Now that winter has decided to show up – – we decided to head to the lake and see what snowmobiling was all about! After all, Eagle River (the town next door) is known as “Snowmobiling Capital of the World“! Our friends, Alice & Arch have claimed it as their favorite sport – and we all decided to come up last fall.
Unfortunately – Alice and Arch couldn’t come this past weekend due to a basketball tournament their awesome son, John had – but it all worked out; Kerstin & Dirk – our friends from Chicago, joined us and we explored it together! (BTW – John won his tournament! YAY!)
We even brought Margaret and her friend Riley along for the weekend. We had a GREAT Time. The kids drove up early on Friday so Magz could show Riley around a little bit before the grown ups arrived.
We all stayed at the Northernaire, which has repeatedly proven to be a great winter lodging destination! We had an awesome 2 BR/2BA condo with a full kitchen, living room with fireplace and enough space in the dining room to hold a weekend puzzle!
The grown ups showed up about 10pm and immediately got busy catching up with each other — until 1am!
The next morning, Jeff and I made coffee and headed to the lobby of the Northernaire, so we didn’t wake up Riley — his quarters were less than private on the pull out couch in the living room.
Jeffy studied the trail map as we sat with our coffee
Soon the gang was up – we fed them pancakes and headed to Watercraft Sales where we rented our snowmobiles. I do need to give them a little plug, because Nora, Cassie and Alison who managed our rental were awesome and incredibly flexible with our dates and rental arrangements.
They have everything you need to make it a great weekend – new sleds, clean helmets and great customer service. They didn’t even seem nervous when I told them we were rookies!
Now the trails opened up just the day before on the lakes – the Three Lakes Trails were clearly marked with big orange barrels. Jeff and I know the lakes by boat, but they look a lot different when you go by sled! So I led the pack (Annie, Dirk & Riley/Margaret) Jeff drove the truck and Kerstin just woke up. So we headed back to the Northernaire to pick up Jeff and Kerstin.
Once everyone was suited up and ready to go – we drove across the lake and headed to our TINY COTTAGE to check things out!
Once Riley got to take a look around, we headed out again on the lakes – – until my check engine light went on! UGH – after what seemed like forever, I ended up meeting Ryan back at Water Craft to swap out my sled. We were lucky he was there and he was a great sport, swapping my sled out for a new one in no time.
I remembered going through the Nicollet Forest with my dad on snowmobiles about 20 years ago, and it was so beautiful, so we tried it again this year — must have been a different trail (we were on trail #5) because it was windy, bumpy, beautiful – but a lot of work.
By the time we drove through the woods and back – we were EXHAUSTED – we came home, took a hot tub to warm up and relaxed before we headed over to a wonderful dinner at the historic Black Forest Inn. The Black Forest has wonderful, authentic German food with a great atmosphere, wonderful bar – – and a game room for the kids:
By the time we got home from dinner – everyone was exhausted from all the fresh air and new found fun. We hunkered down for a short visit before turning in (ok, some of us stayed up later than others!)
By Sunday we were still lollygagging around when I got a call from Water Craft to return the sleds (whoops!) they were due back by 8am and it was 10am! — remember when I said they were so PATIENT and understanding? Yes – they are, they really didn’t have a problem with it and we returned them post haste.
Kerstin & Dirk headed back to Chicago on Sunday, which left Jeffy and me with the “kids”. So we showed Riley around town some more, went shopping in Eagle River and had lunch at BBT’s. It was a great day of fun and relaxation.
Later that evening, we even played a darts game over at Jakes — boys vs girls and young vs. old — the girls won! 🙂 Who knew Margaret had such a keen eye/hand for the game!
We hope next time we come up – Alice & Arch will be there to show us some of the tried and true trails. We loved our time up here (as always) and look forward to next year when our Tiny Cottage will hopefully be winterized and provide a great place to stay in the comforts of our home!
ThreeLakesLovesMe 
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