Sunday, January 4, 2009

Why Minnesotans leave/stay for the winter!


Talk about ambivalent! We've had snow and rain and cold in the past week, and it's getting colder tonight (-8), can't wait to leave, but we just spent 5 days enjoying Minnesota's beautiful winter!
We spent the past several days visiting our friends on Mille Lacs Lake. The guys spent a few hours each afternoon ice fishing and caught enough walleyes for a great dinner - and a few funny stories. This sunrise was this morning. Mille Lacs is an amazing lake but in the winter it looks pretty desolate.
We've added a couple of used snowmobiles to our toybox -- as long as we live in Minnesota, we need to do whatever we can to enjoy all of it's seasons. We rode mostly on the lake this weekend - there are no trees to run into out there. (Thanks John for the instructions - it's been many, many years since we rode Mom and Dad's SkiDoos!)
Lowell and John fished fairly close to home. They used a portable fish house, they pulled it out with the snowmobiles each afternoon and in at the end of the day.
One of the interesting features on Mille Lacs in the winter are the ice heaves. All around the shore there are berms of ice chunks that forms as the ice is freezing and the wind blows. Crossing these areas is a little tricky, but the cracks scare me more! We didn't see any big cracks where we were riding, but there were some slushy areas. Using snowmobiles or 4 wheelers seems to be the best way to get around, although some people and resorts plow roads out to the ice house villages.
So we've enjoyed winter and are now planning our escape! The "retired road" heads south next week.....


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jackie and Lowell. Happy New Year you two travel bugs. It looks like you are having a wonderful time. As it should be! I never stop marveling at your photography skills Jackie. The one of the chair on the Cancun seaside is heavenly. I imagine there was a Margarita sitting beside the umbrella that somehow vanished. Have a blast kiddos!