Catching Up with Friends on Elk Lake

Our next destination took us to Elk Lake where Bob (a former grad school mate and SLMA colleague of Lance) and his family have a summer cottage. 

Their cottage was built in the 1930's and evolved into a colony of 7-8 other cottages that today are largely owned by the 3rd generations of the original families.  The cottages were established by a group of ten colleagues from the University of Chicago where Bob's grandfather was a professor and served as the lead chemist on the Manhattan Project.

We were lucky enough that our visit overlapped with Bob's wife Susan and their two daughters, Lizzy and Laura, as well as Bob's parents, Bob Sr and Margy. 

What a relaxing couple of days (and welcome reprieve from life in the rv!).  We kayaked, swam and went for a boat ride up and down the 8 mile crystal clear lake.  Laura treated Lance to an excursion in their "gator".   Lance and Bob caught up on old times.

Fin was delighted to meet a new girlfriend, Chloe, a lumbering Leonburger that was twice his size but a gentle giant.  They got along great and we were all thrilled to see the dogs running around and tiring each other out.

While our trips have taken us to numerous exciting places, by far our favorite experience has been catching up with old friends along the way -- we wouldn't trade that for anything!