I am sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days -- we have had a few technical glitches that have prevented us from posting but we're back on it now...at least with text as Blogger is having issues at the moment with image uploads. Either they fix it fast or we will be moving the Lilliepadusa blog to a .Mac site... Despite our blogging issues, we are having the time of our lives on this trip. It has gone perfectly so far, and the place in Minnesota is FANTASTIC. But let me catch you up on the last few days in order as it will help give you a sense of how we are passing the time...
Day 5 (July 12th): Driving through the Farm Belt
We left Kansas a little later than expected as the kids slept in a bit and we had one final visit with Melissa at the hotel. The kids were all sad to see Melissa go and piled into her truck trailer to say goodbye to their pal, Smoke (picture on the blog). We ended up pulling out of Paola in the pouring rain about noon and hitting the road for Minnesota (another 10+ hour drive).
Thankfully for us the rain stopped as we passed Kansas City and we had "clear sailing" as we headed out of Kansas and into Missouri. To get into Missouri we had to cross the mightyMissouri River -- and if you have never seen it, well, it is a sight to see. Missouri looked quite a bit like Kansas (rural farmland) but seemed to have a lot more trees and less silos. After a somewhat uneventful drive through "the show me state," we entered Iowa. Now Iowa had some corn! Oh my gosh, I have never seen so much corn in my life, acres and acres and acres of corn, lining both sides of the freeway (we were on I-35 the whole way), with silos and barns and tractors everywhere. I kept looking for the "Field of Dreams" (I love that movie -- "want to have a catch?") but never saw the field, as Dyersville was a bit off the beaten track (I-35) for us and we had to cover some ground. Anyway, Jill and I both thought Iowa was beautiful in its own way as the deep and different green of the corn fields, combined with the blue sky and the American flags we saw flying everywhere created a feeling in us that this was the heartland.
It was with great anticipation and excitement that we entered beautiful Minnesota. This wonderful state brings back fond memories as I often visited my mom's father, Grandpa Bob Penningroth in Wayzata, a suburb of Minneapolis. Grandpa Bob, Grandma Elaine and my four aunts and uncles -- Jane, Carol, Jimmie and Paul -- were excellent to me and my brother and sister whenever we came to visit. They took us swimming, water skiing and fishing on Lake Minnetonka and for a special treat, took us to Lake Winnibigoshish ("Winnie") to try and catch the delicious Minnesota state fish, walleye, and the larger and more ferocious muskellunge ("musky"). We stayed at McCardle's resort and basically lived a kid's dream...I guess I am hoping to create those memories for my kids now and perhaps even re-live a few of them myself.
As we were driving through Minnesota I was struck by several things: how clean everything looked (almost perfect), how much nicer the roads were than any other state we had driven in, how much water (10,000 lakes - ha!), and frankly, how many farms there were. Minnesota truly is a part of the farm belt, it's just at the northern end! I think the cleanliness comes from th
e German and Scandinavian influence, as I have driven through most of those countries when we lived in Switzerland and they were similar.
It was surreal for me as we passed by the signs for Wayzata and Lake Minnetonka, as memories came flooding back of those summers long ago at Grandpa's house. In fact I called my Aunt Jane to say hi and to tell her we were passing by her place on our way up to the Brainerd Lakes area. She laughed her darling laugh and said, "it's okay honey," and proceeded to tell me to "be careful" driving up north and to watch for the deer. I have to give a "shout out" to my Aunt Jane as she has been a Godsend for this portion trip - she has been a lifeline for us and I love her dearly for it.
We finally arrived at our destination, Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake, Nisswa, Minnesota, at 12 am -- praise the Lord! And after putting more than 2000 miles on the road in 7 days, I am happy to report that there will be no more driving for 8 days! Yahoo!!!!!!!!
It was surreal for me as we passed by the signs for Wayzata and Lake Minnetonka, as memories came flooding back of those summers long ago at Grandpa's house. In fact I called my Aunt Jane to say hi and to tell her we were passing by her place on our way up to the Brainerd Lakes area. She laughed her darling laugh and said, "it's okay honey," and proceeded to tell me to "be careful" driving up north and to watch for the deer. I have to give a "shout out" to my Aunt Jane as she has been a Godsend for this portion trip - she has been a lifeline for us and I love her dearly for it.
We finally arrived at our destination, Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake, Nisswa, Minnesota, at 12 am -- praise the Lord! And after putting more than 2000 miles on the road in 7 days, I am happy to report that there will be no more driving for 8 days! Yahoo!!!!!!!!
Days 6 (July 13th) & 7 (July 14th): Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake
We stayed up until 2 am that night unpacking the car and putting everything away -- no small task for a car stuffed to the gills (pun intended) with our things. So the first day we slept in a little bit (10 am or so) and awoke to the most amazing sight -- our cabin faced a beautiful lake that we could clearly see through a small glade of trees. We were in Gull Haven, an off main property portion of Grand View Lodge. It was perfect! We shared this beautiful spot with a total of 8 cabins, configured in a "V" shape fanning out toward the lake so everyone had a view. The cabins are extremely nice log cabins, with multiple bedrooms (ours has 3 bedrooms and an additional game room that has log bunkbeds), and screened in porches. Ours even has a foosball table! Jill, the kids and I think we have died and gone to heaven!!
We stayed up until 2 am that night unpacking the car and putting everything away -- no small task for a car stuffed to the gills (pun intended) with our things. So the first day we slept in a little bit (10 am or so) and awoke to the most amazing sight -- our cabin faced a beautiful lake that we could clearly see through a small glade of trees. We were in Gull Haven, an off main property portion of Grand View Lodge. It was perfect! We shared this beautiful spot with a total of 8 cabins, configured in a "V" shape fanning out toward the lake so everyone had a view. The cabins are extremely nice log cabins, with multiple bedrooms (ours has 3 bedrooms and an additional game room that has log bunkbeds), and screened in porches. Ours even has a foosball table! Jill, the kids and I think we have died and gone to heaven!!
When we arrived early in the morning of the 13th (Sunday night), it was incredibly windy and we were worried the weather would be bad the rest of the time. We soon found that we had nothing to worry about as this was just the last remnant of a storm they had had the last three days. In fact, the wind died down considerably the next day, and as the kids were all pooped from the long drive the day before we spent the day lounging around the cabin and exploring the lake shore.
In the afternoon, we all went up to the main lodge to see what was up and Nick soon discovered that the lodge offered activities for the kids free of charge and all you had to do was sign up. Water skiing and tubing, biking, pontoon fishing, all were available to those staying at the lodge. Nick signed the kids up for some activities for Monday the 14th -- they were all psyched about going water skiing/tubing for the first time.
When we were up at the lodge we discovered the beautiful indoor pool area. It had a water slide, two basketball hoops and a volleyball net -- another kids paradise! We decided to go swimming that afternoon while we waited for our visitor...Aunt Jane! Aunt Jane has a cabin up here in the Brainerd Lakes area and came by for a visit in the afternoon. We were all soooo happy that Aunt Jane decided to come over and play with us that day! She came by around 3:30 pm and we all talked and laughed by the pool and by the lake, enjoying the lodge happy hour for snacks and all of the Lillie kids (and their kid dad) jumped off the docks into the lake for the first time. What a blast! Aunt Jane watched with Jill but I did manage to get one picture of her. Here it is:
We eventually ate dinner together (yummy tacos) and then Jane had to go before it got dark as she had a bit of a drive to do to get back to her cabin (and her husband, Don). We tearfully waved goodbye, promised that we would see her again before we left, and then proceeded to watch our first beautiful sunset on Gull Lake.
On Monday, Jill was able to go with the kids on their boating activities and took some great shots of the kids. A few are pasted in below:
Jill and I also got into the act, with Jill taking most of the photos and me trying some tubing with the kids...very fun!! Below are a few more pictures, this time of Jill and I. Nick even snapped one of us together on our lounge chairs!
Needless to say, our first two days in Minnesota at Gull Lake were fabulous! And the best was yet to come...
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