Family Vacation 2014

Family Vacation 2014

The tour guide at the Forestville Caves kindly agreed to take a photo of our group during the tour. In the background was what appeared to be a shallow pool of water, but we were informed that it was actually about 10 feet deep.

By Allan Olson

It has been a full year since our last dual family vacation, when my brother and his family joined us on a trip to the Black Hills, where we spent a full six days traipsing across the Dakotas and Wyoming enjoying all the beauty that area had to offer.

We had no such grand plans this year, and instead took a much simpler vacation to southern Minnesota, where we visited a Minnesota state park. We made our reservations for this four-day getaway sometime back in February or March. The park, Myer Big Island State Park near Albert Lea, came highly recommended as a nice place to stay, so we booked it!

The big day finally arrived. My brother and his family had arrived on Wednesday evening, so all was set for our departure on Thursday morning. We took off at 6 a.m., and after a quick stop for some breakfast snacks at Teal’s, we were off on our big expedition.

We arrived at the campground around 2 p.m. We set up our camp and then went to get some lunch and buy some groceries. We finished messing around town a few hours later and headed back to camp. That evening we tried to locate my great-grandparents’ graves, but after checking nearly the entire cemetery, had no luck.

The next morning we prepared for a day on the road – we were heading into Iowa! First we stopped back at the cemetery, where the efficient office person quickly looked up the gravesite information and directed us right to the area. It didn’t take us long to find the grave, and we paid our respects to ancestors long-departed, and then we were on our way to Iowa.

Our first stop was at the Top of Iowa rest stop – a place that looked like a barn. The rest stop featured a small dining area, gift shop and (of course) two geocaches – the primary reason why I insisted we stop there.

After picking up a few trinkets, we headed on to our next destination: a corn field outside Clear Lake, Iowa – to the famous place cited on “the day the music died.” This location was where Buddy Holly and other musicians, along with the pilot, crashed on their ill-fated flight from Clear Lake to Fargo during a snowstorm. I only found out about this location due to the fact there were two geocaches that I had picked out for the trip hidden there.

Our primary destination for this trip was Mason City – which the classic movie “The Music Man” was based on and which was the birthplace of the movie’s star actor. We stopped at a local park for some much needed lunch break before setting out on our tour. We visited a building that houses replicas from the movie so exact that they needed authorization from Warner Brothers to build the “little indoor town.” It was a neat place. My wife, who is an avid fan of the movie, thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think it safe to say that the rest of us had fun, too.

On our way back to Minnesota, we made another stop in Clear Lake – this time at the beach. The park we camped in had no swimming beach, and the kids all wanted to go jump in the lake. I wasn’t going to, but after seeing all the fun the kids were having, I decided I should go join in. The water was refreshing, and all the splashing around and wrestling with the kids was fun.

We made our way back to the camp, while my brother and his vanload decided that they wanted to head to a large sporting goods store about 15 miles away. That evening we had some extra guests in our campsite – some raccoons stopped by, searching under the picnic table for leftovers.

On Saturday our plan was to head for a really cool place – The Forestville Caves. This was literally, a cool experience, and all of us really enjoyed the informative tour. It was a good thing that I brought two extra cameras along, because they were well-used in the cave. It’s also a good thing I asked my wife to put the photos on her computer so I don’t have to look at a lot of photos of the same thing from the cave. After we got out of the cave, a few of us participated in a Archery Naturalist Program that was being offered. I figure I probably won’t win any archery awards, but I did at least hit the target 5/5.

With that visit over, we made our way back to the campground, arriving much earlier than the previous night. A few of our group decided that they wanted to go canoeing, and did. I wanted to find a multi-cache in the park, and the others that didn’t go canoeing – Marcus, Alivia and my nephew – joined me in the search. That nearly two-mile round trip took us about 90 minutes to complete, but it was a fun little hike on some nice groomed trails. With the geocaching over, we watched the canoers paddle about for awhile, and then helped them put away their equipment. That evening we enjoyed some more S’mores one last time, since we knew Sunday was going to be a packing day.
We were packed and on the road before 10 a.m. on Sunday. While enroute we stopped at a mutual friend’s home to visit her and her new baby for a few minutes. We then proceeded to Rogers, where we visited the super-sized outdoor sporting goods store, had lunch together one last time, and then headed off in different directions toward our respective homes. We finally arrived home at around 8 p.m.

We had a fun and enjoyable vacation this summer; now we can start planning our 2015 trip!

Please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity 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.