Monday, July 6, 2009

A little bit more of vacation time, please...

We had a great 4th of July weekend in Duluth, MN. We stayed at the Cloquet KOA in our travel trailer from Thursday to Monday, and we all had a wonderful time. On Friday, the kids and Jeff and I went to an indoor amusement park called Thrillz at Canal Park. From there we walked down to the lift bridge and watched a couple of sailboats go in and out of the harbor. Then we decided to cross the lift bridge and go out to the peninsula called "Park Point" and walked around in the sand a bit at the beach. It was very windy and cold, yet there were people everywhere in their bathing suits trying to catch some rays...we certainly looked out of place with our jackets and sweatshirts on, just trying to stay warm!

Friday evening we took in a college level baseball game between our hometown team and the Duluth team. Unfortunately we did not win, but it was still a fun game.

On Saturday we went down to the Lakewalk and Bayfront Park where the Duluth 4th festival was happening. We spent a few hours wandering around and Jeff and the kids checked out a feature attraction for the weekend, the Denis S. Sullivan, a beautiful replication of a 19th century sailboat. After a few hour return to the campground to get some swimming in and have dinner, we headed back to the festival to enjoy the music and wait for the fireworks. After a bit of a mishap and not being seated in the right place for the fireworks, we relocated rather quickly and were able to see them. They were good, but not as good as we're used to here in St. Cloud. We also did have an issue with parking...we were stuck for over an hour in the parking lot waiting to get out. It appeared that the woman patrol who was signalling traffic had no clue what to do. We made it back to the camper after midnight and quickly got everyone off to bed.

On Sunday we all slept in a bit and then got ready and headed to the Duluth Zoo.
It was pretty warm already by the time we got there and most of the animals were napping, so we didn't get to see a whole lot. My son said that was his favorite part about the whole weekend, though, so it was worth going! After the zoo we stopped at the Kmart in Duluth because I happened to catch in their ad that they were doing the double coupon thing and I got several good deals. Jeff took a cart and 10 coupons and so did I, and we were able to save a bit of money. I think we did pretty good but I haven't had time to figure out the exact savings per item yet. When we were done there we headed back to the camper for an evening of steak on the grill and a roaring campfire to end our great weekend.

Today's trip home felt sooo long, and I was not looking forward to coming home, but with all trips - they must come to an end, and I think our kids had just about enough of small enclosed sleeping quarters in their bunks.

On a side note: I encountered something really sweet with our stay at the KOA, which was just a blessing to me. There was an older couple just over from us. I knew that they were having some issues with not having a campsite over the weekend and could only stay at the KOA the one night because the campground was filled up - we were registering at the same time. During the conversation the couple were having at their campsite later, I heard the gentleman tell his wife about the situation. She was so upbeat and so positive - she would heartily laugh and seemed to thoroughly just enjoy being with her husband no matter the problems, and she was such an encouragement to her husband. A while later, I looked over at them sitting outside in their lawn chairs. The husband had gone to the store and bought both of them ice cream bars and they were sitting there enjoying them. It was SOOOOOO sweet! I told Jeff that I hope when we're up in years and still able to get around (and hopefully be camping!) I pray that our marriage is still that sweet. Jeff smiled at me with that knowing smile - he knows the softy I am. Thank God for loving husbands and for the blessings in others He gives us everyday! This couple will never know what they did to bless me, but they certainly did just by how they cared for each other.

No comments:

Post a Comment