Wrapping up May

We had a lovely 4-day mini vacation, staying home but making day trips.  One of those included an outing to Itasca State Park and the headwaters of the Mississippi River.   We’re fortunate that so many state parks are just a short drive from home!

Weird – I notice the date on my post about the Itasca State Park outing is May 16.  Really?  We were on vacation from the 21st through the 24th, and the trip occurred during our time off.  Looks like Blogger was off about a week on that post.  I’ll be curious to see what date shows up for this one.

We wandered over to Park Rapids one day, just because we could!

We strolled down the main drag, stopping in a few shops here and there.  Just playing tourist a bit.  The population of Park Rapids is just around 4,000, so it’s not large by any means. 

That’s not traffic in the middle of the street; it’s parking!

I had not seen a Ben Franklin store in … well, I just don’t remember.  It’s been that long, and I had no idea there were still any in existence.  Just had to duck in there for a wee look around.  It contained literally just about everything!  It was like stepping back in time a few decades.

One thing we did notice was the high cost of goods, even in Ben Franklin.  Yikes!  I wonder if that is because it is such a small town and is pretty much geographically away from everything.  There is a Walmart there, but we didn’t see it.  Park Rapids does have community activities and festivals, and I bet during summer months it is busy due to its proximity (there ya go, Sue!) to Itasca State Park.

At any rate, it was a nice run for the Wee Beastie and for us.  Yes, it really was that cloudy in the photos!

Our patio with some new additions this year.  The yard crew will be around soon to mow the grass.

It was raining somewhere on this evening.

One of the pieces from Bemidji’s 2018 Sculpture Walk.  (The website has not been updated for this year yet.) In addition to the sculptures, there are various painted dogs throughout downtown this year.  This one was, of course, outside Lucky Dogs, a hot dog café!

We’ve resumed our usual routine of work and life after a pleasant respite.  It was good to get out and about, but we also enjoyed just hanging out at home and truly relaxing. 

There is another vacation in the planning stages, this one a #MNbucketlist item for yours truly!  We’re looking at doing the Highway 61 North Shore drive in early Fall.  As former full-time RVers, this is not a massive undertaking, but will take a wee bit of planning. 

Looks like fun!

Stay safe out there, okay?  Thanks for stopping by!