Weekend Escape & Adventure

There is something pretty spectacular about summer weekends. There are only about 14 of them and they can so quickly get all scheduled, that when you find an empty one it is a big treat.

Last Thursday night, Jff and I hatched a plan to head out of town for most of the weekend, the short notice adding to the fun of fleeing on a summer weekend. We ended up with the canoe on top of the car and the camping gear in the trunk with no reservations, but some ideas of what we might like to see and do, and our trusty state parks sticker on the windshield of the car.

We ended up at Frontenac State Park on Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River. As we arrived we heard the last hike in campsite being taken for the night, so we ended up at a city park run campground a few miles down river. Although the campsites were a little close together and no one in this campground looked like they could camp with less than an SUV's worth of lawn chairs, massive coolers, and screen houses, it was a beautiful spot. We set up our tent (that looked tiny in our little site) and set off for adventure.

We ended up on a beautiful hike on the hillside looking down at the Lake/River and then got to the point of interest: In-Yan-Teopa Rock, described as, "a giant boulder perched on the edge of a bluff". This description is pretty accurate but misses the point about the giant hole in the middle of the rock which caused many to hypothesize this rock as a ceremonial/religious site for Native Americans (which there is no evidence to support). Overall the hike was beautiful and pretty strenuous due to the cliff/hillside. The view at the top part of the park was amazing.

After hiking and making dinner, we headed out for an even paddle along the banks of Lake Pepin. Notable mostly because it was our maiden voyage in our new-used canoe that we purchased this spring. It was a really pretty night and very calm. Fish were jumping all over the place and very few boats were out. We did a lot of drifting and chatting. Finally we ended up on the beach for a short walk (including husbands fascination with rock skipping, hitting rocks out into the water with a stick, and my obsession of looking at neat rocks) an amazing bright orange sunset. We ended our evening with a fire.

I had high expectations of sleep that night, but unfortunately had failed until that point to note the railroad tracks close to the park. All night as they passed through the small town they blared their horns. I dreamt (when sleeping) that I was trying to get out of the way of trains all night long.

The next morning we had a beautiful spot to look over the Lake, and even though we were bleary eyed from a lack of sleep we were glad to have had a fabulous time seeing parts of the state I have never seen before. We also stopped in Redwing, got some lunch and ate in a neat park on the banks of the Mississippi River. We returned home in time to have a short softball practice and have an excellent dinner with the in-laws, overall, a dreamy summer weekend.