Gull Lake

A couple weeks ago, we took a little summer (ok, maybe spring?) vacation up north to Gull Lake, and stayed in a cabin at the Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, MN for a few nights.  I'd heard great things about Grand View Lodge from friends before and recently read about it in "The Best of...MN" where it was voted "Best kid-friendly resort in MN!"  Very true, very kid-friendly, certainly didn't disappoint!  

The Chocolate Ox, the lovely candy store located right on Grand View's property.  Yes, I'm pretty sure we (ok, maybe I) visited this place twice each day - once in the afternoon for gummy candy (peach rings for me, please) and then once in the evening for ice cream.  

It did rain a couple days, but we also had some great sun for a couple days as well.  While the lake water was a bit too chilly to swim in, the beach sand sure was a big hit with Henry (and all of his construction trucks that he brought along - he said they were working on building a Buffalo Wild Wings on the beach, now that's my kind of construction project)!

We took a paddle boat out on the lake one morning.

Thank goodness for the water park on those rainy days, well, actually everyday for that matter.  We managed to get some good swimming in every morning we were there.  Good swimming sure makes for good naps (Henry in his bed and me out on the porch).  

We found some local attractions to hit up in the afternoons as well.  Here we are at Paul Bunyan Land in Brainerd.  Henry was a little too freaked out to get near giant Paul Bunyan for a picture.  It was pretty cool when he welcomed Henry to the park by name though.  

Pretty sure we were one of the only families there that afternoon, which meant Henry had his pick of carnival rides.  First thing we did when we got there - rode the motorcycles.....

.....then onto the ponies.....

.....then down the bouncy castle slide.  

We checked out the Pirates Cove in Brainerd for a little mini golf action as well.  Henry just couldn't quite get the concept of hitting the ball, then actually leaving the ball on the ground where it landed, then hitting it again.  It was a tough concept to grasp.....next time we'll get it.  We did manage to get though 18 holes!

We certainly put down our fair share of pizza on this trip, hitting up the 2 pizza joints, Zorbaz and Rafferty's, mmm mmm good!

It was a fun little getaway, probably our last vaca with just the 3 of us :)