travels with toby

I haven’t forgotten about my Spain posts! I took a little break and went north to enjoy Paul Bunyan Days in Akeley where the family cabin is and to see the Minnesota State flower the Showy Lady’s Slipper. So in between my Spain posts I’m doing a quicky post to display some photos from our weekend up north.

Paul Bunyan Days in Akeley happens every year at the end of June which conveniently coincides with when the lady’s slippers are in bloom. We walked from the cabin into town for the festival, checked out the wares for sale, listened to a band and voted for our favorite cars in the car show.

We had a campfire dinner one night at the cabin where we cooked corn on the cob and baked some spuds in the campfire. It was a perfect night for a campfire!

We also took a drive to Itasca State Park to enjoy the beautiful Wilderness Drive, have lunch at Douglas Lodge and to check out the lady’s slippers. The day we chose to go to Itasca was windy and cool. Because of this I was able to photograph the lady’s slippers to my heart’s content without being swarmed by mosquitoes. What a treat! In years past I have “lathered up” with bug spray and worn my hat to try and keep those bugs off of me, usually to no avail. There are a few spots near Douglas Lodge where the flowers bloom so after lunch we ventured down there and, as usual, they were just lovely. We also saw several clumps of lady’s slippers on the Wilderness Drive and that was fun! It’s been a while since I’ve seen any on that drive. Click on any photo to open the gallery for a larger view.

A couple of sunset photos from the cabin.

Stay tuned for more posts from our trip to Spain in May!