Bear Head Lake State Park

We took a last-minute trip up to Bear Head Lake State Park to stay in a camper cabin.  Earlier this July, Dave called me from work saying that his friends who manage Bear Head Lake called and told him that their best camper cabin was available for the end of July.  Luckily, we were open for a couple of nights and able to book it!  We woke up early Thursday morning to beat traffic, and ended up getting to the park by lunch time.  We ate a picnic lunch in the trail center and decided to go for a hike.  On the first part of the hike, Abby was getting up from sitting on a bench when she spotted a bear.  Dave wasn't quite so sure that it was actually a bear, so he hiked ahead a little bit and ended up seeing a young male black bear cross the trail.  The hike was hilly and buggy, but we made it to Blueberry Lake.  We didn't continue around the lake, but turned around and hiked back (we weren't sure when the rain would be coming). 

After our hike, it was time to check in at our camper cabin.  We had fun checking it out and getting everything set up.  Unfortunately, it started to rain/storm right when we were going to start cooking dinner over the fire (and it continued on for about 2 1/2 hours).  We played some games inside the cabin and Dave ended up cooking in the rain.

The rain cleared up around 8:30, so we took a sunset walk to the dock behind our camper cabin and came back for a campfire and s'mores.  We had a great night sleep in the camper cabin that night!

On Friday morning, we did some more hiking after breakfast and enjoyed some views of Bear Head Lake.  After lunch, we relaxed at the camper cabin and swam and played at the beach.  That night, we headed up to Ely to go to a BBQ at Dave's friend's (the park manager) house.  It was nice meeting and spending time with her family, as well as Dave's other friend (the assistant manager) and her wife.  We also avoided a big storm that hit the park and knocked out the electricity/water for the night.  When we came back to the camper cabin, we realized that we had no power and water, but we still slept well with the windows open.

Saturday morning, we had to pack up pretty early so we could get home in time for Abby to attend a birthday party.  We would have loved to have stayed another day--we had such a fun and relaxing time up north!

Adventureland

We stayed in Iowa an extra couple of days after Watermelon Day.  On Sunday, after having lunch in Webster City with my grandma and parents, we spent the afternoon/night at my aunt Miriam's.  We had a nice time relaxing on the porch and the kids had fun playing.

Monday morning, we headed down to Adventureland for the day.  The girls rode some more daring rides this year with Scott, Keith, and Gavin.  We had our traditional lunch at the magic show and did a couple of rides in the kiddie farm area. 

Even though it was chilly for swimming (but a beautiful day), the kids were pretty insistent about wanting to do the water park.  We spent a little bit of time in that area before it was time for us to head back to Minnesota.  Abby is hoping she can make another Adventureland visit when she is down at "Camp Carlson" at the end of August!