Today is the day. In about 4 hours I will be getting on an airplane and leaving the country, not to return for over 6 months. In order to say goodbye to the USA and kick off my journey, I decided to spend the weekend in the place my mother once described as her favorite destination of everywhere she had traveled in the entire world: Crosslake, MN.
The weekend started out like a typical Griswold family vacation, with flights getting delayed due to bad weather and bags getting lost. We were finally able to sort through all the travel mishaps, however, and by 2 am I was pulling in to the cabin with my brother-in-law, Dave, and my friend, Coach. After getting a few hours sleep, I wandered up to the kitchen where the activity was already starting. Much to my surprise, I quickly learned that my sister, Laura, had somehow managed to ditch out on her family responsibilities and jury duties in Oakland to join us for the weekend! For someone who is not easily taken by surprise, it was a truly joyful moment. There are not very many opportunities when the entire Joyce clan gets the whole crew together, and although there was still a major void with the absence of Chubbs (my other brother-in-law), having Laura there was analogous to Clemens being back with the 'stros.
We spent most of Saturday morning putting in the dock, which went pretty quickly with all the help. In addition to my family and Coach, we also got to spend the weekend with Nick and his sister, Sara, as well as Anna (Daniel's friend). By the time evening rolled around, the weather had cleared up and the water was absolutely perfect for waterskiing. After taking a few runs, we secured on the barefoot boom and took turns working off the short rope. By the time we finished, it had been pitch dark outside for at least an hour. The next morning we went to Drive-in church, where amazingly they were having the yearly tradition of "bless the animals" day. After securing Stan's salvation, we went home and played some hoops, hit the mini-golf course (an annual Joyce tradition in which the loser is required to purchase a douche), and went back to the lake house for a steak dinner. Monday provided another evening of picture-perfect conditions on the lake. Unfortunately it was a day of failures as well: the Joyce kids were unsuccessful in getting up behind the boat (all 5 at once) after yours truly suffered a debilitating Charlie Horse (KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS THAT HURTS!!!). I also missed after 3 attempts at doing a deep water barefoot start. Rubbing salt in my wounds, Daniel nailed his on the first try.
By Tuesday morning, we were back in the Twin Cities and I was making preparations to leave the country. Stay tuned for the journey abroad...
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