Sunday in the Sun

My kids and my niece at the Headwaters of the Mississippi on a footbridge at Itasca State Park.

By Allan Olson

I mentioned in last week’s column if the weather was going to be nice we were going to be outside and on Sunday we were outside for a good portion of the warm day a considerable temperature difference from Friday.

While some called it a week on Friday, the first home football game in two weeks had me out braving the very cool and damp fall weather at the game. Prior to the game, I grabbed my warm orange hunting jacket along with my carhart for extra warmth if needed. I was thankful the concession stand was selling hot chocolate to help keep me warm also. The game wasn’t in favor of the home team, but it was still overall a nice cold night to be watching some home town football.

Saturday morning, I was back in town for work again and once I finished those obligations – we headed to town to pick up a few things for the family. Marcus was the only one of the kids who took a trip to town with his mom and I as his shoes were trashed and needed replacement – currently we are down to one child who will soon need a shoe replacement. Of course, we haven’t yet pulled out all the winter boots so it’s possible some of those will need replacement also.

We finally got back home that late afternoon to a cleaner house thanks to the kids and our niece who helped ensure things got done. In town we picked up a new bookshelf for the living room – or rather a pair of them to replace the bookshelf that we’ve had for a number of years. The shelf finally couldn’t hold up to the pressure from the photo books and all the other various things the shelf was a placeholder for and collapsed Friday evening. Nikolai carefully tried to fix it and managed to get the shelf back together again, but we knew it was finally done for. My wife and niece took to the job of assembling the bookshelf while I decided it was a good time to read – until I was asked to help with some of the assembly process.

That evening we waited for another niece and her friend to show up for supper, they were delayed by playing with horses and then shopping before finally making it to our home. We enjoyed a meal of pizza and at the last minute decided to drag them to the Haunted House in Bena, as my wife wanted to go without kids and we thought it would be fun to scare a couple more people. For me, I just trailed the group and listened to them scream and walked through and laughed enjoying watching the rest get scared.

Sunday was the best day of the weekend – at least for me. The weather outside was perfect, I had already informed everyone that it was a geocaching day and we were not going to spend the day in the house with the weather so nice. I made breakfast for everyone that morning – a delicious bowl of Malt O Meal – and then I started packing the cooler as I wanted to be ready to leave by 11 a.m. In all it was eight of us venturing out into the warm afternoon sun – our first destination was gas and water in Cass Lake – two very important essentials. My next target was the Shingobee Hills near Akeley – we have never been on those trails before and someone published three new geocaches there – adding to the four that were already in the area and I was determined to get them. I guess I failed to mention to other members of the party that there were hills, I was certain I did, but I guess not to the person that mattered the most – my wife. Anyway, it took us about 90 minutes to complete the task and we found a less steeper incline for some of the party to get back to the vehicle. Some of us were a little more tired than others once the adventure was completed. I think the next time we go on an adventure like that I will add some weights to a backpack for Nikolai as he said it was easy and spent most of the time running through the hills like a young deer perhaps.  Once everyone back to the vehicle was loaded we drove about ¼ mile further to the big pull off – made some sandwiches and took off for the next destination Itasca State Park.

My niece has never visited the park before and I had two geocaches in the park I wanted to find so in all, it was a perfect opportunity to visit. We finally arrived at the park sometime after 4 p.m. and began our quest in searching for the two geocaches. The first was a multi where we had to find hidden coordinates to lead us to the final stage. Even though we have visited the park many times, the final was located in an area that we had yet to see, it was a fun easy hide for us to work on.

The next one was a little unique and one that was required to only send in answers based on certain questions and task that must be completed at the headwaters. My niece took the opportunity to cross the rocks several times, while I informed the kids the only way they would be crossing the headwaters this time is via the wooden log bridge. The kids listened and we managed to get away from there for what was probably the first time without them soaking wet.

We made it home in time for kids to start getting ready for bed, I got some complaints about how I used up all their electronic time for going out geocaching but yet, for some reason I don’t feel bad about that at all. As for future trips, I will have to be more clear about the terrain that we will be encountering or I will be making more adventures on my own and that’s not nearly as much fun.

With Sunday looking nice again this weekend, we plan to venture out for some more geocaching, we are only 33 finds away from #2,000 and it would be nice to achieve that this weekend as a family.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.