This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap, Minnesota, Part I
Sep
4
2014
We took a long weekend to visit relatives in central Minnesota.
Day 1
Get to Chicago. Nothing fancy here.
Stayed at a Hyatt Place because I thought Hyatts were supposed to be nice. It was okay, but we we not impressed. In fact, we were so unimpressed that we cancelled our reservation for the trip back. There wasn’t anything necessarily wrong, other than the carpet in our room looked dirty.
But that’s what turned my wife against the hotel. In the morning, just before we were checking out, she stopped at the front desk to let them know the carpet looked bad. The guy at the front desk told her two things: “That’s not the room you were assigned at booking.” and “If you had let us know earlier, we could have given you a different room.” He was defensive and hostile, which is a bad tone for someone in the hospitality industry. The main reason why we felt like switching hotels was his first statement. He never asked for her name or room number, and he never touched his computer. How did he know what room we were in and what room we were originally assigned? He didn’t. He was just trying excuses.
Day 2
Leaving Chicago took longer than expected. I-90 was under construction for all of Illinois, so instead of going around 70 MPH, we spent our morning going 40 MPH. For about 50 miles. They didn’t have enough crews and equipment to work on 50 miles of road at once. Rather than break the huge job into manageable sections and close only as much road as they can work on at once, they shifted traffic over, tore up all 50 miles of road, and now are rebuilding the road – presumably waiting to reopen any lanes until the whole thing is done.
We were going to stop for lunch in Eau Claire, but we made worse time than we had expected so we stopped for lunch in Wisconsin Dells – Buffalo Phil’s, which the kids had fondly remembered from our trip there a few years ago.
We got a seat by the train tracks. The waitress took our order, then the train brought us our food. Beta and Gamma were very excited about getting our stuff off the train, so we had to give them specific instructions (who grabs what) lest they spill our drinks in their eagerness.
Sometimes the train runs when there is no food to deliver. In that case, they place a bubble machine on the train car.
The train stopped in front of Gamma, who made a valiant effort fighting off the bubbles with his attempt at martial arts moves.
It’s little touches like that that make for a memorable experience.
I do hope the bubble solution was non-toxic and FDA approved.
We had to make a few more stops, once for gas and more for potty breaks, but we made it to the Brainerd area around 8:00 PM. We had dinner and then, instead of bedtime because the kids were excited and we were in another time zone, we went swimming after sunset in the heated pool.
Day 3
All day at the lake.
Well, almost all day. We started out with breakfast. I highly recommend the scones from the scone place in Nisswa.
The boys checked out the sound system
and the view.
Then I went for a run on the scenic and useful Paul Bunyan Trail. Went from Nisswa to just past Merrifield and then back to Nisswa. The only problem was the bugs. I killed 8 or 9 deerflies that landed on me during my run, mostly on my head but some on my back and one on my arm.
Then we came back and swam until lunch.
Lunch was the traditional Russian Mennonite arrangement of watermelon and crullers.
Choice of strawberry, peach, or raspberry jam for the crullers toppings.
Then it was time for the boat.
Gamma got a chance to drive it for a little bit. Mostly just steering.
The goal of getting in the boat was so that people could go wakesurfing.
First up was our cousin, who is used to it and did well. Then a couple more people went, then I went. I did okay as long as I held onto the rope. It had plenty of slack, meaning I was riding the wake correctly, but I needed it for any corrections. I tried throwing the rope back and using the wake only, which is the goal, but I lost it just after that each time.
Here is an example of wakesurfing:
After everyone who wanted to wakesurf had wakesurfed (none of the kids did), the boat was low on gas. So our uncle dropped us back at the dock and then he left to gas up the boat.
While we were waiting for him to get back, we tried out the jet-ski.
I took each of the older 3 boys, one at a time, on a trip around the lake. With Alpha I took it up to about 40 mph, with Beta I went about 20 mph because he was steering, and Gamma also went about 20 mph but he didn’t want to steer.
Then the boat returned and it was time for tubing. Alpha and Beta were eager for this.
Starting:
And during:
Then Beta went under and he was done. Alpha wanted company, so I got on the now-vacant tube. Not knowing the options, I stretched out prone like the boys had done. Only I am longer than they are, so my feet were in the water. After a few minutes of having the water rush past my feet, my toenails felt sore. That water gets rough after a while.
Then I got back on the boat and our cousin joined Alpha. He didn’t let his feet drag in the water. Rather, he crouched on his knees.
After everyone was done with the boat, it was time to get dinner ready – hamburgers and bratwurst and hotdogs on the grill.
Then some more swimming and then bedtime.
To Be Continued …
They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.
Mark 6:32
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:19 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
