We were both really glad to wake up in International Falls and know we were not in any rush to get anywhere or do anything today. We are both a bit tired, but really soaking in our vacation experience. We are a little tired from the intensity of our week at summer camp. A pause more laid-back day today, was just what we needed.
Patti stayed in bed a little after Dick got up. And then we walked across the street to a restaurant called The Library where we ate a hearty breakfast. Dick was amused to be sitting in front of wall to ceiling book shelves of Readers Digest Condensed Books. Not his idea of a library.
In International Falls, they had a very large sculpture of one of our favorites Smokey Bear. Patti had to have her picture taken with him. Protecting all of these trees form fires is a worthy job. We also caughht a pictures of a giant Voyageur, named. Vic.
After breakfast, we headed off to visit the Minnesota National Park that neither of us had been to: Voyageurs National Park. This park is nearly all Northern lakes, rivers, streams, and islands.
Voyageurs were generally French Canadian traders who in the 17th and 18th century who made long journeys throughout this area trading goods to the Indian people. They often made 3000 mile round trips in a season to bring beaver pelts back east where they were sent to Europe to make into hats. They had very rough lives, often canoeing for 15 or 16 hours a day. But the area they canoed through here is so beautiful. In the 1970s Congress made this area a national park.
Because so much of the area is water, we were only able to have a small taste. We went to Visitor Center about 10 miles east of International Falls where we are staying. There we looked around a small museum, watched a couple of movies about the park and it’s history, and went on a nature walk looking at some of the plants that would’ve been used by the Ojibwe Indian people here traditionally. We looked a little longingly at the beautiful lakes as we could see them, but it would’ve taken either renting a canoe, or hiring a commercial boat to give us a private tour. Neither of these seemed feasible in our one day in the area.
By mid-afternoon we went back to our hotel and gathered up our laundry to go to a local laundromat. This is the third laundromat that we’ve had the opportunity to use during these travels. We are both so grateful that this is not a normal part of our day today life, living with a washer and dryer in our home. However, it is a blessing to have clean clothes and enough underwear now to get us to the end of our travels.
A little more of a rest and then we took our hotel owners' recommendation and went to dinner at the Sha Sha Resort Restaurant. This was on a point on an island in the middle of the largest lake on the area. Sitting out on the deck eating our sandwiches, we were able to get even more of a glimpse of the watery paradise surrounding us. We watched lots of boats go back-and-forth, including some that came up to the dock and joined us for dinner on the deck. It was a lovely way to end the day.
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