The lake

The cousins love this lake in the middle of no where, Lost Lake. Twenty of us were able to make it including all the children. Trevor could only stay one day and night, but he made full use of that day with swimming and capturing knuts and splashing in the clear cool water with all his cousins.  Every family contributed a float, either a rubber boat or an inner tube. There were three paddles and lots of life jackets. I left my dog at home as I heard that other dogs were coming and it just would add to the chaos. I would have more fun not stressing over my dog.

Riley hadn't packed a swim suite as he had no intention of getting in the lake. He had brought a big thick book to read. The next thing I hear is my sister laughingly telling me how Riley was out in the middle of the lake fully clothed in his shirt, shorts, and hat, and still wearing his white socks while sitting in the inner tub. She convinced Riley to hand over his socks so he wouldn't look quite so dweeby. She presented me with the wet sodden evidence of his socks for me to find a place to hang them dry. The next day he did exactly the same thing though without the socks. Fully clothed in his signature hawiian shirt and a pair of shorts, he was out playing in the inner tub. His face was pink from the sun. The last day he sat relaxing with the big book he brought, wearing long pants. I doubt he had any dry clothes in his bag. Everyone else had lived in a swim suite the whole weekend.

Day two I woke early to get Trevor delivered to his scout camp. It was a long drive back to civilization to deliver Trevor and then to turn around and drive back to our camp site. We had breakfast with Margaret and Hugh who were early risers by several hours, hard boiled eggs and fruit. Margaret waited impatiantly each day for 9:00 am when  she had been told would be the wake up time for everyone to have breakfast at the cabins. She was the only one with a watch and counted the time towards each meal when everyone would come off the lake to eat and she could see them.

The last night I switched rooms with my brother's family as they hadn't been able to keep their cabin for the final night. It had already been reserved. My room could fit them with their extra air mattress. I took Trevor's vacated bed in the big cabin. It turned out to have a better mattress than the futon bed in the lodge room, which had a big lump in the middle from the couch fold.

At 9:00 am we all heard the cabin door open and Margaret walk in . After walking around and banging on some dishes, she finally said in a regular voice, which was very loud in the tiny uninsulated space, "Well, everyone seems to be still asleep." In the silent cabin there was no mistaking the message, it was time to rise and have breakfast. We all rolled out of our respective beds, this tiny cabin has beds for nine and someone was in every bed.  Jen started cooking with a grimace on her face, but once the coffee was served the morning mood improved.  The cousins were soon dragging the rafts down the path to the lake for another day of play and diving for knuts.

We split the meals. Jen was on for breakfasts at the cabin with eggs and bacon and fresh fruit, coffee and juice. Tory was snacks and suplimental food. Heidi was lunches, devine meals with fancy sauces that had the bowls scraped clean and fingers licked to get the last drop out of the sandwiches.  I was on for dinners: hamburgers and hot dogs. I bought brautwurst and sausages and burgers and buns along with a bunch of cheap hot dogs and some special chicken hormone free sausages that were really expensive, but that my nephew could eat with his special foods issues. Everyone had something that would please them as long as they ate meat. Those with specific needs had been told to bring their own special foods.

I had one heart flipping moment when one sister brought out macadamian nuts forgetful that my nephew on the other side is so allergic to these nuts, it would have been a disaster had he gotten his hands on the bag. His reactions are those of a peanut allergy with epi pins and visits to the hospital. In the middle of the wilderness that would have been a disaster. I told my sister to take that particular item and lock it back in her car, bury it deep where no one would stumble on it by accident. Crisis averted without incident.

I got the fire going the first evening and cooked up a storm. Getting the fire started involved having the boys bring me the briquettes from the car then trying to start the coals with a small cigarette lighter I had swiped from Tom before we left home. This method was unsuccessful, so I went into the lodge store and purchased a bottle of fire starter fuel. Poured the chemical all over the coals and up the fire started without issue.

 Trevor was still with us for that first dinner. While my back was turned busy cooking for everyone, Trevor managed to eat at least two brautworst, a double cheeseburger and a regular cheese burger, before everyone else had made it through the line the first time. I got worried I hadn't brought enough, the way the food disappeared that first meal. They made serious inroads into my supply of dinner meat. By the end of the evening I had cooked up fifteen brauts and fifteen hamburgers or cheese burgers, plus half a dozen hot dogs. I had brought my own oversized fry pan to cook in, which was a blessing as I kept tossing food on as I removed the last round. It made cooking on the open fire a breeze, no messy sticking to the grill.

The pan was black from the fire. I learned an incredibly cool cooking trick from my brother in law. As the pan filled with grease and baked on cheese from the many brauts and burgers burgers, it became sticky. A thick crust formed over the bottom of the pan and food started to stick.  The trick was to take the cheap wine I had brought and throw a cup of wine into the pan, the wine cut through the baked on crust allowing me to scrape it clean easily and continue cooking without having a sticky mess on the bottom. It made a great saute, but mostly what I loved was at the end of the evening when I was done cooking I was able to quickly scrape the pan clean so it would be ready for the next use at breakfast without being a huge hard crusty production to clean. That wine boiled in the bottom of the pan and the gunk just scraped right off. The pan needs to be hot when you pour in the wine,but it worked like magic cleaner.

The next night I served the same meal but the rest of the family added stuff to build out the meal. I was greatful as I had thought I had brought plenty but we really went through the food, even after Trevor left. All that swimming and activity on the lake made everyone hungry. We added some chicken patties and more chicken brauts and cooked almost all the meat. Only half a pack of  the cheap hot dogs were left. Another nephew had a reaction to the cheese that was in the pan used to cook all the meats and burgers. He reacts to dairy. I should have cooked his food first or scraped the pan clean before putting his food on. I'll do better and remember next year. 

We did a fire in the firepit next to the lodge to cook smore's.  I had a room rented in the lodge with a real shower and a flushing toilet. It was a big upgrade from staying in the primitive cabins that share an out house down a dark path at night. Everyone came to my room at one time or another for use of the bathroom. Next year we may all be in the lodge with bathrooms. The rooms aren't fancy, but just having a sink, and flushing toilets makes me smile and everyone sigh with relief.

There was a pile of wood next to the door of our room. I had been told by the lodge that a log would be provided. I borrowed the logs. Turned out that my neighbors had purchased that bundle. She made a comment when they returned to their room and found us cooking up their wood. The next day I appologized but also told her the rooms get wood free for around the cabins and lodge. She hadn't known.  For fires at the lake pits you have to buy wood, but for the lodge it is part of our package, like the free parking we got. We didn't have to pay for our cars like the day campers or tent campers do. Saved $25 over the weekend. She apologized back for her comment the night before. Jen brought over her spare log from her cabin for us to give them as a replacement. They must have thought we were aweful the night before. Stealing their wood. They had also collected a bucket of knuts that the lodge staff found and returned to the lake. We were the ones to break the news of the dumped bucket of knuts. Then one of my nephews who is obsessed with balls kept trying to play with the beach balls they had sitting on the communal deck. It all turned out ok, but I did feel a bit like the Grizwalds' relatives in National Lampoon's Vacation.

My sisters want to make this destination an annual event. We all love Lost Lake. I am just so sorry Tom doesn't like it. He might like it more if he stayed in the lodge and brought a really good book to read. He doesn't do water much, and he is addicted to TV. Lost Lake is much about communing with nature, swimmng, long walks and quiet meditation.  Tom stayed home, working one day, and watching the Olympics on another, having a quiet time to himself. He did have the dog for company, but he was missed at the lake, at least by his family.


When I got home Monday night, it was Tom's birthday. I asked him what he wanted for dinner. He had made a big pot of chili and asked for chili dogs for dinner. I smiled  when he said he wanted regular hot dogs in his chili dogs. The regular hot dogs were all I had left. For the third night in a row we had hot dogs for dinner and everyone was happy.