Before the kids ran off to play, we listened to the Meissner brothers sing.
David, Fred, Kevin, and Wally
The guests of honor, Al and Arlene. Arlene is Matt's Grandma Meissner's baby sister.
After the open house we went to St. Mary's Lake, where Fred's cousin lives on the old family cabin site, to visit with all the Meissner relatives on Fred's side.
One of the biggest highlights of the trip for the kids was staying at hotels! Although the AmericInn in Virginia, MN didn't have a huge waterpark, it did have a very nice pool and hottub that we had all to ourselves the entire evening. We spent some time perfecting some swimming skills.
Then we soaked in the hot tub.
That night we learned the hard way that Laura absolutely cannot share a bed with anyone. First we put the two kids in one bed. Laura thrashed and fought and couldn't sleep because she was too hot, the covers weren't right, etc. etc. She and Matt switched places because we thought part of the problem was two kids used to sleeping in their own beds. Wrong. Laura is a crazy sleeper! I was freezing, but she was hot, so she kept throwing the covers off until she finally moved to the floor next to the bed and Matt came back to my bed. It took a long time, but we eventually all fell asleep, only to be awoken in the early hours of the morning by Matt falling out of bed onto Laura! Luckily, she missed the full impact and wasn't hurt, but it was all very strange. Perhaps I need to get a bedrail for our bed at home...
The next morning we got up early to go to church in Eveleth to listen to Fred and his brothers sing in honor of Arlene and Al's anniversary. Luckily, the hotel offered Belgian waffles for breakfast, so the kids had their morning fuel of maple syrup to get them going.
Laura and Karl are usually well-behaved in church because they always come with plenty of reading material. Karl was a little crabby, which is ironic, since he got the most sleep of any of us!
After church it was back to St. Mary's lake for some last minute visiting with the relatives.
Laura loves to read no matter where she is, but it is especially fun to sit in front of a lovely Minnesota lake.
Next, we headed down to Duluth, where we stayed at the Edgewater Resort, which has a big indoor water park. The first thing we did was to order a roll-away bed for Laura. Then we put on our suits and headed downstairs to swim.
Then we went to Fitger's for dinner. Since there was a 45-minute wait for a table, we went down to the shore of Lake Superior until our table was ready. Karl had been very excited to see Lake Superior, and could not believe that he got to go wading into the biggest lake in the world!
Laura, on the other hand, hated the feeling of the rocky shore on her bare feet, and insisted on keeping her Crocs on as she climbed out to sit on the rocks in the water. Naturally, one of her shoes fell off, dropped into the lake, and started floating away! You can see it falling in this picture:
Luckily, Karl is very chivalrous. While Laura screamed about her lost Croc, he jumped down and fearlessly braved the cold water to retrieve her shoe and save the day! Unfortunately, he got a little wet in the process, but Laura was very grateful.
A milk/oatmeal stout toast at Fitger's
Waiting for ice cream outside the Portland Malte Shoppe
The next morning, we spent some more time at the water park.
One of Karl's favorite things at the water park was this island-hopping pool where you try to get across the pool hanging on to the ropes. He got quite a workout going across (and falling off) to perfect his technique!
Laura and I really liked the lazy river.
There was a huge bucket that dumped tons of water down every few minutes. Laura loved waiting under it to get the full force of the drenching, then would run off giggling.
After we checked out of our hotel, we went to Canal Park and had lunch at Grandma's.
Karl's cup says, "Kids love Grandma's!" and Karl said, "I do love Grandma! And Mommy, and Daddy..." in his little sing-song voice that he uses when he's trying to be extra sweet.
Since the Lake Walk is three miles long, and we had two very tired kids with us, we decided to rent a giant quadriped bike to ride along the lake instead. When we got to the part by the ice cream shop, we were reminded of the tasty ice cream we had the night before and stopped for more (that's why my mouth is all chocolatey). After our bike ride, we decided we were too exhausted to do anything else, so we went home, but not before we decided that Duluth will definitely be an annual tradition.
