Crazy like a loon

'But about the loon-- you know, but he's a funny bird. He's a lonesome, a melancholy bird, but he's got a lot of sense. We can learn something from him. The way he's made, he can't walk much, so he don't get out on land-- you never seen one on land, did you?-- He don't get out of the water unless he has to. A lesson to some of us to stay where we're meant to be.'  The Loon Feather by Iola Fuller

Rick took these photos last weekend at the lake and I am just sitting down to post them.  We sat mesmerized in the boat for hours while nature performed for us.  If you've never heard the call of the loon, listen for a minute to the video...  melancholy and haunting sums it up nicely. 

"12 weeks of summer in two days"

The party invite was pretty much every 10 year olds dream of a party... swimming, tubing, jet skiing, boating, fishing, and sleeping over-night. Add in pizza and ribs and fruit and chips and dip and birthday cake and you'll know why my son almost didn't sleep the night before he left for the party. I think our host Jeff put it best "we're trying to pack 12 weeks of summer fun into two days."

But the best part of the party? Was when WE, the parents got to go to the lake and spend the day.  Rick brought along his zoom lens and got these fun photos of everyone tubing.

Alex and Riley, the birthday boy who turned 11.

Ryan and Alex

                             Kate, the brave, was excited to go with her Dad, Thad.

                                                               Nolan taking a turn by himself.

And then there's Kate's mom, Bonnie.  The only kind of water she likes is filled with chlorine, surrounded by cement.  Her "yuck" radar was on high alert as this was her first time spending time at the lake.  The best way to get her acquainted with the lake?  Why tubing behind the boat of course.

Thumbs up means go faster.   Thumbs down means slower, I'm ready to get off...  ummm Bonnie, they haven't even started yet.  C'mon Snooks, you can do it.

Head first into the water?  

Oh no...

... that was a close one.  Faster Kate?  Sure thing...

... the scream heard round the lake.  

Thumbs up and thumbs down... classic mother and daughter.   But guess who said they are ready to come back to the lake?  

They started as friends.

    Two days later, after swimming, tubing, jumping, fishing, in the hot summer sun, they left as friends.

    

                                                                    Sam and Colton

Thad and Bonnie






Nolan





Kim and Kenzie

We barely got in the car before this little light was out.  

Thanks to our amazing hosts, Kim and Jeff.  They welcomed us to their little slice of paradise and we all left feeling rejuvenated from sunshine,  good food, amazing friends, and blessings overflowing.  
Same time next week?  *wink* *wink*

Land of 10,000 Lakes

Minnesota happens to be "The land of 10,000 lakes," and it only takes you a few minutes drive from our town to start discovering a few of those lakes. In fact "going to the lake," is synonymous with warm weather around here. So this Sunday, we jumped in the car and headed to Detroit Lakes. It doesn't matter how many times we will make a visit to DL this summer, the one place we will frequent nearly every time, is Zorbaz. Its an iconic eatery in the lakes area and we love it both for the "macho" nachos as well as the pizza.  With a near 70 degree day, no wind and a wide open afternoon, we met Grandpa and Grandma for lunch.

To work off our nachos that did not disappoint us in terms of their macho-ness, we went for a walk along the quiet beach afterwards. The ice has barely gone out of the lake and open fishing doesn't start for weeks.  The water temperature is in the "frigid" range, much to the disappointment of the boys.  In another month or so however, the water will warm up and the beaches will be filled with revelers from all over.

Today it was like having the place to ourselves.  True to their word, notice the boys stuck to their promise to their dad of staying "off of the sand" and technically their feet never left the sidewalk.  Their hands may have raked through the small pebbles for shells, but their feet remained planted.  Really I could only admire their ingenuity.

After a leisurely walk to the fishing pier, we climbed back in the car and slowly wound our way through the lakes and back home.  With a handful of shells, a full tummy and the smell of the lake clinging to my clothes, the pull of the water will beckon again and again these next few months.  I am so ready.

Zorbaz.

To wind down from our fishing adventures, we headed over to Detroit Lakes. Summer and DL go together like the Fourth of July and fireworks, one just doesn't exist without the other. Detroit Lakes is a resort town with Big Detroit and Little Detroit Lakes at the heart of it. There are condos and motels and cabins to rent, a big public sandy beach to swim at, all the boating and skiing you could want plus tons of things I am certain I have forgotten about.

While its hard to pick just one favorite place in Detroit Lakes, one of the places we can't seem to get enough of is Zorbaz. Its a pizza and mexican restaurant/bar. Its an institution that has been around for many years. Its the type of place where sandy feet and bathing suits are the norm. The food is great, the atmosphere is relaxing and fun, and it feels like a mini vacation just minutes from town.

It was the perfect respite from our fishing adventures! We were all ravenous, so all bickering ceased as the boys munched on their macho nachos. They come on a tray, cause a plate wouldn't suffice to contain them all, and are covered with melted cheese, cilantro, sour cream, onions, peppers, tomatoes and beans. We about polished them off and then the pizza came. The boys wasted no time in demolishing that as well. And slowly we finally relaxed. I think this is the vision we hold for ourselves when we want to go someplace and take the boys. We tend to put adult-size expectations on small children and forget they require a lot of teaching and instructing.

It occurred to me that last year at this time, going to Zorbaz was still a little bit of a stretch for the boys. Nolan got distracted by the video games inside and Colton complained he didn't like anything on the menu. They slid off their chairs and fought with one another, and half way through our meal Rick and I were ready to run from the whole scene.

But here they were, sitting nicely, eating with good manners, and not fighting. As our stress melted away, the sense of humor kicked back in. I reminded Rick that growing up I longed to do the very thing we had done with the boys that day. While it was a lot of effort and exertion, I felt good that we were trying.

The boys were so tired on the way home they almost fell asleep in the car. It was a peaceful ride home. As we turned into the driveway and prepared to unhitch the boat, Colton piped up. "Don't take it off Dad. Just leave it" he said. "Why is that Colton, I asked?" "Cause. When we go back TOMORROW then we will just have to get in the truck and it'll be all ready to go!" I couldn't help but smile.

Fish tale.

I'm writing this while keeping in mind the one request Rick had pertaining to our fishing excursion... "Just don't say it was all happy." This was said minutes after we pulled the boat from the water and being the trooper that he is I understand where this came from. So I'll share with you my best Dr. Phil version of telling it like it is, or was...

To be fair, we put in a tall order on Sunday. We got up in the morning and began cleaning out Grandpa Jim's boat to use that day at the lake. Rick and the boys vacuumed and scrubbed and spiffed it up all morning. We left at 1 in the afternoon already beginning to tire, but the beautiful 80 degree days aren't a guarantee. And when you have winter for 6-7 months out of the year, you won't waste an opportunity to be outside enjoying nature and sunshine.

So we drove a quick 45 minutes and decided to go to Lake Sally. When you live in Minnesota, going to the lake is an iconic part of your existence, especially when there really are over 10,000 lakes to choose from and a big concentration of those lakes is only 45 minutes away. Nolan had already practiced with Rick on Saturday, clinging to his daddy most of the time as he got over his initial fear of being on the water. So after being peppered with 6,352 questions about how fast we would drive the boat, and how deep the water was, and how big the fish were etc... we finally arrived and prepared to put the boat in the water.

I have two big regrets that might have saved us a little of the agony we were about to endure :) For one thing, the access was busy with people putting in all kinds of boats. We had to act quickly to drop the boat in and get out of the way. I jumped in the boat and grabbed the dock while Rick went and pulled the truck up to a parking space. At the last second I forgot to tell him to grab our drinks and snacks for the boat. With no lunch break yet, and dinner time approaching, the rumbling of our tummies and the grumbling of our kids set in all too quickly.

Plus we were HOT. Now nobody was complaining about it, because we've waited a very long time for it to warm up outdside. But hot on top of hungry and tired do not mix well. Which leads me to my second mistake. While I had slathered everyone with sunscreen, I seemed to have forgotten my own shoulders and arms. After a couple of hours on the boat I began to sense the magnitude of my mistake as my skin started to pink up and I too now was on the verge of misery.

But in true Scandinavian-stubborn mode, we were so determined to fish! Despite trying to keep 2 small boys from falling out of the boat. And preventing them from tangling their lines. Or trying to keep them from hooking someone with their lines. We all still managed to get our poles in the water a few times.

And then we heard a shout from Nolan. Now we'd heard quite a few shouts from him already. Like "Hey, not so fast!!!" And "Daddy, don't drive over the drop-off, what if we fall in?" This time, he felt a big tug on his line.

We watched it bend and bend. He was fighting with it, but he kept on it and with the help of Rick and the net he finally landed his big fish. We have a guesstimate at best as to the size but we figured it was a 7 to 8 pound northern pike. Since we didn't have a way to bring it home or anyone skilled in cleaning it, we let it go. But needless to say there were a few more smiles after that for a brief time.

Eventually, smiles gave way to fatigue and hunger and heat. When Colton hit the end of his rope and the sweat pouring down his face started to commingle with his tears, we left. Rick managed to snag one smaller northern as we neared shore. I didn't even get a picture of it before it came off the line and splashed back into the water.

After another half hour of securing the boat back on the trailer, we left the lake, tired, dirty, hungry, and hot. And we all knew just the place to assuage all of those things... stay tuned for the rest of our fish tale... and see what a difference a little food, something to drink and a little time to relax can do for a perspective :)