Long-time readers of my column will remember some memorable vacation stories, such as the time we went “camping with the bears” at St. Croix State Park. But I’m not sure any previous vacation story can match our excursion the last week of June when we spent five days on a Lake Vermilion houseboat.

Fishing, boating, “camping” on a houseboat and a surprise visit from Covid all highlighted the week-long adventure on the amazing lake near Tower, MN.

“We believe that Lake Vermilion is the most beautiful lake in Minnesota... this lake offers a plethora of bays and coves for our guests to find solitude and peace,” said Joy and Kyle Colbert,  owners of a fleet of 15 houseboats on the lake. “The natural beauty of this lake just can’t be beat.”

The Colberts were spot on with that assertion.  Lake Vermilion is a unique lake, with 365 islands and 341 miles of shoreline to explore. It also stretches 37 miles end-to-end, meaning I would get lost in less than the time it takes a professional cowboy to ride a bull if the boat weren’t equipped with a GPS.

We embarked on our trip on a Monday afternoon and were met with tranquility and breathtaking sights as we quickly found our first mooring site near Ely Island.

Mooring - that’s definitely a weird part of the trip. I spent my entire life trying to avoid beaching my boat on the rocks and on Lake Vermilion, that’s exactly what you do with the 52 foot behemoth boat.  Basically aim for shore and beach it. On the rocks.  Then use big ropes to tie it to trees so it doesn’t float away at night while you’re sleeping. 

The first four days were amazing and I will try to list all the cool things we did:

Hanging out on the top deck, grilling on the front deck, going down the waterslide (yes there’s a waterslide on the boat and you can also rent a hot-tub), taking “glamour shots” of my youngest daughter posing in front of the sunset, playing “ticket to ride” in the cabin to avoid the mosquitoes at sunset (they truly are the size of birds up there), fishing, paddle boarding, hiking on islands, sharing stories and learning of new inventions such as the Cain Blade (had to be there), listening to my oldest daughter paralyze the other sailors with her incessant talking, being made fun of for “barking” orders at everyone on the boat (isn’t that what the captain is supposed to do?), forgetting to take enough pictures of the family (you’re seeing about the only one that turned out), live-tweeting the experience, cooking fish, and doing a real-time experiment to see if one covid-infected person will spread it to any of the other five people or one dog on board (nope - no one else got it).

This “once in a lifetime” experience has actually turned into a “once in a summer” experience for many vacationers.

Assuming that most people do it once, I asked Kyle and Joy how many people come back each year?

“This has dramatically changed since we took over the business in 2017, as in our first year, it was roughly two percent,” Joy said.    “Now we have improved that number to roughly 20% in just six short years. We are incredibly lucky to have the guests we have return year after year or even every other year.”

The Colberts offer a loyalty program for customers and that is surely one thing that keeps people returning. But I’m also betting on the allure of the wonderful lake and its many sights. It was breathtaking and something we will consider doing again once again in the future.

Oh yeah. A five day trip and the first 4 days were amazing. That fifth day? Wind. Lots of wind.  A frayed tow rope (my mistake) and the captain barking orders. 

It just wouldn’t be a family vacation without giving the kids (and Kelly) something to complain about until next year!