August 7, 207. After a large lunch at Pickelman's Pantry, the 6 of us decided to spend the night in Grand Marais, MI, which is located on the shore of lovely and tumultuous Lake Superior. We got the two last rooms at a hotel called the North Shore Lodge. It had old brown shag carpet and 70's wood paneling on the walls, but each room had two double beds and the hotel is literally right on the beach. It also boasts an old crappy indoor pool and hot tub, all for a mere $80/night, so we were totally in white trash heaven. Every time Ryan and I have gone to his cabin, he's brought us all to this beach. It has a huge breaker wall that is perfect for diving on days that the Lake isn't boasting 8' plus waves. Last year Ryan and I literally body surfed on a small craft advisory day. The waves were at least 8' and it was deliriously fun, if not a little bit scary. This year the Lake was a bit calmer, but warmer. At least 65 degrees, which is WARM for Superior. Animae and Jay and Michael's dog Opus - a ridiculously adorable Beagle - were romping in the water with us and chasing each other up and down the beach at break neck speeds. The sun was high in the sky and everyone else was hanging out on the beach. A great morning. But, where to go after check out at 11am?
The previous year at the cabin, the generator went kaput and we had to get it fixed. We took it to this town called Curtis which was a few miles south of Newberry. Curtis is a great little vacation town. As I remembered it, it had two lakes. I kept saying "We should go to Curtis because it has TWO lakes!" all morning and pretty soon everyone thought Curtis sounded just fine. So, we were off to Curtis, which we found out actually has THREE lakes - North Manistique, Manistique and South Manistique. We stopped at the log cabin general store in town and picked up some supplies and they told us where to look for waterfront cottages for rent on Manistique Lake. The entire coast of the lake alternates between private homes and little cottage resorts. The Red Cross was housing many of the displaced evacuees and fire fighters at these cottages, so we had a hard time finding vacancy. Finally a woman who ran a place that was at full occupancy suggested a place called the Buckhorn Resort. She said it wasn't fancy, but it was reasonable, run by a really nice man and most likely had a vacancy. So we gave it a try.
Eureka! Due to a cancellation there was a 3 bedroom cottage with bath and kitchen and living room, new grill, deck and use of a fishing boat with trolling motor available for $78/night. Say what!? And Scott, who runs the place, was just the sweetest man imaginable. He went everywhere on the property in a golf cart and talked in a slow, "easy does it" manner. He recently lost his wife, and spent his days taking care of the property and fishing. He seemed genuinely happy to have us city folk and our crazy two dogs on the property. We booked it for 3 nights. Strangely enough, the cancellation on the cottage was due to the original booker having a heart attack, and the person he got to replace him had to have hip surgery. I hope both of those gents recovered, but I sure am glad we got the cottage. Finally, some relaxation! Jay and Michael and I blew up the floaties that Michael brought - all of us were practically passing out from light-headedness when Scott came up and said "I got a compressor that'd make that job a lot easier..." Hilarious. Then we set them afloat on Big Manistique Lake. That's pretty much all I had wanted to do since we arrived in the UP. Float with my friends and a Molson Canadian and a book on the warm lake under the hot sun. And it was divine...
I didn't leave the property for three days. We played charades at night, woke up late, made breakfast, read and played with the dogs, floated in the lake and made a wonderful grilled dinner every evening. We all talked and enjoyed each other's company. It was abbreviated, but we did get some actual vacation in with our friends without any disturbances. The fire kept raging north of us, we checked on it every day on the fire hotline, and Ryan was able to get permission to go back and lock up the cabin. We checked in with Daisy and my mom in IL. Her surgery went well on Friday morning and she would be able to go home on Sunday morning. Everything seemed to be going just fine. Our time was too short, but great, nonetheless.
Saturday morning, we reluctantly packed up our stuff, had a last lunch together at Pickelman's again, and said our sad goodbyes. Shelly was coming back to IL with us, and the Boston Boys decided to take the scenic route home, all the way through Canada. So, each car pulled out of the parking lot at Pickelman's, the boys heading east, and ours heading west. We were all a little tanner, a little more relaxed and a little sad to see our time up north come to an end.
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