Skip to main content

The Crews All Here: Labor Day 2021 at the Three Lakes Cottage

 

We had a full house for Labor Day weekend this year. We started off said weekend with rummage sales and a trip to the new store in town, Little Dipper.

We've been eyeing this place up all summer. They have classic Chicago Schwinn's for rent, seasonal flowers and an assortment of souvenirs and vintage items.

It was pretty darling inside.

The main reason we went was to get their Chain of Lakes puzzle. Blake had sent the historic map to the owner, so we had to get it.
 
 

The siblings decided to go out for a hike. 

They let me come along, I guess.

My parents have a map of the chain of lakes in the front entrance of the cottage. It has been there for years and while brushing my teeth I noticed it had points of interests including hiking trails. One I had never heard of and it wasn't on our National Forest map. We decided to check it out.

The only description I could find of the trail was a short paragraph on a few different websites. 

The first place we stopped was not the right place.

The directions were pretty brief. Basically go north for 2.5 miles and two parking spots will be on the right. 

We found another entrance that seemed like it would be it. 

We think this was the pine barrens.

The description said the trail would include informational signs. 

This seemed more like an old logging road than a trail.

The "trail" got narrower and narrower until it was nonexistent. 

Time to turn around and find another spot. 

I'm pretty sure this was the spot.


It just didn't have the signs we were looking for.

Since that was quick we thought we would head over to the Sam Campbell Trail. After doing this trail multiple times we never did the Vanishing Lake section. Brittany and Chelsea said there was a shortcut to the lake. You basically take Sam Campbell Road all the way to the end. 

Don't be fooled like us, this is not the Vanishing Lake. 

But it does look like a vanishing lake.

This part of the hike was pretty scenic and we didn't see a single soul.

It was totally different than the main part of the trail.



Brittany recently scored a pair of canoes for a really good price. The cottage has been needing a canoe.

All my practice from Memorial Weekend was lost. 

Whenever I paint my toes Theo has to get his done too.

I got bored and decided to go for a bike ride by my lonesome.

The weekend was getting me stressed. We got an offer on our condo and were waiting to hear back about a duplex we made an offer on. Solitude on forest roads was the perfect medicine.

I took my old road bike all the way to the end of Chicken in the Woods Road.

Someone's been managing their forest. More private landowners up north need to do this.

Meadow surprised us all with dinner.

We each even got name cards.



Meadow was too shy to watch everyone enjoy her dinner. 

We had been wondering where she was. She told us it was time for dinner then disappeared. 

We also got this sweet bumper sticker from the 80s from Little Dipper. Oh, and this house designed Three Lakes sticker.

Theo is still in diapers and we are over it. 

That's an understatement.

At a recent visit to the doctor he suggested we let Theo go diaper free for a few days. 

With the bribe of the Switch he even sat on the toilet a few times. This is a big step for Theo.

Bored games on the screen porch before dinner.

All that potty training wore the little guy out.

Grandpa grilled up brats, hot dogs and burgers for dinner. Sometimes you got to keep it simple.

At some point Sunday night we found out that our offer on the duplex we adored was accepted! We drove to town to sign the e-docs.

I made crepes on our last morning. It's a big hit with the Romenesko clan.

One last boat ride, probably for the year.


The kids seem so big in real life, but then you see them in a picture. Big little kids.


I decided on going on a bike ride to celebrate the news that the offer on a duplex in Minneapolis was accepted. 

On our drive home we stopped at Casa Mexicana for dinner. They had one outdoor table available.

We hadn't been here a long while. Totally was worth the stop.

As usual our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. 

Goodbye, Wisconsin. Until next time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RV Spring Break: Minneapolis to South Carolina

Another Spring Break can only mean one thing these days: Campervan Spring Break. Well scratch the campervan this time around. Get in the RV we're driving to Florida.   You know we love our road trips. Last summer, a few months after our first Campervan Spring Break , Theo said he wanted to go on another campervan trip. I asked where and he said to Florida. Never thought we'd be a spring break in Florida family, but here we are. But first we had to get to Elkhart, Indiana to pick up our RV. Instead of driving or flying we took the Amtrak Borealis service down to Chicago for the first leg of our journey.   We were a little nervous that our train would be cancelled. Just three days earlier all the Borealis trains were found to have corrosion. They had moved routes via the bus. Thankfully they had replacement trains by the time of our departure.  As you can tell Meadow is super excited to be cooped up in an RV with us for a week or so.   There's no assigned seats so you ...

Marina Turns 12, the Whole Farber Clan Visits

  Marina wanted to come to Minneapolis for her birthday again. This weekend was all about her. One of Marina's requests was to go to the fabric store. We need some new napkins so I thought I would look for fabric too. We hit up our favorite fabric warehouse, SR Harris. SR Harris didn't have anything we wanted so we checked out one of the going-out-of-business Joann Fabrics. They had a 2 yard minimum, guess I'll be making lots of napkins.    While the ladies went and had fun, I took apart the boards to the ice rink. Another year of backyard ice skating in the books. Marina had some birthday money to spend on items for her bedroom. Ikea it is. My kids love Ikea. This kids couch is cute. Leave it to Meadow to find the cat items. 

Work Trip to LA

Well, I'm traveling quite a bit for one of my clients. So I might as well share those adventures. First stop was the Los Angeles metro for a shoot at Compton College. This was my first time visiting Los Angeles and SoCal. So why not go on some aimless walks.   7th grade Brooke is so jealous.  I, on the other hand, have never had a desire to visit LAX. Wasn't really sure where to stay, but ended up settling on Mayumi  in Culver City. Near the airport, not too far from Compton and close to Venice Beach. They even had free bike rentals that unfortunately didn't work with my schedule.  Why do California and Florida mid-century cities and neighborhoods give me the same vibes? After settling in I drove out to the Venice neighborhood because I didn't do any research. I passed by BBQ + Rice driving down Venice Boulevard and it just looked like it fit the bill. Their bulgogi hit the spot. Sure it's a "chain," but you can't find it outside of LA and an odd loca...