canada trip: the island

It’s time to do a little multi-functional talking about my family’s island. That is correct: my family has an island. This post will serve to both a) sing the praises of our beloved vacation spot in the land of maple leaves and lumberjacks, and b) put to an end the misconceptions you may have about what this is like. I have referenced this place before in this post, if you’d like a little history lesson and some embarassing pictures of me in middle school.

Moving on…

So as you may have guessed, we took a little vacation a few weeks ago. This island has been in my family since my mother was a teenager and her parents purchased it (somewhat on a whim) when they heard of some of their family friends doing the same. Most people ask if the island has a name. We don’t exactly refer to it by one, but I suppose it would be Luhman Island, after my mother’s maiden name. We call it “the island”, affectionately. 🙂
Myth #1 about the island: It is huge. Truth: it is approximately one acre. This fits a small cabin that sleeps 10 (comfortably), a gazebo, a bath house, two docks, a swimming beach, a canoe beach, two storage sheds, and a smattering of now-overgrown paths that were mostly useful when my cousins and I were little. What is also true, is that the lake itself is huge, but is broken up by probably thousands of tiny islands like ours. A visual: zoomed out on the left, the lake is circled in pink (you can see it overlaps into Minnesota). Zoomed in on the right, the town near our island is circled in pink, and you can see how broken up the lake is north of the main mass of water.

Myth #2: The island belongs to my immediate family. Truth: Like I said, my grandparents purchased it in 1969, the year that man stepped on the moon, and it is now shared between the 9 members of my family, my grandma, 3 aunts, 3 uncles, 6 cousins, 1 cousin-in-law, and a handful of dogs.
Myth #3: We are loaded, because we have an island. This one gave me the most grief in elementary school. My grandparents actually paid $425 for it and still have the original receipt. Various members of my family have since added (and even built a lot themselves) everything that’s on it today, including the solar panel that powers a pump to get filtered running water to the kithen and bath house. I have no idea what the whole thing is valued at today, but I’m thinkin’ they chose a good investment. Pretty neat, huh? I think so. Let me take you on the grand tour so you can get a better idea of what it’s like.

This is the view from the dock.

This dock:

There’s a nicer dock (I was standing on when I took that picture) that we actually use for the boats. That one was…out of commission I guess. Upon arriving at the island, you walk up a trail that leads to our humble little cabin.

Here’s a view looking through that front door, through the breezeway, to the back wrap-around catwalk. Please excuse some of these grungy looking photos. The lighting was muy dramatico that day and due to not having electricity, it’s a bit difficult to lighten up the interior of the cabin much more than this.

If you turn back around and face the way you came, you will see the gazebo that my uncles built a few years ago.

It is screened in, makes an amazing place to read a book or play a board game, and has this stunning view of the lake. One of my favorite parts of being on the island is seeing these bright greens and blues everywhere you go, in a million different shades.

The view from the rocks below:

 To answer that question, I have to explain that this lady makes it possible to do just about anything you want during your vacation. She works super hard, does a lot of cleaning, cooking, wood chipping 🙂 and other thankless things that make going to the island what it is. Thanks mom!

See, she does special things like makes the Fourth of July fun, even though you’re in Canada and no one is celebrating it.

If you’re me, you do a lot of reading during your trip to the island, instead of being out taking photos until the last day when you’re finally done with your book. (P.S. if you’re looking for a summer reading book, read The Help by Kathryn Stockett! It’s incredible!!!) Or you spend a decent amount of time playing board games with anyone who is up for the challenge. And if it’s hot, you spend some time in the lake cooling off. And when your sister brings their dog, you spend some time playing fetch with her off the dock (the dog, not the sister).

All these things are fun, but the BIG reason we love going to the island, is to go fishing. More on this at a later date. It deserves its own post.

Finally, at the end of the day, it’s very important to catch a glimpse of the sunset. It’s completely different every night and is worth a few mosquito bites to sit on the beach and watch the sun sink into the lake.

This year, the pink one on our second night was my favorite, so I couldn’t resist sharing a few more shots of it.

So there it is, my favorite place to come back to in the summer. Any of you have a favorite vacation spot? Stories? Photos? I want to see!

SIDENOTE: This is the most photos I have EVER included in a post! Woohoo! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

JR