North Shore Part 1

Last week I went up to Minnesota to spend some time with my dad and his side of the family.  We drove to the north shore of lake superior where my great grandfather built a cabin in 1946 after he retired as a grocer.  He sold it in the 60's and for a while nobody knew where it was until my aunt Anne located it a couple years back.  The new owners let us rent it out for the week, and we all took turns staying the night there.

My dad said he was excited to "soak up the spirit of grandpa Carl" following his own retirement this month.  He gave us a presentation the first night we were there, showing us pictures of the cabin as it was being built and playing interviews he did with grandpa Carl back before he died.  Family slideshows are usually a classic harbinger of boredom but this one kept me fascinated, listening to my middle namesake talk about building a staircase while sitting on the very same staircase 65 years later.  If that's a sign of getting older I'm happy to welcome it.

I took a lot of photos while I was there courtesy of my dad's new Nikon Coolpix camera.  It also took the video footage that you're seeing above.  The last time I visited the north shore I was around five years old and today I'm still fascinated by the same things I was then: water washing up over the rocks and bugs (what the fuck else are you going to look at?)  Fortunately there is an abundance of both, so it's hard not to be excited.