Wow!

That's the word that comes to mind when you go outside right now.  Wow!  Last night was a perfect evening for a walk at Lake Bemidji State Park.

Those lights across the lake in the photo below are the football stadium where the Bemidji Lumberjacks were playing their Homecoming game- they won!  We thought about going to the game but I'm glad we went for a walk instead!

Happy Fall! :)

Oakes Reunion 2011

Most of the Oakes bunch gathered in Bemidji on the weekend of July 4th.  Okay, so I am a little slow in posting.  I would have sooner but I lost all but 2 of my photos of the whole weekend !#$%*(darn it).  I don't know how- they disappeared out of My Pictures folder and before I realized it I had erased my SD camera card to make more room on it. !#$%*(drat).  It was one of those very thistley moments. Grrrr.

Thankfully, some others took photos too, so thank you, Dave, for sending me yours!



We met the first evening at our house for fruit pizza, CHOCOLATE, visiting, card playing, and making reunion t-shirts!

Saturday morning some of us paddled the Schoolcraft River in canoes.  I had some great photos. Had. Grrr.  That afternoon we met at Oak Hills for more visiting, swimming, and a picnic.

Sunday we met for a Kentucky Fried lunch at Bryce and Heather's before heading downtown (in our reunion t-shirts) to watch the annual 4th of July parade in front of Chocolates Plus.  That is a great store by the way. :) 

Then that afternoon we all met at Chris and Janel's for more relaxing, visiting, swimming, good food, a bonfire and even some fireworks!  I am not sure why these next photos got so small and I can't fer the life of me figure out how to enlarge them.  Sorry.

It was a fun weekend with all those crazy Oakies and plans for the next one were already being made before we said goodbye.  The only thing that would have made the weekend better is if Mike and Julie and their boys could have been with us-- we missed them :(



Smitten with the Mitten

 Bill and I decided to take the northern route home from Grand Rapids and we discovered that the state of Michigan is awfully beautiful.  Lush, green hardwood trees and they have jet black squirrels!



The Mackinaw Bridge was impressive too.  I didn't realize it is the longest suspended bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

Of course one can't travel through the U P without having a pastie!  I like dipping it in the gravy myself.

One place we stayed was Escanaba and had a room overlooking a bay of Lake Superior with a door out to our own little veranda.

They had a nice boardwalk along the lake.

Spent the last night in Duluth, did some window shopping at antique stores (like) and made a stop at the Amazing Bread Co and the Chocolate Factory of course (like, like:)

Walked down by the lake a little bit.

Lunch at Olive Garden~ YUM.  I had a parmesan crusted, cheese stuffed lasagna noodle thing topped with marina and it was delish.  Their breadsticks are heavenly.  Why oh why can't we have an Olive Garden in Bemidji??

And then home sweet home.  It was a long, long trip- we put over 1,600 miles on the van, but it was sure nice to just get away and spend some time together.