Dear Xanadu Island Friends, 

I hope this letter finds you appreciating the simplicity of daily life and in good health and spirits.

To say that 2020 was “eventful” would be an understatement. Spring brought much uncertainty to the world, the resort industry and our family. Every day was filled with Zoom calls, anxious texts and emails. Answering our childrens’ questions of bewilderment about what was happening weighed heavy on our hearts.

Each week, our family committed to finding silver linings of our new world. In looking back, I think this one thing held us together in very uncertain times.

Due to all rentals canceling in the spring, our family moved to Xanadu from Colorado on May 2nd with our new puppy, Buster. We opened up the resort, just in case we would be permitted to reopen on time, per the State of Minnesota. While continuing to homeschool the kids, we got to work on resort projects, taking advantage of this extra time.

Updates the Resort

PAINTING CONTINUES

• Always looking for ways to upcycle our beloved vintage furniture, we renovated our metal lawn chairs throughout the island to enjoy another beautiful season on the island!
• Our Cozy Cabin received winterization with freshly painted kitchen cabinets and bathroom.
• Renovation continued on our beloved retro Airstream trailer with painting of the interior and kitchen cabinets.
• We all love relaxing on the house deck. This spring, we can’t wait to hang out there now that it’s freshly painted and new spindles were installed. Gone is the sheep fencing — Woo hoo!
• Our Main House 2^nd floor bedrooms are currently being painted for some fun updates.

RESORT UPDATES

• The jacuzzi tubs in the house were taken out due to plumbing issues and replaced with a luxurious soaking tub.
• The Cozy Cabin got new paneling, windows, insulation, and countertops. It looks so fresh and pretty!
• Our Airstream project is still moving ahead with a new patio and bed built, and a reconfigured interior. We can’t wait to show it off!
• The Front Porch cabin has new furniture throughout, and we completed the bedroom renovation. This was such a fun project to work on!

FUN ADVENTURES

• We had a map of the island created by the ever so creative, Wesley Creigh, who was also onsite staff extraordinaire for July and August with her partner, Dan. Fingers crossed, they will be back next summer!
• We continue to dig into the history of the resort and are finding great stories to share. We’ll be sharing many of these stories on social media, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• We collaborated with Stumbeano’s Roastery for a giveaway this summer. Check out their coffee at www.stumbeanos.com
• We ate our weight in Zorbaz pizza, we golfed a lot as a family at Balmoral Golf Course and I enjoyed a branding photoshoot by the talented Abby Anderson.
• We have upped our social media game with amazing Social Butterfly Studio so check us out at https://www.facebook.com/HideawayatXanaduIsland  and https://www.instagram.com/thehideawayatxanadu/.

Resort Events

• Due to the pandemic, many of our great events, festivals and retreats were canceled or postponed. Six of our eight weddings were canceled but we successfully held two beautiful intimate micro weddings with all COVID restrictions in place! Congrats to Jen and Pete and Alyssa and Joe!
• The Hoey family had their second annual all-island reunion week. And as a family we got out to explore in our ‘new’ GMC Camper. We explored Grand Marais and Ely, MN for a week and returned refreshed and ready to tackle the school year remote.

Campfire Lore

• We love hearing stories from some of the property caretakers who have been here over the years. Here’s a little tidbit from one of the caretakers who worked there with the original owners, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, during the Prohibition Era . . .“Beneath the house is a half-basement and the only way you can get to it is through a small door in the master bedroom closet. From time to time, Mr. Jones would give me contraband and tell me, ‘Do something with it. Hide it. Don’t tell me where it is. So I got to know that basement.’”

COVID – Ready! Who Knew?

As we pivoted and adapted to new COVID-19 requirements, we realized how ‘ready’ we were for a pandemic. Being a small resort with cabins spaced apart, no reception area, restaurant, or bar and a contactless check-in process, we were ready pretty quick!

We instituted new cleaning guidelines, staff requirements and continued our ‘contactless’ check-in and booking process. We added fire pits to all cabins and stocked the cabins with all COVID “amenities” such as hand sanitizer, masks and gloves.

Thankfully, our summer was busier than usual with families wanting to seek refuge in nature. Our legacy families all returned except for several elderly couples that wanted to wait until next year. So many parents spoke of the tradition that coming to the island is for their family and how in a year of so many unknowns, their week cabin vacation was their anchor of familiarity and sanity.

The island was a refuge for our family also this year. At times, when we were in the thick of working on projects and prepping cabins for guests, we would briefly forget all the turmoil and pain that the world was in and provided a much-needed distraction.

The island was balm for our souls to see nesting turtles, fawns walking on our road, geese with their goslings and hummingbirds and orioles greeting us each morning. Goliath, the resident snapping turtle, is still patrolling the fishing dock and loves to poke his head above water for bait snacks. We had a sweet little micro wedding on the island over the summer. During their wedding prep morning, we even had two calves wander through the resort, as if to give their approval of the day’s events!

It was a fantastic fishing summer with lots caught in the back bay. Our kids had a day with Ross Hagemeister, fishing guide and owner of Meister Guide Service, and caught their limit with their cousins on Pickerel Lake. We highly suggest Ross’s guide services when you stay. He fills up so quickly, so book now for your summer vacation! Fun was had by all!

BARN
BEFORE / AFTER

THE BUNK ROOM
BEFORE / AFTER

THE TINY HOUSE
BEFORE / AFTER

A MICRO WEDDING AT XANADU

Reflecting Back. Looking Forward.

All in all, it’s been a challenging year. But as I mentioned before, we do like to look at the silver linings. There have been some real upsides to this year. As a family, we’ve spent some amazing time together. We’ve gotten to really slow down as we’ve homeschooled the kids and cut off all the after school activities. Plus, spending so much time on the island this year has been absolutely priceless! This time might just be some of the best memories of our kids’ lives. I hope you’ve had some silver linings this year as well.

Looking forward, we are so excited for the spring and summer season this year. If you’re anything like us, we can’t wait to get outside in nature after being cooped up all winter! The lake is calling to us!

If you haven’t already booked your trip, feel free to book your trip early. We’re taking reservations now at The Lake House and Guest Cottages. Just imagine floating on a canoe on Elbow Lake with the warm sun on your shoulders. Or sitting around a campfire, roasting s’mores with your family all around. Best of all, you can completely relax and get away from the stresses of everyday life. That’s just about what we could all use right now. Doesn’t that sound great? PS: We rent The Lake House all year round if you need to get away now.

We can’t wait to see you soon. Until then, take care and be safe!