USA: Minnesota – Lakes and Logs

By: MJ + PJ

One of MJ’s therapist friends lives in MN in a log cabin. Really freaking huge logs make up the exterior of the cabin. It’s gorgeous, and located on a few acres right on the banks of the 50ft wide Mississippi River. The 100+ year old logs were salvaged from the deep cold waters of one of the Great Lakes by the builder. We stayed two nights as we wanted to catch up and explore a few of the 10,000 lakes.

Our kayak time was on a high water traffic area of Cross Lake. We waited for some kayaks to be available as it was a busy Friday for the renting shops locally, but we got phenomenal service from the place we utilized. We had AJ sit in the back of a single as he is still small and light enough to do so, then paddled around for almost two hours on small waterways. He switched kayaks then switched back, got out in shallow water then got in, and then got out in deep water and got in. On the last struggle to get back in he exclaimed “I’m too old for this!”, which he may or may not have heard one of his parent’s say. This water time was a casual and yet traditional thing to do in MN.

We headed south towards St Paul and Minneapolis, stopping to see the sculpture garden in Minneapolis. There are several in our home town of Loveland, CO, that we frequented with visitors. This one was particularly interesting and well arranged, with good variety.