A Gathering Place

“It all started when he sold the boat”.  We’ve always had a gathering place for the family. For years, it was the Skipper Sam II, Bonnie’s parent’s boat on Lake Superior. Especially when we lived overseas, it was the gathering place every 4th of July, and for several trips up the north shore to Isle Royale and Canada. It reconnected us with family, with the big lake, with our roots, and our memories. In the middle years between international relocations, and as our children grew, our farm was a gathering place. In the later years, as kids disappeared to college, started jobs and families, the Wayback, our 40’ princess of the seas (okay, so maybe just Duchess of the river) became the gathering place. Whether up the river for fireworks in Stillwater, or down the river for pelican viewing in the waterfowl backwaters of Lake Pepin, the family would gather for swimming and eating and drinking and catching up.

Bonnie was not on the same page when the sales agreement was signed in February, or when the final sale occurred in May. We were without a gathering place. Things were a bit frosty in the Reyers house over the winter. Even the bucket list trip to the Red Rock region of Utah for a week long horseback ride through four of this country’s most stunning National Parks failed to thaw the chill completely. Nor did the second venture up Alaska’s coast in the Grand Banks flotilla completely settle the seas at home. As grandchildren grew more interactive with their grandparents, the need for a new gathering place became ever more urgent. 

We looked at hobby farms as a way back to the future. Or perhaps lake places, with the potential for water toys and lakeside campouts with which to make memories. With all the properties we toured on line and visited in person, none resonated as “the gathering place.” Until the Park Point beach house landed in our laps. Just a couple of blocks from our property near the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, and close to the famous tourist destination of Canal Park and the lake front walk, is our fantastic view of the Big Lake. There’s plenty of room for eating, celebrating, sleeping, sitting around the fire pit, warming after a swim or kayak venture, or just lounging on the roof deck. It’s our new gathering place at the foot of where it all started for us as newlyweds, and where the family still loves to gather on 4th of July.