Grand Marais

We're finally here: Grand Marais!  This is a lovely little town on the North Shore (it's essentially the last stop before Canada) where we get to spend three weeks during Eli's rural rotation.  We love this town.  We've dreamed about living here someday.  It has a population of 1,300 and is an outdoor paradise.  It sits where the Sawtooth Mountains meet Lake Superior and where the soul's need to breathe meets the freshest lake air a Minnesota winter can offer.  We are finally feeling the rest and refreshment that's been eluding us for months.

sunrise over Lake Superior, as seen from our front porch

Eli is working at the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, helping whichever doctor is on-call each day.  Yesterday he traveled to Grand Portage to work on the Indian Reservation there.  He's staying busy despite being in such a small town, but we're looking forward to his 4-day work week and enjoying extra time together as a family.

We're privileged to be staying at a doctor's home while we're here.  This particular doctor is on faculty at the residency and still has a home on Lake Superior from when he used to work here in Grand Marais.  He and his wife were gracious enough to let us stay in their home during our time here and we are enjoying it immensely.  It's a beautiful home and Caleb has plenty of room to explore and play.  More than anything, we love hearing the water hitting the shore as we lay in bed at night, and love waking up to the sunrise over the lake each morning.

our beautiful residence while in Grand Marais

there's a wood-burning fireplace, which Eli adores, as does Caleb (hence all the dining room chairs strategically placed to block his regular attempts of crawling on the hearth)

We don't have cell phone service here (T-Mobile is notoriously bad in rural areas), but we love the freedom of having our phones turned off.  We like the separation from the world.  Everyone needs that from time to time, and we are needing it now.  It's been a salve to the soul to spend time connecting with each other and to enjoy playing with our son, all three of us together, with no interruptions, no pressing matters to attend to, no need to rush.  We're slowing down and remembering what it's like to be a family.  We've got three weeks to enjoy this pace before heading back to the insanity of residency, and we are thankful to God for granting us this time and this place to be.