Gull Lake August 2006

Every year, Ray's family gets together at a Gull Lake, MN. It is about 150 miles north of the Twin Cities and is a popular vacation destination for Minnesotans. We stay at the Gull Lake Resort on the east side of Gull Lake near the Gull Lake Dam. It is also very near the Brainerd International Raceway. We have been going up every year since 1993. We missed the last 2 years while we were overseas, but the rest of the family was there. As the families have grown, we have moved up to larger cabins, but have stayed at the same resort since the beginning. This will be the first year that Ray's dad won't be with us, so it will be different for all of us.

We went up on Saturday and everyone got there by dinner time. The weather was good and expected to be good all week with highs in the 80's and lows in the upper 50's, making for great sleeping weather.

Sunday began with sunny skies and the kid's getting some worms to hit the docks to do some fishing. They caught a lot of fish, ranging from sunfish and crappies to a few large-mouth bass. They all got very good at removing the hooks from the fish and baiting their hooks.

In the afternoon we headed up the road to Pirate's Cove Adventure golf, which is a regular stop every year we are up here. The kid's formed one group and the adults another. No one was lucky enough to get a hole in one on the mystery hole which would give them a free game for a future visit.

After golf, we went down to the beach area and went swimming. The lake is down at least a foot this year. Normally there is a large current flowing past the beach as it is situated on the outlet of the lake. This year there is very little current on the outlet as the dam is set to allow minimal water flow out of the lake. On Sunday, we followed another tradition and had dinner at Ernie's, a local lakefront restaurant and marina just a couple of miles from the resort.

Monday was a little overcast, but that did not stop the kids from wetting a line and hauling in some more fish. We then went into Nisswa, about 10 miles north of our resort and did some browsing and shopping at the local candy store, getting a large variety of candy and fudge. Unfortunately, when we got home, we didn't get all the candy put up and away, and Beth's dog (Harper) ended up getting into the fudge and ate about a half pound of chocolate and mint fudge while we were fishing and working on building a rodeo golf game. Harper got a lot of water and was OK, although a little hyper-active. LeAnn and Grandma took the kids back to Pirate's Cove to play mini golf under the lights before coming back to hit the hay.

On Tuesday, Ray and LeAnn went golfing in the morning at a local 9 hole course. The course was pretty quiet, but in good shape considering how dry it has been. Just off the 4th hole we saw a tree that one of the local beavers was working on. It looked like he didn't have too much farther to go before the tree would be on its side.

In the afternoon we went swimming again, did some fishing while we were at the beach, and even played some tennis with the kids. We got a few games of rodeo golf in out in front of the cabin, but we were all still trying to get the hang of how to throw the ropes weighted with golf balls at the end. We also set up the bean bag toss out front so everyone kept busy with games and activities.

Wednesday started out cloudy, but improved as the day went on. We got LeAnn and Mariah packed up to go back so that Mariah could go to the open house at Eagan High. They were going to stop at the outlet stores at Albertville on the way back to look for some bargains. The kids played a lot of tennis today, improving their game every day. We hit the beach again, and although the water is cold, if you stay active in and out of the water, it can be comfortable. We all were taking turns on the diving board, but did not have much luck improving our form, except the belly flops and cannon balls.

The highlight of Thursday was the minnow races. The kids all get to pick a live minnow and then they race down a water filled track for fun and prizes. The kids can't touch the minnows on the main track, but they can put their fingers in the water behind the starting line once the gate is raised. It is a much anticipated event by all the kids every year. This year, Hailey and her minnow won the race, and Kara and her minnow were third out of a total of 9 racers. On the way home, we stopped at the Prairie Bay restaurant and had some brick oven baked pizza. We tried the rotisserie chicken pizza which had chicken, sausage, fennel, and even green apple slices. I had never had a pizza with apples on it before, but it was actually a very tasty combination.