00 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. (well, actually about 2:00 a.m., when they turned out all the lights in order to convince us to go home). We went through the shops and did the tour of the castle, which culminated in the signature ride: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The queue for the line snaked through the castle itself, which was great fun: you got to see Dumbledore's office, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, the Mirror of Erised, the Gryffindor Common Room, etc. There were amazingly convincing moving talking portraits on the walls, occasionally squabbling with each other. It was just so much fun, and then the ride was worth the wait. You actually felt as if you were really flying!

Fiona and I went on the ride that night, but Delia and Rob didn't get a chance to do so before they shut down for the night. At the end of the evening, we got into a conversation with the Sales Manager for Orlando, who was in charge of keeping our group happy. She offered to take my family on a private VIP tour of the park the next day (!!!!).

So the next day, Saturday, that's what she did. She couldn't have been nicer. The daytime crowds were much bigger, but with her accompanying us, we simply walked to the head of all the lines. She gave us her employee discount in all the shops, too, so we happily explored Honeydukes and Zonko's, and each bought souvenirs to take away with us. We had lunch in the Three Broomsticks. She gave us complimentary Chocolate Frogs when she dropped us off at the hotel again. It was a truly incredible day.

Besides the papers at the conference, there were Wizard Rock performances, and the video premiere of A Very Potter Sequel. Which was hilarious! Fiona and I also saw the musical performance of The Final Battle, which was composed by Lena Gabrielle of The Butterbeer Experience.

The girls had a great time in the vendors room. They'd been saving for awhile, and we gave them some money, too. Fiona finally settled on her house--she's a Slytherin--and got a set of robes. Both girls got posters for A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel and got the cast to sign them. Fiona also got a wand (Sirius Black's, very striking). Delia's wand was sold out in the park (she wanted the Elder wand) but she plans to get it later.

It was wonderful to see so many friends at the conference. The girls, of course, had people greeting them everywhere, as they were recognized from my Livejournal. A real highlight of the week was finally meeting aome for the first time.

Sadly, we had to leave eventually. We drove back to Minneapolis, stopping to do college visits at Beloit College, Lawrence University and Eau Claire University (of Wisconsin) along the way.

I have to go back to work tomorrow. Wah.

Best. Vacation. Evah. Sincere thanks to HPEF, which did so much to enable our family to go.





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The girls and I took an afternoon trip to one of our favorite places, Cafe Latte for afternoon tea. For a very reasonable price, you get a pot of tea, a scone with Creme Fraiche, lemon curd, and blackberry jam, a shortbread cookie biscuit, a cucumber sandwich, a chocolate heart, and your choice from the delicious cakes and tarts they have in their display case.





(Not great quality; sorry. I took this with a cell phone camera.) I'm taking the next week off work. It's supposed to be a vacation, except we're too broke to go anywhere. Tentative plans: I'm going with Fiona to see the William Holman Hunt (Pre-Raphaelite) exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. We got some tickets as a door prize at our neighborhood block party to Nickelodean Universe at the Mall of America. We'll probably do the Starlight admission at Valleyfair one night (cheaper tickets if you enter just from 5 p.m. to midnight). I want to check out the Museum of Russian Art; I've never been there. We'll have a breakfast or two at Stabby's Cafe which just opened in our neighborhood (ginger-banana pancakes, yum). There are a few things we have to work around: Fiona works on Wednesday, Girl Scout potluck, school picnic, a couple overnights with friends for Delia, two stints taking belt test pictures at two different dojos). But we'll try to have a fun, and not too expensive week.

Any other (frugal) suggestions for a Minneapolis staycation, send 'em my way.