Moonriver

In most respects we are your average American family. Husband and wife with two kids (a son and a daughter no less) living in a Midwestern suburb in the great state of Minnesota. As you would expect, we try and take a summer family vacation. The where and the how have varied, and the why (at least for me) has evolved from parental obligation to fragile gift. As I watch my children sprout before me, I have come to value our getaways more, starting to understand how fleeting they truly are.

This year, under my great excitement and careful planning, we rented a houseboat to explore the Upper Mississippi River for a week. This in itself is out of character for me, as I am not an “outdoorsy” sort of person and would much prefer to be sipping glasses of wine, nibbling on culinary delights, dripping in my favorite costume jewelry.

But the water has always called to me, and for many years I have been fascinated with the houseboats when we see them lazily float down the Mississippi and St. Croix.

We pick up our houseboat in Alma, Wisconsin, a quaint town along the Mississippi, unload our items, receive some training from the owner, and with a river map in hand, set sail into the late morning sun.

It is more beautiful than I had hoped. The Upper Mississippi is unlike the terrain in Fridley. The glaciers ignored this area, leaving steep cliffs and rolling hills intact, an altogether disorienting topography from the flat lands of my back yard. We cruise feeling cool and comfortable in the steady breeze, oblivious to the hot cinder block oven that our urban counterparts suffer.

We pass charming river towns nestled comfortably along the shores, see bushy trees grow from high rocky patches, and smile at fishermen as they bob on top of the surface, drowsy and content.

We follow the river until it yawns into Lake Peppin where it becomes wide and smooth. It is edged with lush vegetation and enormous hills where we see tidy homes peek out from emerald ridges every now and again. When we finally anchor that night, big storms pass, turning the view from our window into a grey smudge.

Though common to the Upper Mississippi, but uncommon to us, we are astounded every time we see the great whales of the river-- barges. We never seem to tire of giving witness to these contraptions; metallic giants pushing hard through the current, we guess at its cargo, wave to the tug boat driver.

It is a wonderful sensation to be surrounded by water. When moored, I hear it lapping against sandy coasts, I am lulled by its whisper of farewell as it rushes off to someplace important, and admire her nightly wardrobe change as twilight paints the river in streaky oranges and pinks, purples and violets as I sip wine from our back deck.

We quickly make our own rhythm; swimming everyday, eating watermelon and salami for lunch, steep in quiet conversations under starlight. For a time, we become a living family island as the world drifts away while we meander down the Mississippi, daydreaming about nothing and everything, wishing for nothing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our houseboat from Fun-n-the-Sun Houseboat Vacations. They were well maintained, clean, roomy and provided an absolutely perfect family vacation!