We went up to the cottage for one our never-miss weekends, Memorial Day. We got to the cottage at night and in the morning I made some crazy bacon-pancakes for the family and Brooke's parents. This weekend was my annual deep clean of our car. The amount of crumbs and food under the kids seats was pretty disgusting.   

Meadow's on spring break so a trip to the cottage it is. The weekend called for rain, rain, rain but we don't care.   We all brought along our rain suits just in case it never let up. Even with just a drizzle Theo put on his suit right away. I think this is the earliest I've seen the ice off the lake. Should have brought our swimsuits. Brooke used to always be the first one swimming as a kid. Maybe Meadow, Brooke and Theo can keep that tradition alive. Me? Probably not. Theo must think his rain suit is completely waterproof. He went well past his boots.  

 We randomly discovered Meadow was off school on a Friday and the weather was supposed to be unseasonably warm. An impromptu trip to the cottage it was. Gotta get those cottage visits in. It's just about the best way to have fun and avoid COVID. We passed the 200,000 mileage mark on our car this week. Luckily this little hybrid is still going strong. I had brought in the car because of noise and it ended up just being a damaged tire. After I got the car I noticed it was just over 200,000 miles. The mechanic took away the joy of the speedometer rolling over. Since there are many more waterfalls to see in the U.P. we headed back up. Our first stop was Ajibikoka Falls . Google maps took us down this unpaved road to a dead end.

  Day 2 Meadow had a few days off from school and I have a few days of PTO to use so we took a fall trip to the cottage. We arrived on Tuesday evening. Wednesday happened to be our 9th Anniversary. It's tradition to have crepes for breakfast but we didn't have any milk. Waffle mix it is. Though we've only been married nine years we've actually been together for almost 15 years. I think that number matters a lot more than a legal document celebrating a party we had six years after meeting. We went from summer weather the week before to winter this week. Today called for on and off rain. Eventually we made it outside. My dad had apparently already brought in the docks and boat for the winter. With the weather we had this weekend, it was probably for the best.

I haven't been up to the cottage during the fall in a very very long time. Scott asks every year if we can go so we finally made it a goal to go this year. I know that part of the draw to the cottage is lounging by the water, but there's a lot of places to explore in the Northwoods.