Jay and I just returned from a three day vacation at a lake cabin up in the Grand Rapids area. It was an impromptu invite; my favorite kind.
The lake upon which our friend’s place sits is two miles long, thin and meandering. It has lots of bays and inlets to explore and the cabins and homes that inhabit the shoreline are mostly hidden from each other by thick stands of trees. While there are a handful of year round homes on the lake, the majority of them are old school Minnesota lake cabins.
The Chat ‘n Chew is a perfect example of just enough modern amenities: satellite tv (for watching the Twins) an internet hotspot (for checking the weather) and ceiling fans, balanced against rustic charm: running water pumped in from the lake, no air conditioning, knotty pine finishes and tons of windows.
A wrap around deck was the perfect place for me and Jen to sit and read our books beneath the shade of the pines while watching the guys load up the pontoon boat for their second or third fishing expedition of the day. They caught enough so that the six of us were able to have quite a fish fry for lunch on Sunday.
We tooled up and down the lake in both the pontoon boat and an ancient yet terribly efficient little motor boat. We swam in the extremely refreshing lake, along with floating around on individual air recliners. We ate, drank, read books, talked laughed, swam, sang, met some lake neighbors and had an all-around fantastic time.
The last time I had such a relaxing vacation was five years ago, when Jay and I hid out at a friend’s similarly rustic lake place for five days.
Jay and I slept on the three season porch. Surrounded by windows, the lake breeze cooling the room and the sound of rain (it rained on cue every night; perfect!) lulling us to sleep, I slept better than I have since last Halloween. The first day we were there, I went to bed well before 11, which I never do, and slept until after nine the next morning. It was GREAT.
When it was time for us to hit the road, Jay and I took an alternate route home. We thought it would cut 15 to 20 minutes off our drive time and it might have, if Satan’s Own Thunderstorm hadn’t followed us all the way back to town.
Jay drove the first ninety minutes and the whole time we could see the edge of the storm ahead of us. It was right there, just out of reach…we finally came out from beneath the clouds and as the black sky moved off the east, the sun peeked out from the west. Sure enough, a vivid, full arc of a rainbow appeared. When we stopped at a burger joint to grab some dinner, a double rainbow was reflected in clouds of the storm we’d just escaped.
Burgers in hand, we hopped back in the car and settled in for what we thought would be an easy trip home.
In less than five minutes, the road curved right back into the heart of the storm and stayed there all the way back to town.
The deluge would break for a few miles and I’d think we were out of the worst of it, only to see the cars up ahead of me begin to throw off spray and I’d brace for another curtain of solid water to descend on the car.
I had to keep fairly close to the car in front of me because I couldn’t see the road at all.
Then the sun set and it got dark out.
That’s when the driving got really scary. I was grateful for all the lightening because during the flashes was the only time I could tell I was still on the road.
The rain had eased up by the time we got to the metro but the driving was still awful, as 494 is one narrow lane all the way from 94 to 62. I kept thinking ‘if anyone breaks down, we’re all screwed’. No one broke down.
It took us more than an hour longer to get home than we’d hoped but it felt great to be out of the car and still alive.
The drive was hair raising enough to nullify the entire weekend’s worth of relaxation.
But then I watched three episodes of Nashville and before I went to bed, all was once again right with the world.