Happy Rookie Day! Today we had almost 30 future Island Lakers come to camp and receive the royal ILC treatment. They experienced activities, dined with us for lunch, received a special magic show during snack break, and had a big pool party at the end of the day. These children made friends with other rookies, in addition to our current campers. Some rookies are younger siblings of our campers and some rookies are the first in their family to get a taste of what Island Lake has to offer.

We had beautiful blue skies today, the temps were much cooler, and no humidity to hold anyone back from having fun. The afternoon temps hit only in the low 70’s. What a difference from a few days ago! Our rookies chose from a variety of activities all around camp while our campers continued with their majors and minors today.

Last night our pioneering campers had an overnight up at “tent city.” That’s one of the highest points in camp with an area all cleared out for them to pitch tents, build fires, make s’mores, tell stories, and get a good night sleep under the stars. They returned by breakfast, as well as our overnight river trip campers. Those who went on the river trip raved about their experience. Some of the girls had the funniest quote I’ve heard in awhile, “We thought we were going ‘glamping’ and then found out that we were camping!” Gotta love pre-teen girls, huh?

In ILC sports our 8^th & 9^th grade girls played basketball at a nearby camp this afternoon. Spoiler alert: They won with a score of a lot to a little! Go Island Lakers!

When Oliver, our program director, makes up the daily “ILC MORNING NEWS” for the kids to read when signing up for their minors at breakfast, she likes to add some fun riddles for the kids to figure out. She doesn’t post the answer until the following day. I already asked her for some help with yesterday’s riddle so I didn’t want to push it and ask her for today’s answer. Can any of you figure out this riddle (without looking it up on google, Siri, or Alexa!)? If you can figure it out, please email me the answer at wendy@islandlake.com. Here’s the riddle: Be sure to shout for its answers are weak, but there is no language it cannot speak.

Tonight’s evening activity is a camp-wide fav: Mr. & Miss ILC! This is a special one for the books. The girls’ bunks dress up male counselors and the boys’ bunks dress up female counselors to look, act, and perform as the opposite gender. Mr. & Ms. ILC is a light-hearted, fun pageant and quite an entertaining show for everyone involved, including our spectators. It’s all about being in the audience to enjoy this evening activity.

Today’s special feature is ROOKIE DAY! Below are a variety of pics of our rookies participating in Island Lake activities. Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!