Unless you have been living under one of the ubiquitous ice-covered rocks along the North Shore, you know that Grand Marais is in the running for the Budget Travel magazine title of America’s Coolest Small Town. I’ve been voting as often as the magazine website will let me. I think it’s a well-deserved honor. I love our little harbor town.
Even in the recent cold spell—which could earn Grand Marais the title of America’s Coldest Small Town—I appreciate being here. I love that the drive down the hill from my house in the woods of County Road 7 to downtown Grand Marais is always different.
No matter what street I turn on to reach downtown Grand Marais, the lake and the sky are there to welcome me. But I never know what welcome I will receive. Some days the vista is pure blue, with no apparent separation between the earth and sea. Other days the sky is bright blue with huge cotton ball clouds or wisps of white hovering over periwinkle water. There are days when the sky is gray and the wicked water is darker gray with foaming white caps.
For quite a few days in February the water was hidden under a sheet of ice with a dusting of snow. Today though, the lake had changed yet again. When I turned onto 8th Avenue, I saw that the part of the harbor was open. The white ice sheets were stacked, floating almost in a circle around the west break wall.
With all the votes that Grand Marais has received in the America’s Coolest Small Town contest, it is apparent that I am one of thousands who loves Grand Marais. Or I’m one of thousands who is fiercely competitive. I want my hometown to beat the likes of Fort Myers Beach, Florida; Old Orchard Beach, Maine; Pismo Beach, California; Snohomish, Washington; or Washington, North Carolina. All with more residents than we have in our entire county!
Despite the larger size of those cities, I’m confident that we can win this race. The contest has become a pep rally of sorts, like the uproarious event before a big game. Casting my vote for Grand Marais makes me feel like I’m back in school, answering the cheerleaders’ call, “C’mon 7th grade, don’t be shy, stand & give your battle cry!”
“V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! That’s the 7th grade battle cry!” was the answer the 7th graders and 8th graders; the 9th and 10th graders, the juniors and seniors would shout. My friends and I would scream ourselves hoarse trying to be louder than the other classes.
The competitive drive was stoked when Grand Marais was oh-so-close to winning—ahead by about 4 percentage points—when Budget Travel extended the voting deadline from February 25 to March 4. The injustice of it all infuriated many voters. We were well in the lead as the February 25 deadline passed.
But voting has taken a nice jump since then. Just as each class at a pep fest got progressively louder, egged on by the chance of failure, Grand Marais supporters are hanging in there, persistently clicking to vote for Grand Marais as often as the system will let them. If you’re not clicking to claim V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, join us. Click and vote at bit.ly/1KbVL8X .
If we don’t win, if one of the towns is able to mount a last-minute voting rush to defeat us, there will be a lot of disappointed people. But it’s okay. The consolation prize is pretty good. We get more than a pretty picture on the cover of Budget Travel magazine—we get to live in that picture!
I would like to spend my
whole life traveling,
if I could borrow another life
to spend at home.
William Hazlitt
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