Summer at The Club & Camp U Club Reimagined
Summer is coming, and if you all let it, it will lure you, your family, and friends away from your/their computers. The Club will help.
The 2023 expanded offerings, outlined below, are aimed at letting everyone enjoy the few brief summer months we have to enjoy each other, across generations in many cases – in one of the most beautiful locations in the Twin Cities.
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."
The Big Picture
Camp U Club Reimagined
In former years the Club members’ children and grandchildren aged about 5 years and older, who enrolled in Camp U Club, could be dropped off at the Club weekdays from 8:00am until 12:30pm - with the summer club staff there to amuse and engage them including our swim team from mid-June until the end of July.
After extensive discussions with the Club’s members, and due to the many changes in how the lives & schedules of our members and their children/grandchildren are now organized, we have decided to reimagine the Camp U Club program to be a drop-in one, with expanded options available to amuse the kids, and increasing the hours the staff that will be available from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm.
This Summer, ALL kids are members and are welcome without regard to how often they come to the club. In addition, we are extending the staffed days from June 12 until August 14. As in the past children under the age of 10 years of age must be accompanied by an adult or an older brother or sister when they are at the Club.
New Offerings
In recent years the facilities included primarily the pool and tennis court. This year the offerings have substantially expanded as a consequence of construction that took place last summer in the tennis court area.
In previous years the Club focused its summer offerings with primarily the children in mind. This summer the kids will have more to do, more hours per day to do these activities, and more days during the summer AND, just as important, the offerings have been expanded so that in addition to the kids, adults are invited to play and be amused, too!
Adjusting Dues
After many years with no increase, we have elected to adjust the dues for everyone to cover our substantial increase in operating costs and to help cover summer expenses. The former camp fee of $900 will no longer be charged.
Offerings
Last summer substantial upgrades were made to the grounds in general and the tennis court area in particular. The club management wanted to increase the number of offerings and picked ones that could be enjoyed if you are 1 or 101.
Pool
The pool will be open at 6:00am for adult use until swim practice starts at 8:00am on weekdays. Throughout the day an adult-only lane will be maintained, with kids also out of the pool for 15 minutes per hour for additional adult time. Additional seating and tables will be added.
Swim lessons/team activities will be in the mornings during the week, with swim meets at other clubs, ending the season at the Interclub meet at Town and Country Club. Specific schedules will be announced as summer gets closer.
Upgrades to the pool equipment will be completed during the season, to head off operational problems during the summer.
Outdoor Games Area
The former tennis court location now contains:
- Pickleball sport court that can also be used for badminton and volleyball
- Basketball hoops area
- Bocce ball court/Lawn Bowling green
- Petanque pitch
- Play area
- Putting green/miniature golf course
“Shed” Area
- Games tables (chess and many other offerings)
- Kids can play games with staff
- Snacks and grill
Kids' Play Room
Carriage House:
- Ping Pong table
- Pool table
- Foosball tables
- Table shuffleboard
- Piano
Kids' Movie Room
For foul weather in the Yoga Room below the Ramsey Room:
- Projection system with BIG screen with beanbag chair seating
- Evenings next fall – a kids place when parents having dinner.
“Build” Room
Lower level porch of Carriage House:
- Wood building block and timber Plank sets of various kinds
- Montessori Woodworks Future Blocks
- Wood tumble tower
- Lego bricks table
- Art Materials
Work at The Club
Like the rest of the world, the world of work for many of our members has changed. The “Third Place” so important to many, and now often includes a quiet place to do some productive thinking and, or as important, day dreaming. The Club is an ideal Third Place – it beats the local coffee shop by a mile, plus we have free coffee!
In addition to recently expanded options for drop-in or monthly office/work in the Clubhouse on the second floor in the Overlook Room for Executive Members, additional electric plug-ins have been installed on the deck and pool area for member use.
Programming & Events
- Complimentary “weenie roasts with smores” at campfire circle Friday afternoons at 5:00pm (weekly)
- Family Dive-in move nights
- Memorial Day – pig Roast
- Fourth of July picnic
- Labor Day – family picnic with games
- Outdoor lunch and dinner service 7 days a week – June 15 to August 15
- Kids tent camping at Stout's Island Lodge – August
- Family tube excursion on the Cannon River – Late July or early August
- Periodic kids and/or family activities field trips scheduled – based on demand
Thoughts of Summer
A few more thoughts of summer (the management hopes you enjoy them), which helped guide a new way of looking at what the Club will offer its members this summer – a time for members of all ages to play again, after a long winter, with each other.
“A good swimming pool could do that — make the rest of the world seem impossibly insignificant, as far away as the surface of the moon.”
"All in all, it was a never to be forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world."
"Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August."
“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and very sunset is different”
"Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly."
“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.”
“One summer morning at sunrise a long time agoI met a little girl with a book under her arm. I asked her why she was out so early and she answered that there were too many books and far too little time. And there she was absolutely right.”
“Summer romances end for all kinds of reasons. But when all is said and done, they have one thing in common: They are shooting stars-a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, a fleeting glimpse of eternity. And in a flash, they're gone.”
“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
"In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible."
"If it could only be like this always – always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper..."
"The castle grounds were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparkling lake, the satin-green lawns rippled occasionally in a gentle breeze: June had arrived."
"The beauty of that June day was almost staggering. After the wet spring, everything that could turn green had outdone itself in greenness and everything that could even dream of blooming or blossoming was in bloom and blossom. The sunlight was a benediction. The breezes were so caressingly soft and intimate on the skin as to be embarrassing."
"The summer night was settling upon the neighborhood like a dark lace veil, casting dappled shadows on the roofs and sidewalks and lawns."
“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer”
"Summer, after all, is a time when wonderful things can happen to quiet people. For those few months, you're not required to be who everyone thinks you are, and that cut-grass smell in the air and the chance to dive into the deep end of a pool give you a courage you don't have the rest of the year. You can be grateful and easy, with no eyes on you, and no past. Summer just opens the door and lets you out."
“Just living is not enough…one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds od shake the darling buds of May, and summer’s lease hath too short a date:”
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”
"Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. The great trees, which had looked shrunken and bare in the earlier months, had now burst into strong life and health; and stretching forth their green arms over the thirsty ground, converted open and naked spots into choice nooks, where was a deep and pleasant shade from which to look upon the wide prospect, steeped in sunshine, which lay stretched out beyond. The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”
“To see the summer sky is poetry, though never in a book it lie – true poems flee.”