Filed under: Detroit Lakes
Yesterday I was featured on Minnesota Public Radio’s culture feature Art Hounds. I was talking about the Trolls of Detroit Lakes. It was honestly a thrill. I was excited and more nervous than someone with a weekly radio should be. The folks involved (Emily and Denzel) are super nice. I spoke to Emily for 10-15 minutes and they edited the feature down to 1-2 minutes.
I wanted to archive the fun here. You can listen from the Art Hounds page.
This week I had a mini-break with my friend Monica. We went up to her family cabin in Battle Lake (Otter Tail County) in Northern Minnesota. The cabin is right on the lake, which makes for peaceful scenery and awesome views of thunderstorms when they happen.
One of our main goals of the trip was to visit the Trolls of Detroit Lakes. (I wrote about it in my Mostly MN blog too.) International recycling artist Thomas Dambo and crews have built a scavenger hunt or giant trolls, portals and a hidden Golden Rabbit. Dambo has trolls all over the world; but in DL they built their biggest troll ever with 36-foot-high Long Leif!
We also went uber local to see the Nyberg Sculpture Garden in Vining, MN maybe 40 minutes from Detroit Lakes. (Also in the Mostly MN blog.) The artist, Ken Nyberg, was born and raised in the area. His art is made from scrap metal, old lawn mower blade and other recycled materials. One of his first big steps (pun intended) was The Big Foot, which is installed off a highway in town. There’s also a work in honor of his astronaut daughter Karen Nyberg!
The cabin in just a mile walk from the town, which is large enough to have a few restaurants and an ice cream shop called Granny’s Pantry. There is a large statue of a Native American giving homage to the wars between tribes (Anishanabe and Dakota) on the walk to town. And a lovely garden. We also stopped in various locations along the way. For example, we saw the largest turkey in Perham. And we saw a little nature at Glendalough Park (deer) and Inspiration Peak (panorama video).
Finally here are the pictures. We had a great time. We had tons of swimming. We didn’t have dessert at lunch so we felt like we were really on a health kick.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
Could I be any slower getting the rest of the vacation stuff on the blog? I doubt it but maybe I can catch up quickly today.
One of the fun things they do at Fair Hills is the staff put on a show. I’ve included a sample of the acts below and links to more videos from the show. The girls *love* the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdJ7fZOwM6M – Lily, Aine & Kate with others on stage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fo1i7ZZaWM – Larry & his sister with Wide Mouth Frog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GSxm0rWUkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyR7paeURY
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
A golf course, a sheet of plastic, a ton of water. That’s all I’m going to say…
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
So apparently Detroit Lakes is on butterfly migration path to Mexico! And they all stop at Fair Hills. The place isn’t exactly inundated but it’s fun to see the monarchs and as you can see we saw at least one good branch-load of butterflies is a fir tree, which kind of surprised me. I thought they’d like a softer looking tree.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
We’re in Fair Hills Resort this week. It’s up in Detroit Lakes. It’s like a Minnesota-flavored Dirty Dancing resort. There are loads of kids’ activities – and some adult stuff too. There’s a talent show and a show (Hootenanny) that features staff talent. There are 3 meals a day. The chef can make pancakes in any shape!
These were our activities from the first full day:
- 7 am – I walk with Barb, who leads about 20 people on a 1 hour walk around Big Pelican Lake. A boat picks us up in time for breakfast. Lily joined me. We saw an eagle
- 8:00 – breakfast
- Morning: It rained so the best activity was swimming. All of us swam for about 90 minutes in the pool and hot tub. It rained steadily the whole time – but it really was perfect for swimming!
- 11:00: Zumba – a new aerobics-dance exercise class, which the big girls and I loved!
- Noon – lunch
- 1:00: golf lesson for me, Kate & Lily
- 2:30: Aine got to ride a horse and play on the playground with other 4-8 year olds. Lily and Kate went for the water games – and they both jumped off the high dock-thing. Kate did not love it. I watched her on the high dock thinking about jumping – other kids trying to convince her, her thinking, getting close to the edge and backing off, but eventually she jumped
- 6:00: dinner
- 7:30: Ice cream social and volleyball game
- 10:00 everyone is asleep!
So that’s kind of a typical day. Rather than catalog every day like that I thought I’d just post highlight posts for the rest of the week – short but sweet. Maybe with some videos.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
We were sad to have the week end. We ate breakfast, took one last dip in the pool, and came home. I took one picture of the war memorial in Belgrade on the way. I had intended to take a picture of the world’s largest ball of twine too – but everyone fell asleep about 10 miles out of Darwin!
Aine is already asking me when we’re going back to our cabin in Fair Hills.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
Friday morning was the last official walk. There were huge caramel rolls on the boat back to the resort and everyone got a Fair Hills Walking Club T-shirt.
Did I mention that we had perfect weather after Monday? Friday the kids enjoyed the kids fair. Patrick and I played more tennis. Friday lunch was served on the deck with the marching band. It was hot, but nice.
Friday afternoon we swam. Kate is a diver!!! She worked really hard on it but now she has it. Lily is getting closer to being a diver, but she wasn’t working on it as much. Aine has NO FEAR of the water. She’s happy to jump in anywhere. She’s even happier if everyone is the pool area is watching her.
Friday night was the big dance. There are a few contests, a few songs like the Macarena, and a full moon. It was a nice ending.
Filed under: Detroit Lakes
Thursday morning the big girls had swimming/diving lessons. Aine did the little kid activity. Patrick and I got some work done. Thursday afternoon was Kids in the Kitchen. So the girls got to go and make treats, something they loved from last year. I got to help post a cabin rental on VRBO. I know, not fun to everyone, but fun to me as I hadn’t posted anything there before.
Early Thursday afternoon the kids all did scavenger hunts. Aine did the little kid scavenger hunt – the big girls competed in the big kid hunt. They had to find a dead fish, get a signature form a Turkish and Russian worker, and find horse manure. They all enjoyed it. Patrick and I played tennis. I was winning until the girls showed up and started asking me lots of questions. Late Thursday afternoon we went on the family Pelican Cruise. It was fun to be out on the boat. We talked to some of the other parents a bit. Mostly it was just very relaxing.
Thursday night was the big Talent Show. I have videos of the big performances. Aine did not do a solo and she was very mad at herself when it ended and she didn’t have her time in the limelight.
After the Talent Show we had a mini campfire. Larry got everyone to sing songs – especially the too infectious “Baby Shark” song. We’ve been singing it ever since. The night ended with s’mores.
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