Festive Time of Year!
Lovely Little Bluet Wildflowers next to Cabin 9
With the Dragon Boat and Ely Blueberry Festivals in the rear-view we now turn our attention to this weekend’s annual and ever more popular Fisherman’s Picnic. This is Cook County’s version of Stillwater’s Lumber Jack Days or Bayfield’s Apple Festival. There is a $10,000 Grand Prize Raffle (keeping my fingers crossed), Log Sawing, Rolling, Big Fish, Fish Toss contests. Tennis, Basketball, Softball and Snowmobile Skipping round out the athletic events. There are parades, vendors, live music and lots of great times. Fisherman’s Picnic time memories are some of the fondest I have experienced in my time spent up north here.
We have finally been getting the much needed rain in this last week. And this weeks forecast calls for a about a 20-50% chance of showers all week. This is great to get and hopefully it will green things back up a bit and the increasing lake and river levels will only help continue the excellent fishing we have been experiencing this summer. Plus nobody likes not being able use their grill or cook their hotdogs and s’mores over the campfire in the summertime because of a fire ban or restrictions!
Summertime is here!
Site of the six annual Dragon Boat Festival
With the big 4th of July celebration in the rear view, we look forward to the Dragon Boat Festival next weekend (July 23rd-26th). This will be the sixth annual such festival and races take place in the harbor of Grand Marais. The popularity of this sport is soaring in recent years. Paddler magazine recently ranked DB racing as the fastest growing water sport in the world. 22-person teams really get into this thing and it’s fun to watch everyone give everything they’ve got to win. The boats are vividly colored and there is even a parade, vendors, live music and opening/closing ceremonies to go along with it. Even teams from Canada come down to race!
Finally the weather up here has turned warmer and more summer-like. The last three weekends have been soaked in sun, blue sky, and very little rainfall with temperatures in the 70’s! Everyone has been having a great time out and about Cascade Lodge and Grand Marais enjoying this gorgeous weather. Today we are supposed to get some much needed rain as lawns are starting to dry up fast and fire danger is on the rise. We’ll pray for a nice soak and no big thunderstorms!
Happy 4th of July!
We are very happy to be back online and posting entries again after a short hiatus. We had some difficulities with our old blog and now have it hosted locally through our online community network ISP Boreal. This will allow us to have a more dynamic and interactive blog and increase the exposure it receives at the same time. Lets us know what you think about the fresh new look.
The Cascade Lodge weekly summer activities program is off and running from now through Labor Day with several new activities and the old favorites. On Sunday nights Cascade will be hosting along with Lutsen Resort a summer disc golf league at 6:00pm. On Thursday nights we will be doing a new slideshow presentation called “Seasons of Cascade” with narration by the owner, Michael O’Phelan. Should be a great time for all with Monday Bingo, Tuesday Canoe Trip and Friday BBQ rounding out the rest of the week.
For the past 25 years the US Forest service has been hosting a summer naturalist program all around Cook County. Area resorts and campgrounds fund this program and host the activities at their sites. This year is the centennial for the US Forest Service (1909-2009) and Cascade Lodge is proud to be hosting a Wednesday morning Wildflower Walk and a Saturday evening Campfire Presentation about our state bird…The Minnesota Loon! Come to visit this summer and check out all the fun!