Conquering Fears One STEP at a Time...

This weekend I went up to McGregor, MN to a cabin. The Johnson's cabin... let me give you a brief back story on how I know these people; Tom and Nancy Johnson used to live across the street from us when we live NE Mpls. They have 4 boys: Tony, Nick, Mark, and Jeff. Nick went to school with my brother and Mark went to school with me. One of my best girlfriends, Pam, has dated Nick for ... ... a lot of years and Mark and I are good buddies.
So... the plan for the cabin was to be Tom, Nancy, Nick, Mark, Pam, and myself. Nick and Pam went up Thursday afternoon, and Mark came to pick me up Thursday evening.

I went into the weekend assuming it was going to be a drunk wild blur... but it was one of the most relaxing weekends I've had in a long time! We really didn't do much all weekend, but there are some pictures I would like to share and a story worth remembering.

Pam had told me about this Ranger Tower that we could climb... I had no idea what that meant, but I figured I could muster up the courage to do it. For those that don't know, I have a semi-large fear of heights. It's the looking down thing that gets me... not so much looking out. In my years I have branched out and tried to overcome it; mind over matter (MOM) is what I always say. I've been up in the Sears Tower (Chicago), Hancock Center (Chicago), Top of the Stratosphere (Las Vegas), Top of The Rock (NYC), and on top of all that I have been skydiving! After it all, I still lose myself when I'm faced with the uncomfortable situation, though I always fully embrace it.

As we are driving to said Ranger Tower I have no idea what to expect... we park, we walk a little bit up some stairs and finally I see it...

YIKES!

So, there are several stairs... and some platforms... I decided to take a picture of Mark and myself before the hike up... just in case we didn't make it back down

After we start to walk the stairs ... it gets windier the higher up we get... and the whole thing starts to shake. This is a ballsy mission I'm on. I finally make it up to the top. Proof:

notice the death grip on my purse?

A few more shots from atop:

The Lake we were staying on (Lake Minnewawa)

Group Shot from atop

A couple looking down...

So... walking back down was the hardest part... my legs were shaking so bad I felt like I had tripled my workout in a matter of 5 minutes. UGH! Not fun. I did it though... and that's the point.

A few more pics from the weekend:

The pop-up trailer Pam and I slept in.

The small little motor-bike that ruined my nap

Casey painting my nails... cause everyone else was so crabby!

Casually cock-tailing...

Notice how in most of these pictures I am wearing my hoodie? We didn't have the best weather over the weekend, so cold in fact that we turned on the heat in the trailer, so most of our time was spent indoors or at least in my hoodie.

I'll be posting a few more pictures on myspace, if you are interested.

I had an awesome weekend. It's always nice to get away and enjoy the great outdoors. There is something about being able to wake up and take your morning coffee out on the deck and lose yourself in the beauty of the water and nature as a whole.

That's all I have to say for tonight... hope you enjoyed :)