I checked weather.com to find out it would be 25 degrees for a high, and only 14 if you figured in the wind chill.  But that didn’t stop any of us from heading outside this weekend.  We were part of the brave crowd.

And it was fun.

It started with a chilly quad ride.  Normally this time of year everyone would be riding snowmobiles, but luckily for me the snow hasn’t cooperated and the snowmobile trails were a mess; I don’t own a snowmobile, so I would have had to sit at the cottage and let everyone else ride their sleds.  I do own a quad, though, so three of us took those and tore down some trails and a few of the roads, all the while taking in the awesome scenery.  I love the laws that allow us to ride all the secondary roads in the county.  It’s awesome.

The ice-cold wind was finding its way through my helmet, and the 8 layers I had on weren’t preventing it from smacking me right in the chest.  But I was still in heaven.  The trails and roads were lightly snow-covered, and the scenery was something that could only be found in North Country such as this.  It was awesome.  I ignored the icicles hanging from my nose, my frozen thumb that was operating the throttle, and drove on.  It was perfect.

After a few hours of that, we headed back to all of our families who were waiting at the cottage.  They had come in order to visit Tip Up Town USA.  Houghton Lake is a smorgasbord for anything ice or snow-related this time of year, and the annual two week festival was to provide many things for the kids to do: They rode fair rides, fed a llama that I thought might eat their clothes off, and slid down the ice slide.  Honestly, the ice slide was one of the highlights of the trip – If you could have only seen the smiles on the kids’ faces as they slid down that thing – all bundled up in snow pants and winter coats – with a grin on their face all the way to the bottom.

The adults had a good time, too.  I loved watching the kids experiencing everything, including my little Abby who looked somewhat like the I-can’t-put-my-arms-down kid from A Christmas Story; she was so bundled up I’m not sure how she managed to fall asleep in her stroller through most of the experience.

I even managed to do something that most of the group was amazed by:  walk on the ice.  I hate ice fishing, and I hate standing on the ice; it is just a strange feeling for me.  But when there are vehicles out on the ice, I figure it’s safe to step on out.  Jeff relished in the moment and managed to capture a few pictures for proof.  Heck, it was so much fun, if the weather cooperates; I might even ice fish with him this weekend on a local lake.

Cabin fever tends to settle in for a lot of people this time of year, but I’m glad that hasn’t happened to any of us.  There is just something invigorating and refreshing about being outside………..even if you have to wear 8 layers to stay warm.

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