Father’s Day road trip

Father’s Day road trip
The kids and I on Father's Day at Como Zoo!

By Allan Olson
As usual, another weekend flew right by, gone in a flash. Of course, if you keep busy, it goes by twice as fast.
This weekend was extra special for me since it was Father’s Day, and I spent it with my kids – on the road. I ended up making my first trip to the Twin Cities metro area in several years. It seems my niece needed a ride to the Girls State convention, and we agreed to take her. She wanted to do some geocaching on the way, and of course I wasn’t going to say no to that, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It rained the entire time,  but we did manage to grab one cache in between the downpours – barely.
We left home at 5 a.m. and I ended up sitting either in the back or in the front passenger seat nearly the entire trip down, because my niece wanted to drive. I took the opportunity to finish my book. Prior to the trip, I had suggested the idea of taking the kids to “Como,” not mentioning the word “zoo,” banking that they didn’t know what Como was. We were very fortunate weatherwise in that regard, since about the time we hit the big city, the rain went away and sun came out. We took an hour to get my niece to her destination for the week, and then my wife navigated us to the Como Zoo.
As you might expect, the kids were excited. We took in many of the things the zoo had to see and do. We watched a brief Sea Lion show, visited the gorillas, the polar bears, the zebras and giraffes, along with many other guests at the zoo that day. The kids had a blast, but soon it was time to leave.
On the way back, we made a few geocaching stops. There were literally hundreds (thousands?) of opportunities for geocaching around the metro area, but since I’m not much of a big city driver, the thought of navigating in and out of traffic to get a few caches was not all that appealing. My wife didn’t really like the thought me doing it either, while she navigated us in and out of those areas, so we ventured out of the metro and headed north.
On the way home, however, we did take the opportunity to nab a few caches in some of the smaller towns along the way (we are comfortable driving around small towns). At one of the stops my wife navigated me to, I got out and looked, but since I wasn’t finding anything, she sent Nikolai to help. He wasn’t much help, either, so she sent out Marcus next. He was barely out of the vehicle when he spotted the cache. In was in a location clearly out his reach, but the find was still his.
This pattern continued. A stop here and there to grab one or two, until we reached Jenkins, north of Pequot Lakes on Highway 371. I said, “If I get to 10 for the day, I’ll quit and go home, without any more stops.” So that’s what we did. I guess should have looked at my map, since there was one more town before Walker that I wanted to stop at, but I kept my word and kept on going. We finally made it home just before 10 p.m., nearly 17 hours after we had departed.
I wasn’t going to geocaching on Monday, but it was my birthday, and I really wanted to, so after I got home that day I decided that I was going to go out and grab a few. I knew my wife didn’t really want to go, but I said I would ask the kids and take no more than two. Abigail was the first kid I asked and she immediately said “Yes!” The other three did not want to go. Then, prior to my birthday meal request of homemade pizza, a geocaching friend called from the site of a newly published geocache and wasn’t finding it and asked if I was heading that way. I replied that I was, after supper, and offered to pick her up on the way, since she lived enroute. So Monday night Abigail and myself and our friend picked up three new caches that hadn’t been found yet, as well as one that had been found just a short time before we got there. We got back home after 9 p.m., and at 10:30 we had cake and ice cream. All of us, that is, except Marcus, who fell asleep, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get him to stay awake. And my wife, who will make a cake for me, but refuses to partake.
In all, I had a very fun weekend with the Chippewa Triathlon (watching, not participating) on Saturday, the road trip to the Cities on Sunday, and some geocaching on Monday.
Our plans for this coming weekend remain to be seen. I have some ideas, and yes, geocaching could be included, along with some other fun activities for my kids. We’ll just have to see what happens.

Please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreation and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com

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