A little detour!!

Alright....it was a 7 hour detour but well worth it. This is how it happen. Before we went camping we decided that we would call my Grandma to see if she would be interested in having breakfast with us before we headed to Sauk Centre but after we ate instead of heading 1 hour south to Sauk Centre we headed 1 1/2 hours the opposite direction to Bemidji State University and to Itasca State Park. I think Kristi knew that I was going to ask her if she would be interested in going to Bemidji because before the question even came out she said, "Yes we can go." I'm so glad she did because we ran into a lot of people that I use to work with at Lakeland Public Television, we were able to walk the campus and see some of the changes that have taken place since I've been there, and I was able to show Karen the tunnels, if your not familiar with the tunnels all the buildings at BSU are attached by tunnels except for about a 150 foot stretch between the dorms so if you never want to walk out in the cold, frigid weather you never had too. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!! so until the next time we are in town, " You stay classy, Bemidji,"

I know it's hard to see but here we are under the Bemidji State arch.

Of course you can not go to Bemidji without seeing Paul and Babe. I say that because right when you drive into town there standing right there to greet you. We actually didn't stop this time but I did snap this picture while we were waiting for a stoplight, not to bad for not getting out of the car.

After spending our next 5 paychecks at the bookstore buying everything and anything that said Bemidji on it we headed over to mosquito heaven...aka...Itasca State Park. If your not familiar with the park it's where the Mighty Mississippi begins. I know the head marker is hard to read so here's what it says, "Here 1475 ft above the ocean the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on it's winding way 2552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico."
Kristi and I were going to water tube the whole 2552 miles but then I realized I forgot the sun screen and Kristi was being a party pooper so we had to scratch that off the list.

Here Kristi and Addy are walking across the river. It's kind of crazy to think that the Mississippi river starts off no bigger then a little stream, the river starts off being only 20-30 ft wide which is the narrowest stretch for it's entire length. After a little research the widest the river gets is in Lake Winnibigoshish (say that 10 times fast) near Bena, Minnesota where it is wider then 11 miles. The widest navigable part of the Mississippi is Lake Pepin, where it is approximately two miles wide. See I offer education, entertainment, and pretty pictures in my blog.

Another picture of Addy and Kristi crossing the river. I have to give Kristi credit because the rocks that you step on to cross over the river are very slippery. I know they don't look like it but believe me they are and she did it carrying Addy....BRAVO KP!!

I wish you all could of been there to see Karen navigate these rocks. I think I could classify it as SLOW & STEADY but even though she decided to take it slow and easy she some how managed to slip of a rock and get her pants wet. I'm not going to lie. I was rolling around LAUGHING!!! At first she wasn't going to do it but then we told her, "When will you ever get the chance to walk across the Mississippi river again?" so I think we might of actually pressured her into doing it so with that said I have to say we are very proud of her even though Easton and Owen celebrated their 5th birthday while we waited.