We took REAL ice cream once. There was Hershey's syrup in the bag too. It was a chocolate shake by day three in July. Cold & good but straws would have been a better idea.

I was thinking steak and only steak packed in sawdust inside foam - that's it. Just steak. The rest of the stuff really has no need to be in a cooler although I do agree with IC in that 32˚ water is pretty special too after a few days.

Last year before my first August trip in a long time if ever, I was thinking "dog days" and did some dumpster diving for 1" pink foam insulation. I made a box out of it using bathroom caulk as glue that fit inside my cheap soft sided cooler. Only problem was, at Int. Falls they took everything out and spread it all out on one of their big heavy stainless steel tables... Arrrrrgh! I had steak on day two or three - I forget. I just remember it was way earlier than I planned on. Not a big deal, just aggravating after the effort and construction. I still have it. Might try covering it in foil next time.

I've always put thermometers in my coolers. It's not unusual to have solid ice and solid steak while the other food is above 50˚ even in Spring if you don't treat the cooler well. Just because something is frozen solid doesn't mean the other food as cool as you'd like.