We really wanted Quinn to experience a sleep away camp this summer and knew that he would probably enjoy a band camp the most. After looking through all the local-ish band camps and not finding anything that excited me or him, I googled “tuba camp” and I got a couple of results. One was in Texas and the other was Interlochen Arts Academy. It was a 6-day “Tuba, Trombone, and Euphonium Intensive”. Quinn liked the sound of that so he submitted an audition video and was accepted a couple of weeks later!

We decided to take Quinn to camp and Don & I would have a week to explore Northern Michigan (more on that in another post).

We had an early morning flight on Friday out of LAX, connecting through Chicago, and then a 38 minute flight to Traverse City.

On Saturday Quinn needed to check in between 9 am – 1 pm so we grabbed a late breakfast and got on our way — Interlochen is about a 30 minute drive from Traverse City.

We were greeted at their main gates and were given instructions on how to find Quinn cabin. Interlochen is an impressive sized school. We met both of his cabin counselors, Oz & Ilan. Here he is with Ilan.

There were about 8-10 kids and 2 counselors in each cabin which is set up with bunkbeds. They even had one XL bunkbed for the tall kids. Quinn had to pack sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, etc which we offered to help him get set up but he declined.

He rented a tuba for the week so he picked that up and put it in his locker. We happened to bump into a tall, thin man carrying a tuba who was one of Quinn’s instructors, Matt Lyon.

Then Quinn could not get rid of us quick enough. We love his independent spirit so one last picture and we were on our way.

It was radio silence from Quinn (he had his iPhone). On Wednesday I saw a post from Interlochen about the optional polar plunge and this picture. Quinn had said he was going to participate so we looked closely and could pick him out. He’s in a blue shirt on the left side of the photo near the front. He said the Polar Plunge was pretty lame because the lake was not that cold and they only went in as far as you see in the picture. Fun fact, Interlochen means between lakes.

Here are some other photos that Interlochen posted to their site with some scenes from camp life.

I love this photo of all the kids from Quinn’s Intensive.

Thursday was the big day when we got to see Quinn and his group perform. Interesting that there are very few kids from Michigan.

Here’s one of the songs they performed with just tubas and euphoniums — Pinnacle.

And with the full Intensive group — Resurrection Symphony.

Proud mom and dad after the show.

So glad that Corky & Meg could also see the performance.

Quinn had his stuff packed pretty quickly and he was ready to go. He said goodbye to a couple of kids in the cabin and off we went!

He really enjoyed his week but he was ready to leave. And he *might* want to go back next year. Time will tell.