Tuesday was our first Cruiser Day of the summer. Cruiser Day is a cabin day, which typically falls each Tuesday at camp. It is a break from our normal routine where each cabin plans a full day of games and activities that they will do together. Each Cruiser Day starts with breakfast in bed. We follow that up by changing our sheets and sending out our laundry, and a community pickup, where each cabin takes responsibility for cleaning an area of camp.
From there it is up to each cabin what they will do that day. Some Cruiser Day favorites include tubing, visiting one of the resorts across the lake, scavenger hunts, slip and slides and more. Kim McCormack works hard to make sure each Cruiser Day is filled with special events for the campers. This week she set up a pie-eating contest for Cabin I-5, a Minute to Win It challenge, and a cookie baking class.
Each village also has a village cruiser day. This first week was the Junior Village Cruiser Day and our youngest guys spent the day at the water park, mini-golfing, and then they paid homage to the Northwoods culture by attending a Lumberjack show. The boys learned about the logging history of the region and also were entertained by yelling “Yo-Ho” to cheer on their favorite Lumberjack. Each camper was able to take a whirl with the big saw and became an official Junior Lumberjack.
Each Cruiser Day, every cabin cooks out their dinner over a fire. For the first cookout we made Tinfoil Surprise, a camp favorite. It’s a combination of ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and topped with cheese. You wrap it up in Tin Foil, and the outcome is the delicious surprise! Dessert was the traditional yet scrumptious S’mores.
The Junior Village Cruiser Day ended with a cookout at Hayward Beach. But what made this cookout unique was the group of women in the middle of their Zoomba class in the parking lot. Our boys didn’t miss a beat, and they started mirroring the steps in the background. Despite their inexperience at Zoomba, the Junior Village Campers and Counselors quickly figured out the steps and made sure to work off all the eating from that day with a good healthy workout. Before long, the Zoomba class had more than tripled in size and the boys were requesting that we add it as an option for a class at North Star!
Wednesday night we played one of North Star’s favorite games – Glen’s Game. During this game, the campers are trying to make their way into four different mystery zones around camp. Once they make it there, they get a stamp on their hand to signal their success. The challenge is that the counselors are chasing them! The campers and staff alike love the game.
This evening was our first game of Green-White All Camp Capture the Flag. It was a great game to cap off another great day at camp.
