We Packed Our Bāgs and Headed Nôrth

By Billy

On the weekend of Thursday, June 27th to Sunday, June 30th, a group of AC brothers traveled up to Lake Minnewaska near Morris, Minnesota for one cool weekend. But really, it was kind of windy, and that along with the water made for a cool combination.

It all started when we left at 7:00 on Thursday morning, we being Nolan and Derek from Ohio, Quinn and Ethan from Illinois, and Jaydon, Caleb, and myself from here. Although we didn't break the all-time record of 5 and a half hours for the drive, we did make good time. We stopped at the Mall of America on the way up and enjoyed the Amazing Mirror Maze, a SpongeBob SquarePants coaster, and the sights of the massive mall. Some might consider it odd that we didn't actually do any shopping at the mall, but we thought nothing of it. We got to the cabin on the laaaaake (as we learned to pronounce it up there) just in time for supper. We also had a bonfire where we were able to have nice conversations over the important things in life. However, when we got back to the cabin, we found some of the not so nice things of life when we entered the cabin only to find it infested by gnats and other small bugs. So, we spent the rest of the night spraying Raid and sweeping up flies.

L-R: Reed, Quinn, Ross, Jared, Me, Nolan, Drew, Mason, Jaydon, Caleb, Ethan, Tristan, Derek

On Friday, "we" with the addition of Ross from Morris, MN did some skiing, wake boarding, and tubing on the laaaaake. That night, Drew, Tristan, and Mason from Morris arrived, as well as Jared and Reed from here. We enjoyed a calm sunset boat ride, some quartet singing, and Mason's muskrat story around the campfire.

Saturday morning we went to Elk Lake Historic Preserve to shoot clays. If it was a game of golf, I won...but since the point is to get the highest score, I didn't really do very well. The rest of the day was spent on the laaaaake again, and most everyone was able to get up on water skies this year. We had two boats so the last part of the afternoon was spent Ultimate Tubing. One boat made waves and the other boat yanked, flung, and jarred the man on the tube. Other than one incident involving a 7-foot jump, we all were able to survive the Ultimate Tubing. That night we went out to eat at Duffy's, which was very delectable and filled me up well. That night, we went back to Morris and spent the night at some homes of the local brothers.

On Sunday, we went to church at Morris North in the morning and Morris in the afternoon. It was sad to have to depart after such a wonderful weekend, but sometime we had to get back to the real world. To me, it was an encouraging weekend and very enjoyable spending time with brothers in Christ and I am looking forward to doing it again next year!