Following the Mississippi

We got up early and walked down to the lake to see if there would be a sunrise.  It was overcast so there was not much of one.

The wind has done a lot of damage to some of the trees, they are twisted as well as broken.

A lot of red and white pine.

Back to the lodge for breakfast.  Then we packed up the car and left.

I tried taking a selfie here but I was not thrilled with the results.

We thought that it would be fun to follow the Mississippi River until Grand Rapids when it headed south and we would go north.

First it headed straight north to Lake Bemidji.  The Mississippi goes in one side of the lake and comes out the other continuing in a more eastern direction.

This was at the Paul Bunyan Park in Bemidji.

The next goal was to get the furthest north that it goes before it heads south.  No luck with that.  Even at the visitors center at the Paul Bunyan Park they were not sure where that was.  It obviously is not a tourist attraction.

Next sight to look for was when route 2 crossed over the Mississippi. Again we were not successful.  I think that it was not labeled, if we did cross over.  Well, we must have because when we got to Grand Rapids it was on our right and it had been on our left.  But it obviously was not clearly marked.

We got in to Grand Rapids, MN (not Michigan) and went to the visitor center. It was next to this cute candy shop.

We stopped at the visitor's center to get information about the Mississippi River. We were told about a park near the river.

Then we went to the New China Restaurant.  They had a lunch buffet.  It was very good. 

We weren't sure if it was even open since there was a for lease sign in the window.  It was very confusing.

We said good-bye to the Mississippi River and headed on to Ely, with a stop in Virginia (a town in MN) to pick up some groceries.  We got to Ely about 3:30 pm.  Jay was still out golfing with his buddies.  Rick, Mike & Todd.  We relaxed a bit and got a few things ready for dinner.  Jeanne was doing the corn on the cob and the baked potatoes.  Jay and company arrived about 5:30 pm. It started raining just as they were leaving the golf course.  Jay did steaks on the grill for us all.  What a delicious meal.

Mike, Dave, Todd and Jay.

Then they all went downstairs to watch football.  Bev and Dan arrived for game night.  I joined them for this.  They very nicely did not play Settlers or Dominion.  That was fun.