Our Amazing Wilderness Adventure

Oh Friends, I’m so happy to be sharing about our recent vacation with you. It means I survived the trip and lived to tell you about it!

My husband’s family is the adventurous type. Growing up, my husband would spend time every summer at the family’s cabin on a lake in the wilderness of Canada. His grandpa actually started the tradition many years ago by going tent camping for two weeks at a remote location. He survived on the fish he caught and drank water right out of the lake. It was an adventure! After one especially soggy trip where it rained for the entire two weeks, my husband’s grandpa decided to ditch the tent camping and instead lease some land and build a cabin. My father-in-law tells the story of how they cut down giant trees on a different island, floated the trees in the lake and pulled them by boat to their cabin site and used the enormous trunks for the foundation. To determine that the foundation was level my husband’s grandpa placed a basin filled with water on the foundation. If the water spilled over the edge of the basin that meant it wasn’t level and they made adjustments accordingly. My father-in-law added an addition to the cabin over the last several years, more than doubling the size of it. He designed the addition himself and constructed it with the help of his sons and other family members. I’m absolutely in awe of his abilities! The man is a genius and knows how to build anything! He did tell me that he used a level this time instead of the water in the basin trick. I’m still pretty impressed!

My husband’s family are all serious campers. Life at the cabin is what I affectionately refer to as “rustic”. There is no electricity or running water so we bathe in the lake and use an outhouse. Over the years my in-laws have added a stove, fridge, lights, and even a curling iron that all run on propane! They know how to survive in the wilderness and have fun at the same time. Our days are spent swimming, water skiing, tubing, and fishing. My mother-in-law is an amazing cook and we eat well on vacation. No frozen pizzas (my cooking specialty) for dinner when she’s in the kitchen! The kitchen in the cabin was created to be purely functional, but there is something about the warm wood tones and details like the rope that holds the paper towels and the slanted shelf that keeps all the lids corralled that makes my design loving heart so happy!

The scenery is breathtaking. The cabin is so remote we have to travel by boat to reach it. There is not another person around for miles. It is quiet, peaceful, and completely undisturbed by the modern world. Our days are spent exploring nature and going on adventures. In the evenings we linger at the table enjoying good food, sharing stories, and playing card games late into the night. Life at the cabin is so different than our regular day to day life. We are less distracted and busy, instead enjoying things like naps, good books, and spending time with our family.

People who know me well are amused that I vacation at the cabin. I’m not exactly the outdoorsy type. My skin is so fair that I burn within 15 minutes of being in the sun. Mosquitoes love me. Apparently they think I’m an “all you can eat buffet” because they will swarm me and completely ignore my husband standing right next to me! Staying afloat while swimming means I have to tread water at a frantic pace or I immediately sink. And let’s not even discuss how unfair it is that my husband can pee in the woods while I have to trek all the way to the outhouse. But I love my husband. And he loves vacationing at the cabin. So I try to love it too…. at least parts of it!

During our trip he and I decided it would be fun to go kayaking together. I had visions of us floating around in a boat just like that romantic scene from the movie The Notebook. In the movie Noah invites Allie to go for a ride in a row boat to see the swans. She is dressed in a beautiful blue dress (my favorite color!) and her hair and makeup are perfect. The two exchange romantic glances while contemplating their love for each other. And of course there is an epic kiss. Boat rides are so romantic!

My husband pulled the old canvas kayak out from under the cabin and to our dismay we discovered that there was a tear in it! Not to worry, my father-in-law had duct tape, which we all know fixes everything, and he and my husband went to work taping the canvas back together. I put on my life jacket and cinched it a little tighter. Allie never appeared to be concerned about drowning in The Notebook. I tried my best to look carefree as I applied my sunscreen and bug spray. The only problem was that I was being attacked by not only mosquitoes but three different kinds of biting flies. My father-in-law mentioned that he had some sort of camping net jacket. It didn’t sound very stylish, but those pesky flies were still landing on me, getting tangled in my hair and biting my head. I decided to sacrifice style in the name of practicality. Off we went on our romantic boat ride. The duct tape held, the boat did not leak, and I did my best to channel my inner Allie Hamilton and look romantic and glamorous as we drifted along.

Nailed it.

And my husband kept gazing at me with a look that I can only imagine was meant to convey the depth of his love and passion for me, just like Noah in the movie.

At least there was an epic kiss at the end of the boat ride after I figured out how to unzip the mask on the camping net jacket thingy!

I’d call that a successful adventure!