“Up North” in Minnesota usually means spending time on a lake. Any lake, anywhere in MN, one of the 10,000 plus lakes. It doesn’t matter how far of a drive or if it is truly up north, we refer to this kind of trip as “up north.” I will say, growing up near the Iowa border pretty much every lake is up north, literally, except the one in the town I grew up in. We are lucky enough to spend a week on the lake every summer, in a truly up north capacity. We go about 3 hours north of Minneapolis, we drive through “lake traffic”, and we spend 7 days in the sun, on the water, eating food!
This year was our 12th year, our 7th, in the same cabin. We started out as a group of 8 adults and three kids, have shrunk to 7 adults but grown to 10 kids. All 17 of us stay in one cabin, for 7 nights. The first two years we were in a cabin that was small, it was tight, it also didn’t have hot water for showers. The moms with kids, I didn’t have kids at that time, would boil water each night to throw in the tub to get a “warm” bath. I can’t fully remember but I am sure the bath wasn’t even room temperature. More kids came and off to a new cabin, a bigger one, and one with hot water. We thought it was great, the beach was great, the sand was great, and we had a ton more room. Except the bedrooms didn’t have air conditioning, oh and they were tiny. We stayed here for 3 years when the owners decided to sell but honestly we were already out growing it, I now had one child and we couldn’t even keep all of our stuff in our bedroom. We found our current cabin, which has space for everyone, it also has hot water, oh and the entire cabin has air conditioning, even if the basement is pretty darn cold! It has become like a second home to us, this year we even water the yard with one of those tractor sprinklers that follows the hose. It was a very hot week and the grass was very dry, we treat this place like our own!
This summer vacation is a bit different from our winter vacations. In winter, we get the heck out of the snow and below zero temperatures, we head to a beach, on a plane. When flying I am limited in my space to pack, it helps me not over pack. Going up north is a bit different, we bring so much stuff. Anything that will fit in our car, or two cars this year, comes. Yep, we drove two cars this year. Crazy as it sounds, it was good for a few reasons. Probably the biggest one was we made it the entire drive without puking pit stops. My youngest gets car sick pretty easily, and when we pack anything around him he will vomit multiple times even on shorter rides, he is fine if there is nothing packed around him. Second, we were able to pack bikes, which made my husband happy. I think he biked 6 of the 7 days we were there which made him happy. Lastly, we didn’t have to play as much tetris packing the car.
Arrival day is always crazy. The kids are fishing off the dock before even stepping foot into the cabin. We unload, get organized, check out anything new in the cabin, and crack open an ice cold drink to cheers to the week ahead. Prior to heading up north, we shop at Costco and haul a bunch of food and drinks with us. Once we are unloaded we usually head to the grocery store to finish up food shopping for the week. This year we changed it up a bit, it was a beautiful day when we arrived and no one wanted to go grocery shopping. We had everything we needed to grill brats and have a few sides for the evening meal so we waited and went early the next morning. It was kind of nice to wait a day, I’m sure now we will incorporate that into a new tradition.
This year we had beautiful weather, probably the best we’ve ever had. We had a little rain but always overnight. We spent a ton of time outside, on the water on tubes, and even in the water. We had to take breaks in the house to give us a break from the sun and humidity. The kids swim, fish, paddle boat, play on the water mat, make up games. It’s so much fun to see them all get along so well. The older girls are now able to handle activities for the younger kids, such as tie-dying. This year we tried the popular bleaching of black clothes, which gets you a similar look to tie dye just different colors. It didn’t work super well but everyone had fun trying. I bet next year, well have it down! The boys spend their time fishing, hoping to catch enough for the annual fish fry at the end of our week. I don’t generally eat fish but they talked me into eating some grilled Walleye, it wasn’t too bad but probably not my go to meal.
At the end of the week everyone is sad to go home. We split up any leftover food, repack our cars, and give our hugs good-bye. We all leave at roughly the same time which makes it easier for all the kids. We reminisce over texts, we share photos in a shared photo album, we give reports on how our tans, or sunburns are holding up. After a couple of weeks we will start the discussions for next years trip!
If your ever looking for a nice week away, that is drivable, find a cabin to rent for a few days. It truly is as relaxing as can be.
–Bri