Virtuoso Life – by Elaine Glusac
As a child, for ten years I attended summer camp, graduating to become a C.I.T. (counselor-in-training) and finally, at a Canadian wilderness camp, a full-fledged counselor. As a result, I can still lash sticks together to make a table in the woods, pilot a canoe with precise J-strokes, and win a greased-watermelon relay (the trick: hug the fruit loosely).
As an adult, spurred by those early exploits, I pursue vacations as education-cum-action. I learned to fly-fish on an Irish estate, where I landed a whopper salmon. I’ve herded cattle on a Montana ranch with seasoned wranglers and held my own. I made big strides in perfecting my tennis stroke at an Arizona resort. And, in between hikes in Japan, I learned to make delicate wagashi, flower-shaped sweets, too pretty to eat later.