Hello everyone, Sorry about not updating the newsletter for the past week. We are officially in our mid-season break. We annually black out about 7-10 days in early July in order to send everyone home for a much-deserved break (July 2-11 this season). This year, the break was doubly deserved because we had one of the busiest Junes on record! We have already had over 100 flights into Aikens in less than 2 months. This is a great testament that the "Aikens Experience" is something very unique and cherished. A lot of our friends in the industry have been affected by the downturn of the economy in the USA. Although we have felt the pinch as well, our very loyal and strong customer base is still coming up in droves and for that we thank you. People don't want to miss even one year of coming up to Aikens Lake. We also want to thank our ever-growing Canadian customers who continue to make Aikens Lake their favorite lodge destination. It's very cool to see our neighbours from the East and West join our neighbours in the South in making the Aikens and the "Aikens Experience" so special. We look forward to a very strong 2nd half to our season!

An update on camp happenings in the past week: When our break started on July 2nd, we had several flights come in to fly out all of our staff. Julie's family (parents and sister's family) flew in on those flights to come and spend the break with Pit, Julie & the kids. The most excited one of the bunch was definitely Annika, who was counting down the days until her favorite cousins Jude (6) and Joel (3) stepped off the plane! So far, they have spent a ton of time running around camp, on the beaches, in the trampoline, and in the lodge. We have all done some fishing, and last night Julie guided her sister to a great trophy walleye (28-1/4") in the South Arm. Pit has yet to guide his father-in-law or brother-in-law to anything of substance... shaking off the rust I guess! We spotted a young cow moose at the end of the peninsula yesterday. At some point last night, she wandered through camp and left a few droppings around. This morning Kody was very active in "re-marking" his territory and barking around the perimeter of the camp. Other than that we have just been cleaning up little projects and continuing the day-to-day maintenance of the camp. Our staff and guests start flying back in on Friday the 11th of July. We look forward to another several days of rest and relaxation until the floodgates open back up to kick off an outstanding 2nd half of the season!

The Aikens Break