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Atwater, Minnesota, USA
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We left early morning to get a good start on our long drive to Minnesota. We are really adapting to this being on the road business. It went very smoothly with no major meltdowns. I spent a lot of time in the back with my foot up on ice and then switched to the front when the weather got nasty.
We drove through a couple of hours of driving rain with really poor visibility. Many cars were pulled over to the side, but we decided to just go at a slow pace as with the poor visibility we felt being hit while parked on the side of the highway was a distinct possibility. We joked that we could see tornadoes on the horizon and weren't surprised to hear a couple had touched down in the area.
We stopped for some dinner and then headed out to Mark and Earl's cabin in Atwater. It was a beautiful home right on the edge of the lake (there are thousand of lakes in the State) and we had a chance to meet their two neat kids, Caleb, 9 and Eli, 6, as well as their cousins who were staying for a couple of days, Chris, 12 and Gavin 6. Our kids all staggered out of the van after a whole day's travel and I assumed they would collapse into bed. But in no time Mark had them all out in the speedboat tubing on the lake. What a blast! They were having such a great time that we ended up getting a pretty late night. We enjoyed some really fabulous relaxation while we were here, the kids had great fun playing and making friends and we had a chance to get a bit organised and actually make a few plans for the time to come.
Unfortunately Earl had to spend some time in the city working (I guess someone has to do it) But as Caleb had baseball games in the city (Minneapolis) on two occasions, Zack went in with them to watch the first time and had a sleep in the city and the next occasion Chris and the kids all went in and had a look around The Mall of America. I however stayed home and experienced home alone for the first time in a long time. It was also great to have lots of time to hang out with Mark and enjoy some good laughs. We went into the nearby small towns to the movies and the bookstore and really once again enjoyed the relaxation of spending time out of the city (It has alot of appeal)
Once again it was great to enjoy playing with their dogs, Whoopie, Gracie and Sheila. Never have we experienced so many pets as this trip, and boy, these girls were cute. We really missed them for a few days when they went back to the city. The kids enjoyed having fires down by the lake, playing in the shallows for hours with the kids and playing on the Wi in the basement. We had another smores session over the fire on our last day and we also enjoyed going out to dinner in Willmar on our last night with Mark and the boys. We were going in to town to spend the night at their city home our last night so we at least had two and a half hours less travelling to Chicago. The kids were loath to leave their new friends and Mark gave them rides on the jetski and let them take out Super Mabel (their favourite tube)
This felt like a serious week of holiday and catching up with friends. We are excited to have the chance that they will all come to Auckland soon to visit with us. It wasn't until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon that we managed to drag them away. We had a great nights sleep in the city, they live in a beautiful leafy suburb in Minneapolis, it was a great way to start our next big drive the following morning for Chicago. More thumbnails ...
Where I stayed:
Mark and Earl's House
Latest Comments (1)
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hi from Paula and Woody (reply)
Aug 3, 2008 11:24 EST by kailas
Yo...it sounds as if you all are having so much fun!!!!! It certainly sounds and looks fun...we hope you keep having fun...thanks for the blog...we live vicariously
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