Vacation, Day 7: Last Day in the Cabin

 Friday morning began with a steady rain that kept up most of the day. As dry as it’s been all summer at home, I enjoyed it. I wished we could hook it to the bumper and drag it back with us.

We had pancakes again for breakfast. It was the last real cooking I did, and apparently the last meal that I deemed photo-worthy.

Last pancakes, last peach, last bacon

Jane packed while I journaled. At 11:00, we returned to Swamper Lake, but there were no swans. It being a chilly, wet day, we stopped at the repurposed Loon’s Nest, once a gift store, now a coffee shop. It was similar to Starbucks—each cup made individually, and not very fast. They had a selection of pastries. I could not pass up a day-old pain au chocolat, a chocolate-filled croissant. Jane had a blueberry cream cheese croissant. The shop was crowded, it being a chilly, wet day. After we ate our croissants, we took our coffee to the car to let someone else have our seats.

Readers with exceptional memories will recall that last year I saw tiny green blobs floating in the lake and wished I had a microscope. Janice Y., upon reading the letter, promised she would get me a microscope before my trip this year, which she did. It was a simple design, similar to the picture of Robert Hooke’s microscope in the textbook. On the plus side, it was small and easy to pack. On the minus side, it took a steadier hand than mine to focus it by moving the body up and down. An improvement over Hooke’s original was that a fiber-optic tube rather than a mirror furnished the light. I used my cell phone flashlight as a light source.

Adjusting focus by moving microscope body while holding cell phone flashlight. Jane's empty yogurt cups hold lake water samples.

I was able to confirm that the green blobs were not Volvox. They were spherical collections of multicellular green strands. I had never seen anything like it, and the Golden Guide to Pond Life was no help.

Green blobs on low power

Another drawback of the microscope, or perhaps of my lack of skill, is that I could not focus on high power without squishing the sample. So it goes. The squished spheres show the cells of the strands better.

Green blobs on high power

I saw Daphnia and several species of ciliates that I didn’t recognize. I was able to get a pretty good picture of everyone’s favorite alga, Spirogyra, which is not only cool to look at but has a fun name.

Spirogyra

The rest of the day was spent doing the sad but necessary things the last day of vacation requires: paying the bill, packing, taking showers, eating the rest of the food, drinking the rest of the liquor. We had a salad with some of the leftover chicken and the rest of the lettuce for lunch and a chicken casserole with the remainder of the pasta for supper. There were two ears of corn left. One was way too mature, so we split the edible one. Too bad we had no chickens at had to feed the old corn to.

The loons came around to say goodbye in the late afternoon. I realize I have posted loon pictures before, but I chose these four out of 60+ pictures, so you should appreciate my restraint.

Chick waiting for parent to surface with food

Seriously? That tiny fish is the best you can do?

Off to try again.

Me and my shadow

I didn’t have the moral fortitude to pack the car after supper. We hoped it wouldn’t be raining in the morning. We set alarms for the first time in a week and went to bed.