A Week in Paradise

A few years ago, my aunt and uncle bought some property on Leech Lake. It previously operated as Lien’s Resort- a fishing resort complete with a commissary, general store, fish cleaning station, and ice house... and cabins of course. Families would come to enjoy some time on a sugar sand beach and out on the water during the summers in Minnesota, as well as ice fish in the winters. When they purchased it it hadn’t been in operation for more than 20 years but the Lien family still owned and maintained the grounds. After they purchased it, my aunt and uncle set out to renovate where needed and turn it into a family refuge where they host multiple family reunions each year and spend their summers in Minnesota, much cooler than Arizona where they live the rest of the year. Additionally, they both have quite a bit family in Minnesota and also wanted to create a space where their parents could spend summers if they wished. They’ve done so much with the place, keeping pieces of Lien’s history all over the grounds. From old welcome letters, to Lien’s Resort signs, to writing from the Lien’s family on the walls. It was important to them to honor the place it was for so many years while also making it their own. Speaking of making it their own, they decided to rename their new space to Poole’s Paradise (their last name being Poole), and it truly is a paradise.

Relaxing by the fire at Poole's Paradise.

Miles swimming on a cloudy day.

It’s been a few years that they’ve been hosting family reunions and have always urged me to take some time to visit. With only so much vacation time each year, I just never made it up there and as we began to plan the van trip we committed to making Poole’s Paradise a destination. When you don’t have a job, everyday is like a vacation amirite?! After leaving Canada we took two days to get to Leech Lake, driving almost nonstop. Had a couple nice nights of camping on the way.

A little lake side yoga at one of our campsites on our way to MN.

Chickpea tacos are our favorite thing right now. Lakeside dinner.

The first couple days we were on our own and spent some time swimming, relaxing, and getting drones out of trees....

Before I get ahead of myself, we bought a drone... we decided that along with documenting our trip on Instagram, blogging, and journaling, that video would also be a cool way to look back on the trip. I think Zach was just craving a new toy to be honest, so that he got: a new drone. Anyway, stay tuned! We’ll be making longer videos of larger sections of our trip in the coming months. We picked up the drone on our way to Leech Lake and the first night there Zach got it stuck in a tree... like the tallest tree on the property, I’d say about 50-60ft high. And the best part is that my dad, Kevin, got his drone stuck up in a tree just a couple years earlier. Zach has heard the story many times and I reminded him of that when he got it out to test it out. I don’t know what it is about that place, but it doesn’t like drones flying around. Maybe it just wants us to observe its beauty like normal, less insane people. But whatever. It got stuck. We proceeded to spend the rest of the evening and next morning chucking balls up at it trying to knock it down and then resorted to tying many oars and bamboo sticks together with bungee cords to create a giant poking device. Similar to that in the Friends episode where they think ugly naked guy is dead so they tie together a bunch of to-go chopsticks with rubber bands to thread across the street to poke him and make sure he was alive. Never in my life did I think I’d be reenacting this scene... but after many attempts to get it unstuck, the giant poking device worked! And then it went tumbling into the lake.... don’t worry, we dried it out and now have a working drone. You’ll get your videos soon!

Zach and the giant poking device.

16 hours later: the drone has been rescued.

After that fiasco we could truly relax. It’s always nice after spending long stretches in the van to spend some time just being sedentary in a place we can stretch out for a bit. No driving, no needing to plan out where we are sleeping for a little bit, access to showers... everything is just a little bit easier.

Family Photo

Zach and Miles

Miles & Jordyn

We also spent some time doing some work to the van. Some reinforcements if you will. The passenger side cabinets could have really used a 3rd hanging rail from the beginning but it’s just not something we realized until we spent 6 weeks in the van driving over bumpier roads. We also reinforced the sink cabinet a little more as well as replaced our piston hinges with less powerful ones as the older ones were just too much. It was great to have a place where we could get all the work done with access to the tools we needed.

A couple days in my uncle, Glen, arrived! It’s always good to see him and hear what he’s been up to. Constantly traveling and taking on new projects- it’s a joy hearing about everything he has going on. Our friend, Gary, also joined us! He lives about 4 hrs south of Leech Lake in a town called Zumbrota. Zach and him were friends and met in San Francisco where Gary used to live. He has since moved back to Minnesota to be closer to his family and is in the process of starting his own business in his town.

The four of us spent our next few days swimming, jumping off the dock, playing corn hole, out on the lake on the pontoon boat, walking around the town of Walker, cooking, celebrating Gary’s birthday, and enjoying each others company. The guys even went fishing a couple mornings and caught some Pike and Bass. Glen also took us to the restaurant at Huddles Resort where they had the best Walleye... omg it was delicious.

Our boat captains for the day: Glen & Bonnie!

Zach and Miles

Jordyn and Miles

Jordyn & Zach & Glen with the photobomb

Glen and his Bass!

Gary and one of his three Bass he caught!

Zach and his Bass!

Oh and Miles... I’m continuously in awe of him. He’s 14 years old, hung with the other dogs the entire time, swam as much as he possibly could, jumped off the dock and boat countless times to swim for his ball, and never missed a beat. I swear that dog has super genes.

Miles taking a quick snooze after a long day of swimming.

It was a really wonderful 6 days, and I’m so glad we were able to spend so much time relaxing, getting some work done to Fran, getting ourselves ready to go for the next part of our trip (laundry, water topped off, showers for all 3 of us), and spending some quality time with friends and family. It truly was paradise.