A Tale of Two Cities

I was in the Twin Cities last week and I was a bit surprised to see that the ice was out on many of the lakes around there. Although I didn't see many boats out on the waters yet, that time is fast approaching.

On the other hand, Easter at our cabin on Rainy Lake didn't look much different than it did at Christmas. Much of the ground is still snow covered, and four wheelers and snowmobiles are still running - without too much concern - across the ice.

With our full-time residence set almost equidistant between these two locales, in Grand Rapids, it is sometimes easy to forget the variation in the length of each respective season. Wherever you live, you tend to become acclimated to that climate, and you don't always realize that just a couple hundred miles can make a huge difference in temperatures, and the progression of each season.

Growing up in International Falls, it seemed normal that there were only a couple months of good swimming weather each year. And although winters were obviously long, we didn't seem to mind them back then...and were even proud of our ability to survive the extreme weather patterns. I guess we didn't know any better - and we couldn't have done anything about it anyway!

If the Minneapolis and St. Paul Area is where you were raised, you are probably used to having only a few months of tough winter weather. And at first you might question the value of having a lake place where the summer months are that much shorter.

But it seems that most people who live in the Twin Cities - and own cabins in Northern Minnesota - are more than willing to trade a couple months of warmer weather for the solitude and extreme beauty of an up north lake. And sometimes they just like to be a bit further away from work and their everyday activities to help them relax. However, with the thousands of lakes to choose from just an hour or two from the metro area, there are plenty of people that decide to have their vacation home close to their residence for ease of use - and to maximize their time while the ice is off the lake.

When it comes to shopping for lake properties, the spring market definitely gets going much earlier in Southern Minnesota than it does on the northern border. It is a lot easier to see where the sand beaches are when they are fully exposed, and there is an emotional appeal to the sounds of waves lapping against the shore.

But if you can imagine those same scenes before they take place while you are viewing properties up north, you can beat the rush...and sometimes come across some pretty good deals before others show up to fight over them.

Just like the weather, people have their own cyclical patterns. Many of us are so tired of the long winter that we don't even want to go outside this time of year until we see some obvious change. And then like lemmings, we all go out together on our next adventure: such as cleaning up our yards, waxing the boat, or shopping for a new lake cabin. It's almost like we are programmed to come out of the house when when it hits a certain average temperature.

So if you can break the pattern and get a jump on the spring season, you might find yourself with a lot more options to choose from when it comes to lakeshore real estate. But even if you don't find the perfect lake home or cabin right away, you'll at least get some fresh air. And that's probably not such a bad thing after a long winter indoors.

Happy Easter,

Dan & Sandy