As a native Minnesotan before I moved to Fort Lauderdale, there are few things that are more exciting than getting out of the metro area and heading north to enjoy some time at the cabin. Up there in the upper midwest, we don’t have beach homes – we have cabins. In some areas they call them cottages, but it’s the same thing.
Whether it’s the middle of winter and you’re escaping to do some ice fishing with your pals, or if it’s the summer “cabin season” and you want to get away for a while, there aren’t many things that bring as much joy to my heart than getting out on the lake.
While I’m really only familiar with the cabins like you find on the lakes up in Minesota or Wisconsin, there are a lot of areas around the country I’d like to check out and experience their local environment and landscape. A friend of mine ventured south lately and spent a weekend at Turner Falls Cabins and told me all about the amazing time he had in Oklahoma and the beautiful waterfalls and scenery. I’d love to get down there someday.
That’s quite a departure from what I experience up north. Every year, usually late January or early February (we try to do it over Pro Bowl weekend, if it works out), some buddies and I get together at a family’s cabin near Webster, Wisconsin. It’s an absolute blast and permanently written on my calendar every year. There’s a group of about 10 of us, childhood buddies, most of them I have known since elementary school.
When the summertime comes, we usually put the dock in the water around Memorial Day weekend to kick off the season. We’ll bring a fishing boat out and do what we enjoy more than anything – shooting the breeze with friends, downing some beers and reeling in some fish (or not – we have fun no matter if the fish are biting).
It’s great to have friends or family that have cabins, they’re the ultimate vacation house if you ask me, and someday I hope to have a retreat of my own to take the family and host my friends. There’s nothing better than being out there on the lake. Life is just slower, more peaceful and relaxed. Can’t wait to get back up there later this month and see my friends again, and though I’m writing this in the summertime, I already can’t wait for the annual ice fishing trip with my buddies!