Quilting and AAUW

I think that I must have gotten about 30 mosquito bites on the back of my neck from our evening walk in Itasca!!  Very aggravating.  Luckily Jeanne had some anti-itch cream that helped.  I should have pulled my hoodie up sooner.

It rained steadily pretty much all night long.  I hope it stopped raining by the time the guys were to go golfing.  They had a later tee time today.

Jay fixed a great breakfast of made-to-order omelets, toast and bacon.  Delicious.

View from "my" door to the deck.

Jeanne and I went to her quilting group.  They meet every other week.  Mostly they are making quilts for the county foster kids. (Kids at Risk).  Jeanne and I went to her church early to set up tables.  The group starts with coffee, treats and conversation at 10 am.  Then they all start working on different projects.  There were 7 people today (not counting me).  Sometimes they have up to  10 people.  Jeanne usually does tying finished products.  Some people work on cutting and some on sewing.  Toni was in charge.  She had me ripping out seams first, then I did some ironing, then working on ironing some trim.  She had to give me tasks which took no skill.  They work until noon and then take a short lunch break.  We had to put everything back where it belonged. We were out of there by 2 pm.

One of the finished tops.

We did some grocery shopping on our way home.  Relaxed a bit before it was time to head out again. 

This is in front of the Zups grocery store.  There seems to be some controversy about the moose antlers.  They look more like feathers to me.

See the one hidden in the trees.

Deer just out in front of the kitchen window.

Jeanne is part of the local branch of The American Association of University Women (AAUW) .  They are pretty active here in Ely.  The meeting was held at the Vermilion Community College.  We had appetizers first, then there was a presentation about the AAUW and then a very quick meeting.

Vermilion CC

Some awards they have won.

It was a very quick meeting.  We were home by 7:15 pm.  The guys did not get home until 8:30 pm.  They were very tired.  I guess this was a tough course.

We had a nice evening but no more pictures.

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.  

Another 9,000 steps

We had dinner in the lodge.  We each had a patty melt but mine was with a veggie burger.  It was quite tasty.

After dinner we decided to go back to the observation tower to see the sunset.  We took the short cut on the deer park trail. Because it was evening we had more mosquitoes to deal with.

Another 135 steps up to the top of the tower.  The lakes looked a little different with the sun going down.

Gorgeous sunset.  Well worth the walk.

We saw some dark shape that was not moving like the other clouds.  It was hard to focus on it.  But we called it our unidentified floating object.  

As we were walking back we got some nice moon shots.

It was starting to get pretty dark by the time we got back to the lodge.  We had not taken the short cut through the woods, so it was a lot longer coming back.  I was happy to see the lodge lights.  

All this fresh air and exercise is wearing me out.

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.