Minnesota, Up North! Day 4 and Finally Home!

After a long night of driving across the state, we were happy to sleep in a bit on Day #4.  We met Ron & Rose in the hotel lobby, checked out and hit the road for all things Paul Bunyan as well as stomping in the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. 

First Stop was in Bemidji for a photo op with Paul and his trusty ox, Babe.  Not sure what Ron is doing - maybe seeing if Babe is ticklish?  Matt went in search of a letterbox while we walked out on the dock of Bemidji Lake.

Here is a Native American, Nanabojo, hiding in the tree across the street from Paul & Babe.  According to Chippewa Legend, the Native Americans were unhappy with Paul for tearing down all the trees and Nanabojo stopped him by beating him to death with a big fish after several weeks of fighting. (according to a local, posted on RoadsideAmerica.com)

There was a visitor's center right at the Lake (and statues).  Unfortunately, we were too early and it wouldn't be open for another hour.  Inside the building was a fireplace that had stones from every state.  I was hoping to have the kids point to the stone from Illinois.  Since it was closed, we settled for Plan B - a picture of the backside of the fireplace.

After checking these pictures off our photo scavenger hunt, we loaded up for a 30 minute drive to Itasca State Park - to dip our feet in the Headwaters of the Mississippi.  This was a pretty big deal since we live within 2 miles of the Mississippi River - dividing Illinois from Iowa. 

We arrived at the park and explored the visitor's center and gift shop.  Here are the girls enjoying a glider outside of the center.

We were all very impressed with the interactive Children's area of the Visitor's Center.  Very unique benches, toys and displays - all to highlight the nature and development of the area.

We left the Visitor's Center and headed towards the Headwaters.  The kids had already changed in to their swimsuits and were raring to go.

We crossed over the River (via a foot bridge), but the kids opted to walk down the stairs and across the (cold) water.

After Rose's fall at Gooseberry Falls on day 3, she opted to use different shoes and her cane to navigate the water.  She did great!  Ron opted to watch from the sidelines.  Part of that decision was probably due to the HUGE crowd there for the day.  It was nuts!!

The kids - on the other side of the river!

The twins swimming in Lake Itasca

It was a bit overwhelming trying to get pictures and letting the kids play with so many people there.  We did snap a few good pictures (with lots of people in the background!) and the kids played in the lake as well as the headwaters for just over an hour.  Matt tried, unsuccessfully, to find an old letterbox.

We were disappointed that the trail was closed (see picture).  The water (behind the kids) wraps around to the first bridge we went over (and the kids went down the steps).  The whole first 1/4 mile of the river was closed off to pedestrians.  We understand that most people walk this section of the river. 

We started heading back to the café for dinner - not before the kids had fun trying to splash us from below!

After lunch, the kids changed out of their swimsuits and we headed out of the park to head south for our last hotel of the trip.  We stopped for two pictures on the way out of the park though.  One of the pictures was our most favorite photo scavenger hunt picture - Dead Squirrel!

We traveled through some smaller towns on our way to St. Cloud - we went hunting for Paul Bunyan!

Here is Lucette, Paul's sweetheart (and mother to Paul, Jr according to the sign in Hackensack).  The second picture is in the same park - possibly Paul, Jr?

Photo Scavenger Hunt - A picture with a Heart...

Just because - to make us laugh!

Pine River, MN - Paul was here!  At one time, Paul's boots were in this park.  However a tornado tore the boots away and there is now a set of bootprints in their place!

Paul's Chair beside Babe.  We quickly learned that Minnesota has embraced the Paul Bunyan theme.  Anything larger than usual is considered to belong to Paul.  I guess that is one way for your town to put itself on the map!

One of our last stops for the day was the rest area near Brainerd.  We got the kids picture in front of a map of Minnesota and then they said goodbye to Paul.  Matt was successful in locating 2 letterboxes at the same rest area.

We were pretty hungry at this point so we headed to Little Falls for dinner and one last stop for letterboxes. 

We got to our hotel near I-94 a few hours before bed.  The kids were thrilled to have the huge pool all to themselves!  It was a wonderful way to spend our last night in Minnesota.

We left the next morning and started our trek home.  We only had one planned stop - Eden Prairie, for this picture with the Minnesota Vikings ship.  It was very hard for this Bear's girl to stop and allow my kids to climb on this boat!  It was a neat experience though.  We weren't fortunate enough to meet any players though - we understood that this complex was their practice facility.

We had 8 tired people by the time we arrived home - just in time to figure out dinner!

We said goodbye to Ron & Rose and quickly unloaded our van.  We had a blast during our time in Minnesota.  There is so much beauty to take in!  We are already planning a follow up trip to visit the Apostle Islands (technically in Wisconsin) and drive further up the North Shore, maybe head into Canada.  We look forward to heading back as soon as our schedule permits.

One quirky side note - while driving the first day, Ron & Rose's van hit 100,000 miles.  On the drive home, our van did the same! 

Minnesota, Up North! Day 3

Day 3, we woke up and once again got an early start.  We had another full day of driving and sightseeing planned.  Today's plans were to drive up the North Shore, enjoying the beauty of Lake Superior.  We prayed for another sun-filled day and we weren't disappointed!  It took a while for the sun to peek out, but it finally did!

  

Our first stop was Two Harbors.  We snapped a couple of pictures for our photo scavenger hunt (with a train, by Pierre, The Pantsless Voyageur...yes, a PANTSLESS voyageur!, a lighthouse and a rooster (both of these pictures aren't included on the blog).

We then stopped at the lighthouse museum/welcome center right on the lake.  We hiked a trail for a short while (only to find out LATER that there was a box hidden there!) and climbed on rocks along the lake.  I thought this was really cool.  I can only assume that a bigger rock swirled in the middle for a while to create the crater.

We then took a picture with the Whispering Giant. 

One of the ladies at the Visitor's Center recommended Burlington Beach, just up the road, to try to find Agates.  We had fun digging through the rocks and wading in the VERY COLD water for about an hour.  We got some great rocks, but I don't know that any of them were agates.

We headed back in to Two Harbors to eat lunch, then hit the road again heading east, along the Lake.  The kids loved hearing Matt & Grandad honking the van horns as we cruised through the tunnels! 

Just before we arrived at Split Rock Lighthouse, we stopped at an overlook to get some pictures and find 2 letterboxes.  We were successful with all the above! 

Once at Split Rock Lighthouse, we took the 20 minute guided tour, then explored on our own.  This lighthouse has a great history to read about if you ever have the time.

Becki & the kids looking out the viewfinder

Ron, Rose, Katie & Maddie went in to the visitor's center to watch the movie about the lighthouse.  Matt & Alex went to find a letterbox while Becki & Will walked down the (175) steps to see the lighthouse from the water.  As always, going down was a breeze...heading back up was not so easy!

Will loved searching for some "skipping" rocks.

We left Split Rock Lighthouse and headed south back to Gooseberry Falls State Park - the last stop of the day for us.  While this park was much like Amnicon Falls (from day 2), Gooseberry was very busy (overcrowded, even?).  We enjoyed getting our feet wet and walking around the falls.  Rose & Alex were very wet by the end of the trail as they both fell in at one point from the slippery, loose rocks.  We were thankful that both were okay, other than a few scrapes. 

We were amazed by these tree roots. There has to be a good analogy in this for our life with Christ (The Solid Rock).  Something to the effect of, "If our roots are firmly planted in the Rock, nothing can come against us (that the rock won't let us go)".

We were told that the water level is very low right now (Amnicon Falls Park Ranger told us that as well.  One of the trails to the falls was closed due low water, the falls had no water even running!).  I can only imagine that most of falls area is full of water during the high melt season/rain season.

Can you find all 4 kids???

Here is the meandering Gooseberry River heading out (after the falls) to Lake Superior.

We drove back to Duluth for dinner and gas, then made our way across the state to Bemidji.  We arrived at our hotel in Bemidji around 11:00 with 8 very tired and weary travelers!