Back from the North Woods

I was somewhere in North Central Minnesota. I'm not entirely sure where, and really the links I find aren't all that great, so you'll just have to trust me.

I spent just under a week in Minnesota, surrounded by guys named Steve. It was an odd lot, and really I don't think they have a whole lot in common other than the fact that they were all born around 1960, and named Steve. They went to junior high & high school together and ran wild in suburban Minneapolis and at their places "up north" on the lakes.
And for a few short long days, I was experiencing their "formative years" all over again.

So what do these guys do when they get together almost 30 years later? Well, some of it is the same. They got together and drank too much, and smoked too much, and ate too much. Only now, they had to cook and clean up after themselves and waking up the morning after too much to drink was not nearly as easy. And their toys are better too.

We had a good time. We built a fire along the shore, we took the pontoon boat out for the cocktail cruise and we cooked dinner outside. I tried to relive my own youth a little by water skiing (yes, I have pictures somewhere) That was a lot of fun--I'll let you know when I recover! We wondered over to another lake so we could check out the cabin that HP used to call his summer quarters. That still belongs to his mother's cousin's family so we sat for a visit. We wandered around Antique JUNK shops on a rainy Monday in hopes of finding a birthday present for me. We didn't. I really shouldn't have surprised HP with my birthday. I suppose I should have told him that I have one every year. Followed directly by our Anniversary. (We've been married 3 years. Certainly seems longer than that.)

I will let my internet audience know that it is not advised to spend your Birthday & Anniversary stuck in the middle of the woods with a couple guys named Steve (We lost 2 of them by Monday--they couldn't hack it and returned to being semi-responsible adults). I can only entertain one Steve at a time, and the other Steve doesn't like to read, doesn't really play cards (except the occasional game of poker, with other guys named Steve)and didn't like the movies that were at the house. At this point I would like to say, NOT MY PROBLEM. But the boys decided to have one more escapade and go over to another friend's cabin (this one belongs to a guy named Chris, who did make a brief appearance in an otherwise all Steve weekend.) So they went to Chris's cabin and snuck into his back yard (Chris went home after the weekend also. He still hasn't recovered from water skiing either). They fired up Chris's "hillbilly hot-tub" so we could have a good soak after dinner. When I say "fired up" I do mean that literally, it was a wood fired hot tub. No bubbles or jets or anything fancy. I think if you added some carrots and celery, you could have made people soup. It would have been a much better idea if they hadn't come up with it while it was POURING down rain. But the evening sky did clear somewhat and we had a nice soak. Not quite as idyllic as this, but not far from it.