Searching For the Mississippi

The lodge restaurant did not open until  8 am so I had to wait for my morning cup of coffee.  We decided to go on a walk before breakfast.  We did a nice loop.

Living room

Call home

Itasca Lake

Some kids had fun

We went directly for breakfast when we got back.  I could only eat about 1/2 of my meal of omelet, hash browns and toast.  Jeanne had a waffle.

We could have ordered the sticky buns.

After breakfast we headed out again.  This time we followed the loop around the park, making many stops.  

The Interpretive Center

Cool gates

Quilt

Very interesting exhibit.  We found out that there is some disagreement about the origin of the Mississippi River.  Most people think that it is Lake Itasca but some people think that it is Elk Lake or one of the other lakes around.  But I did not realize that it first heads north then east though Grand Rapids before it heads south.  

Continuing on 

Each of these stops we went on a short trail.

We crossed over the Mississippi River/creek

This globe shows the long rivers around the world.

The official beginning of the Mississippi River.  Fun stop.  By this time it was lunch time some we headed in to the cafe.  We had a slice of pizza and salad. 

We continued on around the west side of the park.

Is this actually the beginning of the Mississippi River?

We decided to go up the fire towel

135 steps to the top

The wind sure made it sway at the top

Whew.

Trees are starting to turn

See the butterfly?

After that we headed back to the lodge.  We had a glass of wine and put our feet up.  Then we decided to find where the bridge was that we walked by earlier.  We found it.

Back again to the lodge.  More relaxing. 

We passed a vehicle with this sign.

View from the lodge porch.

Well that is enough for now, 18,555 steps and the day is not done. It has turned into a gorgeous day.  A little on the brisk side.  Feels like fall.   

Itasca State Park,, MN

George took me to the airport for my annual trip to Minnesota, to visit Jeanne. We left the house at 4:30 am!! Once I went through security,  I stood in line for coffee.  It was a long line.  By the time I got my coffee it was time to board.  It was an uneventful flight.  I bought breakfast on the flight.

Jeanne met my plane in Minneapolis.  We timed it perfectly.  She just had to do one loop around the airport before I got out to the curb.  

We stopped for lunch at a Mexican food restaurant.  It was pretty good.

It was about a 4 hour drive to Itasca State Park.  We have reservations at the lodge for 2 nights.  It was lightly raining the whole drive but it stopped once we got to the park.

We have a room on the upper level of the lodge.  It is just a room.  We have to go down the hall to the restrooms/showers.  

our room

Once got got settled in we decided to drive out of the park again, to a liquor store to buy some wine for tonight.  It is handy to be right by the church. It seems like bars and churches are often close together.  Nothing else around.

We checked out the park gift shops and then we went to the lodge restaurant for dinner.  Dinner was good.

I had the pork medallions, wild rice, sweet potato fries and green beans (which they for got to bring at first). The sweet potato fries and the green beans  were especially good. After dinner we had some of the wine we had bought and relaxed.