The sound of the windows slowly lowering shocked me from my slumber. My head knocked against the side door of the car, making a loud thud when it collided. A smell began to flow through the open window that filled my nose with dampness and moisture. I pulled my head back, slowly prying my eyes open, flooding my view with a sea of green, pine trees as far as the eye could see. With the wind rushing fast past my ears, all I could hear was a constant blowing sound, howling through the cabin of the car. My eyes were locked on the outside, trying to understand where I was and how I got there. My mind, fresh from sleep, was not able to comprehend all that was going on around it, fliting from one thing to another, until finally it remembered where I was.

This was a familiar place, having been a part of my family since before I was born. The skies were darkened by clouds, holding back its heavy downpour day in and day out. The sun barely ever fully shinned; all that lit the land were the faint rays seeping through the permeable cloud cover. The air was thick with precipitation, dampening my shirt from only a few minutes of contact. The muggy air filled my eyes, shocking them into focus, helping me better understand how far we still had to go. Every summer, we took the same roads, the same paths all the way there, and this time was no different. Right turn here, left there, up a head a turn around a corner, it all had become engrained in my mind since the first day I could remember; it had slowly become a part of my life.

Lining the road on either side was a wall of dark green trees pressing close to the gray ribbon of the road. This deep green color was so different from the light browns and yellows in the thin, short scraggly thorn trees of the desert where I hale from. The colors were polar opposites, from a brownish, minute amount of leaves clinging to life itself, to these trees that were tall and shot straight up from the ground with masses of deep green needles and scratchy peeling bark fueled by the deep underground rivers of water that flowed constantly. These were evergreen and birch with their white, peeling trunks or aspen with their fluttering shiny heart shaped leaves, all pressed in close together, forming a blockade that prohibited me from looking through to see what beautiful wonders waited for me once we had driven down the windy two lane track that lead deeper into the woods and further away from civilization.

The scent of sweet pine and damp wood overtook my mind, engulfing itself around my head. These smells only come once in a lifetime, when the weather was just right and the snow thawed early enough to allow the trees to develop just as I arrived. With the clean-cut leaves and fresh water from snow, the car was consumed in the beauty of the outside smell, covering every inch of what we had in a coat of northern aroma. The place was perfect, nature and humanity blended into one. The weather was always fresh and moist, chilled by the Canadian winds blowing from the North. The rain never kept you inside, usually having light sprinkles that layered on the windows, spreading and shifting with the change in the wind. The road was long, but I knew the end was worth it.

As our destination rounded the corner, I could hardly control it. There was no place better than my grandparents’ cabin deep in the woods. Three hours on a plane and three in a car, I was far too excited to contain myself once I saw the mailbox in the shape of a wooden shoe. Every year this was the place to be, it had the best weather, the nicest people, the most beautiful landscape, but I soon felt there was something missing. It seemed as if I had missed a large chunk of what I was used to. Maybe it was the time of day, or maybe it was my grandparents not being there, but nothing was fitting together perfectly, when suddenly it dawned on me. The car ride, my first hours of Minnesota lost to sleep. I was heartbroken; all I knew was I would have to make the most out of my newly started vacation.

The land of the lakes, surreal to any who have experienced it, unbelievable to those who have not, just an awe inspiring utopia to those who have seen its beauty first hand, it was mine to enjoy, I had finally come home.