Camping at the river
Aug. 26th, 2015 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizabeth_mnI don't know if you guys all have this where you live, but up here, the family cabin is a Thing. And it's not usually an actual cabin, it's usually just a house, in some small town, in a rural area. It's almost always near a body of water, it smells slightly like mildew, and you spend your weekends there when you want to get out of the city.
Our family doesn't really have a cabin, but my uncle has a place on the St. Croix river, about a half hour's drive from the city. It was my grandfather's house and now my uncle has inherited it and lives there, and we tend to gather there in the summer for barbecues and such.
My uncle was out of town when my sister flew in, so she and my mother planned to stay at the house for a couple days. The Girl and I decided to come down and spend a couple days with them having Summer Fun.
Here's the view from the house.
Goofing off with The Girl is the best!
Two long flights of stairs take you down the bank to the river.
We swam, of course. And took a long beach walk and explored.
Wisconsin is on the other side of the river. Obligatory Wisconsin jokes were made.
We ate dinner up at the house, then pitched our tent on the beach.
The thing to keep in mind about camping on this beach is that it is basically like camping in the backyard; there are houses everywhere up on the top of the bank and at night you can see the lights from the I-94 bridge crossing over into Hudson. But it was still fun. Though I think I am just about fed up with sleeping on the ground. My camping needs to get A LOT glamp-ier.
I totally built this fire. It took two matches, alas, but at least I learned one useful thing at camp.
The Girl and her Gram.
We ate more s'mores than are good for us. Then we had a singalong. It was awesome.
Heard some geese honking overhead at dusk.
Of course when you are camping you always wake up crazy early. Since MN is on the west side of the river, we got the Eastern light coming in at about 5:00 a.m. But we went out on the dock and got some nice sunrise photos.
Before breakfast we spent some time playing in the sand. My sister made miniature Zen gardens, and I stacked up rocks.
Before going home we drove to the next town over and had lunch at the Sail Away Cafe. Delish!
And F made braided friendship bracelets for her Auntie and Gram.
p.s. If for some reason you want to see more of this (for example, you are my sister, or you are doing a photo survey of the St. Croix River Valley) a few more pictures are at my Flickr album here.
Our family doesn't really have a cabin, but my uncle has a place on the St. Croix river, about a half hour's drive from the city. It was my grandfather's house and now my uncle has inherited it and lives there, and we tend to gather there in the summer for barbecues and such.
My uncle was out of town when my sister flew in, so she and my mother planned to stay at the house for a couple days. The Girl and I decided to come down and spend a couple days with them having Summer Fun.
Here's the view from the house.
Goofing off with The Girl is the best!
Two long flights of stairs take you down the bank to the river.
We swam, of course. And took a long beach walk and explored.
Wisconsin is on the other side of the river. Obligatory Wisconsin jokes were made.
We ate dinner up at the house, then pitched our tent on the beach.
The thing to keep in mind about camping on this beach is that it is basically like camping in the backyard; there are houses everywhere up on the top of the bank and at night you can see the lights from the I-94 bridge crossing over into Hudson. But it was still fun. Though I think I am just about fed up with sleeping on the ground. My camping needs to get A LOT glamp-ier.
I totally built this fire. It took two matches, alas, but at least I learned one useful thing at camp.
The Girl and her Gram.
We ate more s'mores than are good for us. Then we had a singalong. It was awesome.
Heard some geese honking overhead at dusk.
Of course when you are camping you always wake up crazy early. Since MN is on the west side of the river, we got the Eastern light coming in at about 5:00 a.m. But we went out on the dock and got some nice sunrise photos.
Before breakfast we spent some time playing in the sand. My sister made miniature Zen gardens, and I stacked up rocks.
Before going home we drove to the next town over and had lunch at the Sail Away Cafe. Delish!
And F made braided friendship bracelets for her Auntie and Gram.
p.s. If for some reason you want to see more of this (for example, you are my sister, or you are doing a photo survey of the St. Croix River Valley) a few more pictures are at my Flickr album here.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-26 10:54 pm (UTC)I love that picture of you at sunrise too. You look so serene and beautiful!
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Date: 2015-08-27 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 12:59 am (UTC)I wonder if the cabin thing in Minnesota came from all the Norwegian immigrants because the hytte is a big thing in Norway. Everyone has cabins in Norway!
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Date: 2015-08-27 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 05:54 pm (UTC)Beautiful photos! It all looks so blissful!
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 06:42 pm (UTC)Oh, and family cabins aren't a thing in CA, or in WA to my knowledge. Though that said, growing up, my great aunt and uncle had a house in Truckee, so we would go there 1-2 times a year for family reunions and such.