Cabin O' Pines: Orr Minnesota

My favorite week so far! I told Jenny that this place was my ideal location for a vacation. Trees, pines, aspens, birches, birds, cool weather, all outdoor stuff. It was great. 

They even had an old restored sauna! It was really cool. Jenny and I enjoyed a couple sessions. 

 

Check out that biceps vein! I'm really proud of both of us for pushing hard in our workouts while being on the road. 

Voyageurs National Park was a really beautiful place. 

We all really enjoyed this 3-4 mile hike. Beautiful trees, lookouts and amazing cool weather. 

In this same area below, we also discovered wild blueberries. They very much reminded me of my dad's blueberry pies because they were very small. I looked up Wyman's blueberries and found that they were wild blueberries, just like the ones we were picking and eating. 

We took a boat tour at the Rainy Lake Visitor's Center at Voyageurs. It was great to experience, seeing that almost all of the national park is only accessible by boat. 

As we were getting on board, the captain told me to bring the kids up to the captain's deck and he'd show them around his quarters. They loved it. Emmett returned several times to update the captain on his thoughts on life. 

One of the days we rented a pontoon boat and spent the day on Pelican Lake (the lake we were staying at). 

There's just something about sunsets on water. 

The kids are constantly playing with other kids they meet. At one point (pictured below) they spent 4 hours playing a board game with some other kids. Claire later told me that the other kids argued and fought a lot (and the dad got mad at him). She said she was glad she wasn't in that family (even though we have our fair share of those types of experiences). It made me smile.

There was a restaurant and boardwalk through a marsh close by our site so we had our first date! We had walleye, salad and fries. The marsh was a beautiful experience. I told Jenny "I don't think I've ever seen cattails, lily pads, and pine trees in the same scenery. Now that we get less dates together, we cherish the time a bit more. 

Overall thoughts: I find myself settling into this lifestyle and enjoying it a little more each week. I was initially worried about finding a rhythm, feeling productive, etc. I'm loving things. There are still moments that are difficult, and there are days I just find myself ornery and I don't really have a reason why. 

I continue to feel less rushed with just about anything. It really is beautiful to have the opportunity to experience life in this way. 

In the past, I have felt the need to read Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday, basically daily. It helped me to re-center, focus on mindfulness and what's important now. I haven't read it hardly at all so far. I find myself overall just feeling a lot of peace throughout each day.