Weekend Adventure


Weekend Adventure
By Allan Olson
It’s beginning to feel like spring – by the time this article reaches most readers we should have had at least five straight days of temperatures nearing 40 degrees – simply marvelous.
So my weekend was spent outdoors – Saturday on the ice and Sunday in the woods.  It was a great time for outdoor activity, Saturday was a little chilly standing on Big Winnie watching people trying to catch fish and hoping to win some good prizes but as the day waned on it turned out pretty nice after the wind began to subside. Normally the whole family attends but after our crazy week it was only the boys – along with two cousins and my brother. They fished at least for a brief time while I wondered the ice trying to get photos of people with their fish – while I never succeeded with that I captured lots of smiling faces, playing with their friends, fishing, eating and just doing what was intended of the event getting people to enjoy the great outdoors.
That evening, I fired up the grill for the first time this year, I made burgers, brats and hot dogs and it was great – everyone seemed to enjoy the fixings and dug in, but even though I made enough for an army since we had 11 hungry people there was still enough to enjoy the next day as left overs.
That evening I headed to bed early – my wife and sister in law headed to the movies and my brother and I did what we do best, went to sleep.  As for the kids, I don’t think I heard them again after I fell asleep, it could be that they were perfectly quiet watching the tube –unlikely – or more realistically, I was just sleeping that hard.
Sunday I got the dishes caught up while my wife and niece worked on dirtying more making scones for breakfast. It was worth the mess as the scones were scrumptious.
About 11:30 I tried getting some kids interested in going geocaching as there were two caches I really wanted to find, but nobody seemed inclined to leave the house, the only person I hadn’t asked was Abigail so I did. She agreed to go caching with dad, so I told her to change out of her pajamas, she then changed her mind, “I want to stay in pj’s all day,” she said. “Fine, you can leave your pj’s on just put on snow pants.” It still took until nearly 12:30 p.m. to leave the house – but we managed.
The first stop about 30 minutes later, was a pretty easy find but it took a little work to get it down as Abigail had to use a long hook left on location to retrieve from its high perch. I took some photos of her as she worked on it and enjoyed watching her solve how to get the cache down and back up. A few miles later we were on the location of another geocache, this was supposed to be an easier one to find, except the snow made it harder. Abigail and I kicked and dug for over an hour trying to find this cache, I made some attempts from people who had found it to get help but no luck. We took a break and tried one more time, and then just before giving up for good, I kicked the snow off the ammo can in the woods – “yeah” Abigail said and promptly went to open it. With a little assistance from her dad, she was able to find some items in the can to take home as treasure.
From there we headed to an event in Cass Lake and called our caching day together an end.
In all hanging out with my daughter made a perfect end to a great weekend. This weekend there might be more caching is in store, possibly - sans kids but hopefully with a few other caching friends.
Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, 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. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.




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