Dad, Tony and I left midmorning on Friday to get to the resort first, as we had to check in to get the keys. We had great weather to enjoy our weekend together. Ryan and Stasia and Lauren and Bonnie and Sammie arrived that evening to enjoy supper and explore the area.

We had a four-bedroom condo for the weekend, which also had a nice, screened in patio with a large table. We bought wood for the fire ring and enjoyed making s’mores. The resort provided kayaks, canoes and standup paddle boards for guest use, which we took advantage of in this beautiful, clear water. In addition to swimming areas on the lake, there was also an indoor pool and hot tub which we practically had to ourselves Sunday evening.

We played lots of games of cribbage as that is Dad/Grandpa’s favorite. We also tried Poetry for Neanderthals and found out Lauren is really good at this and can quickly compose long sentences with single-syllable words. Yay- I was on her team. We also played Machi Kori, in which players collect materials and landmarks to build a city and expert-Ryan showed us how it was done.

The town of Alexandria is nearby for shopping and museums. We visited the Runestone Museum, an art fest in the park, ice cream store, Aldi’s (where I learned the shopping cart quarter trick) and Zorbaz Pizza. The Runestone Museum has several displays in addition to the namesake stone that was found (supposedly – there is some controversy) in a farmer’s field in an uprooted tree’s root system, then translated by experts to prove it was left by a Viking describing the bloody death of those left on shore during a fishing expedition. Proof the Vikings made it this far inland with the Great Lakes and rivers system. There is a lot to see in this museum besides the stone.

Lake Carlos was the adventure site for an afternoon where we intended to go hiking around a bog and see some cool plants. We tried, but the mosquitoes were just too much! We did see some mushrooms, and monarch caterpillars, and a notice in the bathrooms about small parasites in the water that can enter your skin, cause red, itchy welts, then die because we aren’t hospitable to them. Fun stuff! Vigorous toweling and avoiding water near shore (yikes, we don’t have a boat…) can prevent the schistosomes (microscopic worms) from giving one Swimmer’s Itch. They come from infected snails and we did see LOTS of snail shells along the Lake Carlos shore.

We have a spot picked out for next year at a resort near Galena, IL!