Jet Skis – Valerie's Voice

Summer Solstice 2023

This year’s summer solstice officially began on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 – it’s the shortest night of the year. The night before, Tuesday, June 20th, the sun set at 9:14 pm in Crosslake Minnesota, with lingering twilight until 10 pm.

Near Crosslake Minnesota – 10 pm on 6/20/23.

I decided I would drive up my friend’s cabin near Crosslake Minnesota after a fun visit with our son and his family Tuesday night. I left the south metro about 8 pm.

Driving by myself, up north, at night, I reasoned; 1- I was excited to get up there so I could sleep on the porch and wake up by the lake on Wednesday, 2- I have a reliable vehicle, 3- my friend was expecting me so if anything happened, she’d be concerned (she was sound asleep when I got there!!!), and 4- the sun set late so there was more light than usual that evening.

Looking out on Lake Mille Lacs – 9:30 pm on 6/20/23.

Since the shortest night of the year was the next evening, I expected it to stay light late but, little did I know I’d have twilight for almost 45 minutes after sunset. Only the last half hour did I drive in the dark. Of course, that was when I was making many turns on back roads to get to her cabin, but I made it, and I felt good!

Nature abounds up north. Of course, there is always deer, and I saw several including a mama and young doe. We heard many loons the first night – we thought there was a convention right off her dock. We laid in our beds listening to their distinctive calls. We saw 20+ goslings swimming in a row between Mr. & Mrs. Canadian Geese – that is one large family. We saw the resident eagle fly by several times, and we heard (!) 4 racoons under the porch where we slept. They woke us up each night. The first two nights we didn’t know what kind of animal was under there…it’s not a good place for animals to be. Finally, my friend saw the culprits outside the cabin at 4:30 in the morning of the third night…a mama raccoon and her three babies. That’s a problem that needs to be solved…

Me on a jet ski, on Daggett Lake in 2014.

We enjoyed sunny, warm and comfortable weather, by the lake. We did take out the jet skis one afternoon. We sometimes forget we are in our 70’s! But, we did well (after calling her 10-year-old-granddaughter to remind us how to start them!) We trolled along the shore to look at the cabins, then took a couple speed rides across Daggett Lake.

It’s amazing to see all the cabins, all the docks, all the boat lifts with boats in them, on this one not-so-large lake, and then multiple it by 15,000 lakes in Minnesota. Whew! That’s a lot of recreation.

My drive home was not as exciting as my drive up, but I am grateful for the time we had up north, and for a different way of experiencing the summer solstice.

Lake Side

My friend and I spent a couple of days up at her place on Daggett Lake on the Whitefish chain of lakes in northern Minnesota. The weather was hot and humid, so being by a lake was a good place to be. Her husband liked to call their place “the porch with a cabin attached”.

There is a screened-in porch, with a dining table and two double beds in it…so it is large, almost as big as the cabin. We spent a lot of time on the porch, on the dock when the shade covered the dock bench, and under the shade trees.

My friend told me of a new “cabin” being built one lake over. She said it’s worth seeing, but only from the lake…so we decided to go take a look. We had two choices…an old-fashioned paddle boat or the jet skis.

I have been on her jet skis before… I kind of have a history of mishaps with them so I was a little nervous. Also, because of Covid I was not up at her cabin last summer so it had been a while since I had been on a jet ski. However, that seemed the most reasonable way to see the new cabin from a lake view…it was way too hot to paddle across the lake, through the channel and into another lake. So we decided to take the jet skis.

As I got on a jet ski, and got a refresher course, I asked my friend, “At what age are we too old to be doing this?” And we laughed.

But, we did it! And without a mishap too.

We backed out of the lift, accelerated fast, creating a refreshing breeze as we skimmed across Daggett Lake to the “no wake zone” to get through the channel and to the next lake. Once there, the new house stood out from the shoreline, big and beautiful. It was stunning…not a cabin at all, but a rambling, lovely lake home with amazing features, that you can only see from the lake (unless of course you are invited into this estate.)

We made our way back to my friend’s cute little cabin and I said, “So, really, what do those folks in the new mansion have that you don’t have in your cabin?!”

It was fun to be on the jet skis again. And it was fun to see the new “cabin” from the lake.

I don’t have any pictures documenting our jet ski ride, or the castle cabin. At one point I mentioned I should get my iPhone so I could take a picture, but my friend politely reminded me I should not bring any electronics near water. O yes, I remember…A few years ago I capsized in a kayak and ruined my camera, and then a few years after that, up at this same cabin, I was on the dock, pulled my iPad out of the cloth bag and it slipped right out of my hands into the water.

A Broken Ornament

A friend and I went into a Christmas Store a few days ago, curious to see if they sold any fishing ornaments. She wanted one for her grandson. While looking around I saw a jet ski ornament. This friend has a cozy cabin up north, complete with two jet skis, and we vacation there together once a year. When I saw the ornament, memories of her and I on jet skis flashed through my mind…

My friend’s cozy cabin, with a beautiful porch.

The first memory is of the two of us, 60+ year old women, standing on the dock in our bathing suits and life jackets while she used her cell phone to call her son to ask a question about starting the jet skis. It was comical. We managed to get them started, back them out of the boat lift, tooled around the smaller lake before heading to a bigger lake and really taking off. We had a great time speeding across the water – up to 40 miles per hour. I always thought jet skis were loud, and they are, but now I understood their attraction.

My next memory was the year we were cruising around the lake and I ended up with thick weeds tangled in the motor, so my jet ski stopped in the middle of the lake. I drifted awhile until my friend noticed I was in trouble. She rode over and she decided we’d burn out the engine if we tried driving it back to the cabin, so the only alternative was for her to go get a towrope and tow me back. It took awhile but it worked. I was nervous that maybe the motor was ruined. When we got back to the dock I got into the water and pulled lots and lots of weeds from the propellers. When it was clear we started up the jet ski and it worked. I breathed a sigh of relief.

And then this year…we rode the jet skis fast then slowed into idle mode to follow the shoreline and look at cabins. We decided to go through the channel to the next lake to do the same, so we revved up and sped to Little Pine Lake. I was trailing behind when all of a sudden an alarm went off…”O no, not again”. The indicator sign was flashing “Fuel, Fuel”, the gas tank indicator went from three bars to a half bar, and the alarm kept going off. So I turned off the engine and waited once again for my friend to notice I had stopped – all the while the alarm kept sounding. She soon turned around and we decided to head back to the boat lift. We did so without incident, and with out running out of gas, but the alarm persisted until we pulled the key out. We got the skis safely tucked away and found out later the jet ski was OK, just low on fuel. I sighed another sigh of relief.

So when I saw that jet ski ornament in the Christmas store I just had to show my friend. As I picked it up it fell to the floor and broke. The store policy is if you break it you pay half price for it. So I did, and left with the broken ornament. (It was a clean break so I was able to glue it together and will add it to my Christmas ornaments.)

My new, but repaired, jet ski Christmas ornament.

On the way home from our outing I started to laugh and called my friend to tell her how fitting it was that the ornament broke… given my history with jet skis!

I’m glad she just bought a pontoon at the end of the summer.