Minnesota Family Vacation- Voyageurs National Park (Part 3)

The next morning we left pretty early from Kettle Falls to head closer towards the lodge. We docked at a sand site called Ashback Beach, which was so much easier to figure out! The kids immediately spotted a couple turtles and loved watching them the whole time. They named the turtles "snippy" and "snoopy."

They went off the slide multiple times.

Spy Conor and Peyton in the background? Those two are always wrestling!

Our friends finally arrived by water taxi that night. They have two girls that are Peyton and Conor's age. Caitie was so excited to have some friends to play with!

We cooked dinner and blew the generator while trying to grill out. It made for an interesting evening for the boys to get it back on. Then we played a game of trivia with all the other houseboats. We went into about 5 overtimes, but ending up placing second. The kids thought it was really fun. 

The next day we set off pretty early in the morning to find a different houseboat site. We settled on a unmarked spot and it had the most gorgeous views. It was not without it's challenges to dock it though! We had a gorgeous sunset!
 

The kids skipped rocks and roasted marshmallows by the fire. This spot did not have any bugs and it was really great. However, there was a lot of wind at the site and the boat swayed back and forth like crazy. It was a tough site to sleep at because the boat rocked all night long. I guess you trade bugs for wind and swaying.

We played another game of trivia and battled it out for second place again. We took off early in the morning and headed back to Minneapolis. We arrived around mid-afternoon at the Great Wolf Lodge for the night. The kids had a lot of fun playing for a few hours at the waterpark. 

We went back to the Mall of America (which was across the street) for dinner. Caitie played so hard she fell asleep at dinner!

We had a couple hours left of play time in the morning at the waterpark before departing for the airport. 

It was a fun and unique experience, but it was definitely a lot of work! Hopefully the kids grow up and  appreciate all of the different experiences we have tried to share with them over the years!

Minnesota Family Vacation- Voyageurs National Park (Part 2)

We drove after the Twins game to Voyaguers National Park. We made it around 3am, which made for the second 3am bedtime in a row. We were tired! 

The kids slept in a little at the lodge the next morning, while Michael ran to the grocery store to stock us up for the boat trip. The lodge was very remote. The closest grocery store is 45 minutes away! It was a very rustic lodge, but was clean and nice. We went downstairs for some breakfast while we waited for the boat to be ready. 

We explored the property a little bit. It's beautiful. 

On the boat and ready for our adventure!

We did not see another National Park sign the entire trip. This is the best we could get!

So glad we picked up cards at the lodge. We spent hours playing card games. 

We had a spot picked out for the first night, but a boat pulled up right before us, so we were out of luck for that spot. We ended up finding another sandy beach spot. We should have known it would be a tough spot when I got attacked by mosquitos the second we got on the island. The second the sun went down there were swarms and swarms of mosquitos. We couldn't sit outside at night because of them. 

But it was a pretty spot during the day. The kids had so much fun going down the slide.

We watched the sun set over Canada. Right past that island on the right is Canadian waters. 

The next morning we headed off to find a new spot close to Kettle Falls to dock for the night. Then we took the John boat to Kettle Falls. 

This is the only National Park hotel in the park and it was extremely run down. The kids all asked what in the world we would do if we stayed at this hotel. We tried to eat lunch at the restaurant but it was so crowded we couldn't get a table. 

We walked over to the bar to see the famous slanted floor. Its hard to tell in the pictures, but it is extremely lopsided. 

We explored Kettle Falls a little bit and to be honest we were very underwhelmed. Everyone at the park told us it was a must visit and it wasn't very exciting. The "falls" was actually a dam. We weren't very impressed. 

We docked our boat at Snake Island for the night. Much less mosquitos (more black flies though). It was extremely hard to dock this boat. It's hard to see in the picture, but this is a rock site. Our previous site had been a sand site. SO much easier to dock a 60 foot houseboat on sand than rock. It was very windy and we really struggled to tie it off. 

The sunset views were spectacular. We also really enjoyed cooking s'mores on the fire. 

   

 

Minnesota Family Vacation 2024- Minneapolis (Part 1)

Our trip started off a little rocky. The airlines went into a massive computer shutdown a couple of days before we were scheduled to depart. All the flights were running behind and ours was delayed a few hours. We were supposed to arrive around 11pm, but ended up getting into Minneapolis around 2am. We slept in the next morning and then headed to the Mall of America. 

We ate at Twin City Grill and it was delicious. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Unfortunately, Michael had to work so the kids and I headed towards Nickelodeon Universe. 

Our first ride was the Orange Streak and it was really fun. It went all throughout the top of the park, so we were able to see where everything was located. 

Next up was the turtle ride. Caitie was just barely under the height requirement. 

We waited in a very long line for the log chute ride. It was probably the most fun ride that we rode. 

We rode the swings and were sufficiently dizzy afterwards. 

We didn't get to ride all of the rides, but we had fun with the rides we were able to go on! 

Then we headed towards Target field to see the Minnesota Twins play. It was a gorgeous night!

Of course we ate all the cheese curds. The kids were obsessed with them.

This is the kids 5th ballpark to visit. We have had so much fun exploring each of the ballparks we have been to. They are all unique and different.