Visiting a friend's neighbor on The Lake of the Woods

I'm at the Lake of the Woods with my dad. Before arriving at our friend's cabin, we stop at one of his neighbor's houses. I want to just walk in, but my dad thinks we should knock. We both give all sorts of reasons for our positions, but I just walk in, thinking my dad will follow me. As I'm walking up stairs, my dad stops in the foyer to make a phone call.

On the second floor an elderly woman is exiting the den and meets me in the kitchen. "I hope you don't mind I just walked in, I'm a friend of your neighbor." The women enthusiastically responds of course it's OK to just walk in and goes back into the den, followed by a white dog. I follow her.

A second elderly woman sitting on a couch asks me, "This is quite different than your friend's place?" Indeed, it is - it is very plush with a shag rug, 70's decor and a modern TV - our friend's cabin is just that, an old wood cabin with bunks. The woman who greeted me has gotten into a pink heart shaped whirlpool and the dog is laying under water with her.

I suddenly feel awkward as the women are just watching TV and I don't know why we're stopping by anyway, it was my dad's mission. I think about asking if they live year round or go south in the winters. I can hear my dad talking on the phone and turn around to go get him. There is a young teenager who seems like he could be a boy or girl doing homework in a beanbag in a large cupboard in the kitchen.

I prepare to joke to my dad that it's probably less scary to find someone walking into your house and announcing themselves than noticing someone's talking on the phone downstairs, but he walks by me into the kitchen. There's now an older man in the kitchen. My dad picks up a phone book and says he'll prove we know their neighbor, but the man says "Good Lord, we know you know him. Your grandson (me) told us." My dad tries to present photocopied correspondence with our friend but the man starts some small talk - something about being from the middle of the US. My dad replies that most countries are shaped oddly and wouldn't balance on a stick if they were placed on it in the middle. The man says Canada's problem is it's being overrun by trees. My dad looks at me and I give him an "I guess so" look.

I'm looking out over the trees and water imagining that biodiversity probably would increase if one cut wide bands through the thick forest.