Vacation time in Bemidji, Minnesota!

The home of legendary Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. Yah. That's what drew us south to Bemidji. We can now scratch that off our list of "things to do". Actually, Rich said, "Let's take a week of vacation. See if you can find a nice hotel with a pool and a buffet breakfast at a decent price in a city within 5 hours of home that has some historical interest and some stuff to do." There. That was my assignment. And it led us south......to Bemidji.
Which is, I might add, a kinda neat town. It's got some beautiful old buildings, and some pretty run down sections. But, it met our requirements and kept us busy and happy for 3 1/2 days. Our hotel backed onto Lake Bemidji which was covered in ice fishing shacks (see above) and which also sported 10 or so rinks which looked like they were being prepped for some sort of winter festival or hockey tourney. We took a nice walk along the lake, enjoying the view of the gorgeous lakefront properties and the quaint little touches covered with a fresh layer of snow.

The local Science Centre was a little hokey.....basically one big room full of homemade-ish science "stuff" - but we loved it! Everything was hands-on so we spent a coupla hours trying out the echo tunnel, the bubble wall, the "dug-out" where we could throw a pitch and the speed was recorded, petting the animals, taking apart the insides of a human "body", watching the fish and the lizards and snakes, playing mind games, testing our balance, etc, etc.


Food was a big part of our trip. See a sample menu above. Boy we ate well......... ;)

We also went to a museum on our last day - it, too, was a little hokey, but again, we loved it! Not too big, so no one could complain of sore feet or that it was taking too long or that it was boring......okay, so maybe Corin said all those things, but none of it held water. I loved this little display about Coke :)
This picture of Caleb with the pow-wow dancer holds immense significance for our family but every way I try to tell the story it comes out all wrong and sounds inappropriate, so I'll simply leave the picture and hope we'll remember the story ourselves.

We swam and swam and swam. All of us loved it. After our delicious breakfast we'd head up to the room, get on our swimsuits and race to the pool. Most of the time we had the whole place to ourselves! There was a pool, a splash area with a frog slide and lots of pouring/spraying/ bubbling water and there was an amazing indoor/outdoor hot tub!! I didn't think I'd like it - I dislike small hot tubs where you sit too close to people, so I wasn't too excited about this part of the pool area. But it was great! It was nice and roomy and you could lift the plexi-glass partition and float right outside where the wind was howling and the snow was falling!
Okay, so this isn't the most flattering picture of me......especially since Rich looks like he's being squished.....b/c he is........ But at least it proves that I was actually on this trip since it's the only picture of me. And it shows that Rich and I can still have fun together :)

Luke's new friend :)

Beautiful hotel. Great breakfasts. Coffee, tea or hot chocolate whenever you wanted it. After swimming we'd all get a cup of our favourite hot beverage and then take the elevator up to our room where we'd get changed and snuggle into the beds to watch the Insp channel - usually Little House on the Prairie :)

I love my family.

So many things to remember about this trip. So many little things - Yvetta marching down the hallway in her bathing suit, Corin standing beside the hotel attendant in the breakfast room waiting for her to finish re-filling the sausage tray, Luke tenderly holding Yvetta in the pool, Laura and Caleb talking away in the back of the truck, everyone eager to get dressed and start the day, Caleb offering to babysit the littles in the splash area so that I could join Rich in the hot tub, the medical part of the museum that had oldies musical hits with medical themes like "Love Potion Number 9" (which the kids played over and over....). Too many things to mention. But all evidence of God's grace in our family - giving us a closeness that we cherish and a love of spending time together.