No cell service, no Wifi, no air conditioning and no TV all of that was no problem for me, but the worst thing was no hair dryer. I knew we were going to a remote area and could not expect to have all the comforts of home but who knew there would be no hair dryer in my room. We had opted for the two room suite at the lodge that included a private bathroom and lake side views. I just assumed it would have a hair dryer, it had a small kitchen area with a microwave and refrigerator and they even included a small oscillating fan (not that we needed it).
Fortunately I discovered the lack of hair dryer before I had washed my hair the first time. I was just getting ready to shower and looked for a hair dryer as I like to always test them before washing my hair just to make sure they work. There is nothing worse than getting out of a shower and discovering the hair dryer does not work and you have trouble getting the hotel to get you a different one so you can get your hair dried and get to the office on time. I now have a habit of checking the dryer before showering.
Adjusted my hair shampooing to late in the evening and then had to just wait on it to dry before going to bed. I guess I could have shampooed it, wrapped my head in a towel and run over to the public bathroom area where they had blowers for drying your hands and used the blowers to try and dry my hair. Of course running about a block with my hair in a towel in 40 degree weather might not have been very much fun. Also I did not know about the blowers until the day we were leaving.
Our room had two double beds, two chairs in front of the windows. In the living area there was a futon that we had a few problems with using. Every time we set down on it, the cushion would slide forward and we would almost tip off of it. The second day we finally realized the cushion was on backwards, we flipped the bottom to the top and no more problems.
Living area
Bedroom
They also have public shower rooms that you can use if you are staying where there is not a private bathroom included in your lodging. You buy some type of coins to use to get the shower to operate and they are timed so you must be quick about it. Our bathroom was ok, the best things about it was lots of very hot water and the fact that it was in our room.
They actually did have one spot where you could get limited WiFi access for checking emails and limited texting. You had to go to a guest room set up like a living room in one building. They had a fireplace, a table for doing puzzles and a few places to sit inside and a deck overlooking the lake. We arranged with Heather to check in each evening around the same time in case she needed to reach us in an emergency. One night Bruce could not get access, someone else was using up the limited band width.
The lodge was nice, the view over the lake was fantastic. Bruce is now convinced that we need to build our next house overlooking a lake. There were huge windows in the living room and bed room. We could lay in bed in see nothing but the lake and the other islands out our window. You could hear the water lapping unto the shore below our window and when a boat would go past the wake would make it sound even better. We left our windows open every night so we had the fresh air and sounds. Fortunately, plenty of blankets and base board heater in the room.
View of Lodge from back
View of lodge from water
Our lodging also included a half day use of a canoe. We did not get around to using it but you could either pick it up on the lake side or back by the sea plane dock. It was a first come first served basis but there never seemed to be an issue as there were always canoes available.
One of the rack of canoes
One morning we woke up to the large group of kayakers heading out for the day and we could watch them while still in bed. Sun rise was not directly out the window but we had a fairly good view of it off to the side. The moon rise was excellent. The full moon was on Sept 6 while we were there and we had a wonderful view from our room.
Sun rise one morning
Moon rise first night
Moon rise second night
Moon on second night
Sun rise
View towards lodge office
Man fishing at sunset
Sunset
We did check out the sunsets both in the harbor area and over by the sea plane harbor but not as successful in getting the good views by the sea plane harbor. It was too cloudy most nights.
Eating out here was an issue for me. I had brought several packages of cheese peanut butter crackers for snacks. Accidentally brought a bag full of chocolate chip cookies, meant to leave them in the car but forgot to take them out of my back pack. We wiped out the cookies in two days. I only had two bottles of water with us as I figured we could not bring it on the plane, discovered that was not true. I fortunately packed one of of our refillable water bottles as you cannot buy bottled water here. They have a few spots where you can fill your water bottles and you could buy sodas and raspberry tea at the store.
There are two places to order meals. The main restaurant is opened for very limited hours for meals. A couple of hours each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Seems a little odd as it makes organizing your hikes and boat trips a little hard unless you preorder a lunch to go. Connected to the main dinning room is a small dinning area that is more for sandwiches, soup or pizza and it is open 7 am to 7:30 pm each day. The food is not impressive and the service is not that great. We had a late lunch in the snacking area the first day. Bruce got his bratwurst sandwich and was through eating before I was served an overcooked pizza that was almost impossible to cut through. The trout I had for dinner one night was ok but could have used some seasoning and the broccoli was so hard I am not sure they had even tried to cook it. Had hamburger one night and while the meat wasn’t bad, the bun was very bad tasting. I am pretty sure the scrambled eggs I had for breakfast must have been powdered eggs and I had to ask for my toast twice and it was cold by the time I got it. I had some very weird tasting flap jacks one morning. The waitress must have thought Bruce liked bratwurst because he ordered something different the second day but go the same sandwich again. The tuna fish sandwich he had one day for lunch was apparently pretty good. On our last night we had a good dinner that was pork chops with a spicy pineapple teriyaki glaze.
Almost all the staff at the restaurant and the housekeeping staff were from students from China. I suspect the wait staff is also the housekeeping staff which is why the restaurant hours are limited.