We had a stretch of beautiful weather up at our Ely Minnesota resort for a few weeks. Warm days in the mid 70s, cool nights in the mid 50s. Some days have been clear with a sky strikingly blue. Other days the sky has been dappled with white cotton clouds that are as animated and entertaining as a two-year-old child. Perfect weather, really.
The days are long now, and the great weather makes you want to start early and end late and soak up as much of the day as you can. We have over fifteen hours of daylight to fish, swim, hike, bike, picnic, paddle, golf, and camp until--whew!--finally a rainy day.
Thank goodness!
Today we got our rainy day.
When the rain clouds come after such exhaustingly lovely weather, they bring relief to more than just the wildflowers and trees. What could be better than waking up one morning in a bed in one of our cozy cabins to the sound of rain falling on the roof and the fresh smell of wet pine?
Now the day takes on a different pace. A rainy morning is a time for slowly sipping coffee and lingering over a pancakes and bacon breakfast. It's a time for flipping through an Ely Summer Times magazine for the Bear Center and International Wolf Center hours of operation. It's a time to discuss touring the Dorothy Molter Museum or taking a drive to Tower to tour the Soudan Mine.
A rainy day provides you the opportunity to shop in the stores in downtown Ely and have lunch at a restaurant in town. The buildings along Sheridan and Chapman Streets are conveniently close and accessible so you can make your way along the street even in the rain with no worries.
Before you leave town, you might stop at one of the grocery stores for ingredients to make wild rice soup or something else that's rainy-day good and pick up a DVD at one of the businesses or libraries. When you get back to Garden Lake Resort, you can listen to your music on our IPod sound system as you make dinner and then curl up on the couch with your family to watch a movie while the storm clouds in the sky shut down the day a bit earlier than usual.
And if the rainy day gives way to a rainy night, does life get any better? It does, because tomorrow holds the promise of temps in the mid 70s and strikingly blue skies and the type of day that makes you want to start early and end late . . .