Travel Log: 2 July 2012

We made the journey across northern Minnesota from Grand Marais to north of Walker in order to spend 4 nights at Grandpa's cabin with Grandpa and the Quickert 5.9. (5.9 as Maren was 8 months pregnant with lil' Justus! :)!) Unlike winter, Grandpa's cabin in the summertime is as typical lake life as is expected in Minnesota. We call it a cabin because it was once a tiny 2 bedroom, outdated cabin/shack until Mark bought it, doubled its size, and remodeled everything, beautiful kitchen with all the amentities, air conditioning in the summer and wood burning stove plus heaters for the winter, inside and out finished in pine siding. (Well, all remodeled except the guest bathroom, hopefully that'll be this summer, :)!)

The surroundings are beautiful, too, a large flat grassy yard, perfect for badminton or croquet, with a long shallow shoreline perfect for little ones, a speed boat for tubing and fishing, a pontoon for all to fish from, and a massive screen porch for mosquito protection but also with a western view to watch breathtaking sunsets. It is a gorgeous lake house more than a typical cabin, :)!

Unlike the North Shore, the rest of Minnesota was experiencing a painful heat wave of high 90's and massive humidity. Within moments of arriving to the cabin, the kids were in their trunks and in the water with their cousins, and bouncing around from fishing to swimming to trying to do both at once.

From the photos above, it looks like a normal day on Grandpa's lake, peaceful and calm. But around 8pm, the weather turned, massive clouds began forming across the lake on its west edge, the winds picked up, and the rains came. In a heartbeat, we were being pounded by a massive thunderstorm with tornado-force winds. (Later, we learned tornados did actually touch down in surrounding areas.) The 11 of us all huddled in the safest spot in the cabin and discussed if the tiny crawl space would fit our group. The power went out as the storm raged and the screened in porch was taking a beating. The lawn looked like a lake itself from the torrential rains.

Around 10:30pm, the power had not come back on, but the storms had calmed enough that we felt like we could send the kids to bed safely. Unlike city life, the water at the cabin is powered by electricity. We had no electricity and no running water from faucets or water in the toilets. And even though it was night, the lessening of the storm brought back the heat with a vengeance. We all went to bed hoping that when we woke the power would be restored.

Travel Log: 3 July 2012

Unfortunately, the dawn did not bring the power. Thankfully, we had cereal for breakfast, some bottled water on hand for drinking, the next door neighbor had an outhouse we could use, a lake to try and cool off in, and a grill for lunch and dinner. Grandpa Mark found a generator for sale but it would take him over 6 hours to get it and return. During that time the rest of us closed all the curtains and tried to make the house as cool as possible. Even with all the lake playing, we were running out of water and our over-heated spirits were waning. We opted to make the (car air conditioned!) drive into town in order to go to the ice cream shop (and buy more drinking water) for some relief. Just look at these sweaty cuties and their melted ice cream!

We arrived home hoping the power would be restored, but it wasn't. Mark was back with the generator but it only produced enough energy to power the refrigerator and a small fan. We focused the fan on the beautiful pregnant woman and prayed the power would return - but to no avail.   

Travel Log: 4 July 2012

After going 40 hours with no electricity, no running water, and intense heat - we called it. 

Being hard core campers, Maren and I were bummed. If we had known we were going camping without such amenities, we would have packed differently and been better prepared. But after 40 hours of trying our best to stay positive and make do - we called it. It was heart breaking for everyone, as we cherished our rare times together, but it was done, we couldn't stay as long as we had planned.

Within four hours on the road south to home, we got the call that the power was finally restored at the cabin. If only we had hung in there a little longer! But as it was, we had made it to our favorite Thai place in the Twin Cities area and had just settled in to enjoy our Fourth of July in typical A Christmas Story style and decided not to make the drive back up. We still had another 6 hours to home, but spending those 6 hours in an air-conditioned car was heaven on earth.

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