July 9, 2007

• North Shore 2007 Part 1

  Last week, our family made our annual trek to the North Shore of Lake Superior.  It’s become a tradition that we all enjoy.  We rent cabins at the edge of the Superior  National Forest.  There is no phone, no TV, and no internet, so it’s very peaceful and we all get a chance to relax and unwind.  We don’t really rough it, though.  The larger of our cabins has 3 bedrooms, a large great room, a fully supplied kitchen complete with dishwasher, and 2 bathrooms.  The smaller cabin is similar but only has sleeping accommodations for 4.  Here are a couple of pictures of the great room.

  

  We really enjoyed that window seat in the second picture.  It was a great place to curl up with a book or even to take a little nap.  Most of the time, though, we were out enjoying our “beach.”  The resort is called Sugar Beach, which is something of a joke.  Here’s the beach.
  

  

  The beach in this area is volcanic rock.  In fact, it’s some of the oldest rock in the world.  It’s great for climbing around and no sand gets tracked into the cabin.  That’s Dan with Will on his shoulders, Jake in the yellow, and Andy looking at something through his binoculars.

  There are lots of seagulls.  They are very happy to see us come because we give them our left overs.  They will actually hover right in front of your face but I did not have any luck getting a picture of that.
  

  

  That second picture is some vegetation bravely hanging onto the rock to grow.  There is not a lot of topsoil, but it’s amazing what grows anyway.

  We like to hike and there are lots of good trails.  This is Dan and me with Jake and Will one day when we went hiking.  Don’t you wonder why we took a baby up onto those high rocks?  The second picture was also taken that day.  I like it because it shows how it can be perfectly clear and sunny where you are, but just a short distance away, there can be heavy Lake Superior fog rolling in.
  

  

  In the evenings, we often have bonfires.  Here are Andy, Madison, Jess with Will, and Betsy out on the beach just before the bonfire, then Betsy taking a picture and Madison with a toasted marshmallow.
  

  

  Matt likes to build rock sculptures and he is really very good at it.  Here he is building one in a little pool of water. 
  The second picture is one of Matt’s sculptures in the background on the far right, some of Madison’s in the background, and some of Andy and Jake’s in the foreground.  We left quite a little art gallery on the beach.  This is the first year that other members of the family have tried their hands at rock art.

  

  There is a little park about half a mile from the cabins.  They have some playground equipment, but the big attraction seemed to be this jetty.  Those are big rocks.  Keep in mind that that’s Dan in center of the picture and he is over 6 feet tall.
  

  

  Here are Dan and I.  We have on matching sweatshirts from the Grand Portage National Monument.  Our kids tease us when we dress alike.

  

  The kids do play in the cabin sometimes.  These pictures were taken in the bedroom loft where Dan and I slept.  The boys built a “no girls allowed” fort in a little cubbyhole storage area.  Then the girls had to retaliate by establishing a “girl zone.”
  

   

  I will have 2 more North Shore blogs, one showing you how a 4th of July parade is done in a very small resort community and the other about a day hiking the Temperance River.

  • 11:31 am
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