Goodbyes and Hellos

Every week we go through pictures like this, Saturday morning kids saying goodbye to the lake looking sad and wishing 51 weeks would pass quickly until they are here again Those sad pictures are quickly followed in the afternoon by happy kids like Finley wondering how fast everyone can unpack before he can get to the beach or the playground. Saturdays are a whip lash of emotion around the resort. Especially this year where everyone values so much time spent with friends and familes even if they have to keep up the social distancing at the resort. Value all the time you can is what we have all learned this year from COVID19 Mack has been socially distancing from guests for the summer until...... his buddy Kelsey arrived. Kelsey and Mack have had a bond since the first year we got him. She yells his name and he perks up and goes running to her. It is an amazing bond between the two. He remembers her over the year and immediately picks up where they left off. Kelsey is one of the few outside of the family who has gotten to scratch his ears this summer There is no way I could keep them apart even if I wanted to, which I don't. For those with bigger groups who want to go out together we have discovered the Torpy Park Pavillion. Each family group came with take out from the restaurant of their choice at 6pm. Each group had a table spaced apart from other families. Everyone has their COVID bubble and they sat with their bubble but we could all talk and enjoy company outside under the pavillion. One group had Minocqua Pizza, another had fish fry from Tula's, and Troy and I had mexican from El Trasco complete with a margarita Figuring out new traditions to vacation safely is what it is all about COVID is changing many things. My sock shop is going online. Grant has been helping me enter all the inventory and within a week it will be live to order or buy things. You don't realize how many yarns I have worked with until you have to enter each one. Grant is learning how to set up an online store, good experience for a business major to do. So far we have heard he is headed back to Saint Norbert August 24th. It will be sad to close down the Black's Cliff dorm room but he will be ready to go after suddenly coming home in March to try to do online college classes with the resort internet. Believe me, he has tried to see if there is faster internet in our location and what we have is what we get. Stay tuned for the launch of www.jennyssockshop.com Troy and I have made our own investment in ourselves in June. We have spent 4 months disinfecting cabins keeping up with COVID. We decided we needed our own get away to explore the Northwoods. We know what it takes to keep cabins safe and clean during COVID and decided we are not sure everyone else is doing things to our standard around the country. If we were going to travel we needed our own digs. So we headed off, did our research and we have a new toy. We have been having the time of our lives each week taking a short trip for 24 hours away from the resort. We leave whichever of the boys is home in charge with Steve and Bella and down the road we go. Our trailer is just 16.8 feet and can fit in all sorts of small campsites. Its perfect for us and we plan on taking many short trips this summer and some longer ones in the off season. Our latest adventure took us down the paved bike trails of Boulder Junction and Sayner. These trails are amazing and only 30 minutes from the resort. We will share over the next few weeks other little hidden gems we find that you can travel to easily from the resort. But now it is back to work keeping the Northwoods cootie free. This is the mister we use to spray down gh We appreciate all the thanks you's, compliments and help we have received from our guests this summer helping us keep the resort safe for everyone. If we all do our part we can get back to normal! Keep your hands washed, Masks on if closer than 6 feet to others, spray behind you with our disinfectant we leave around the resort and we will all stay healthy