The campsites are great and really well laid out, as you can see everyone gets their own private little clearing and the actual pitch for the tent is on a raised sandy pitch so its really flat and level.
It also has a fire pit/BBQ that is perfect for roasting marshmallows on sticks and for small children to fall into. Fortunately we only did the former although preventing the latter was something of a full time accupation in the evenings.
The mornings were really cold, partly because the tree covering was so dense and we hadn't really come prepared for it given that it had been between 26-35C for the last couple of months. The picture below has been doctored as Nady would never actually wear socks and sandals.
The view of the stars in the evenings was spectacular, away from all of the light pollution it made us appreciate the beauty of the night sky in a way that I certainly haven't for many, many years.
The park had a tall observation tower which we climbed to see above the trees, this was somewhat scary and not necessarily helped by all of the encouraging Bible verses graffiti 'd into the steps. Here is the family on their way up.
The view of Mille Lacs lake from the top. Mille Lacs is the second largest lake in Minnesota and while nowhere near the size of any of the great lakes it still looks a bit like the sea from the shoreline.
Of course the way down was worse than the way up, unless you're two years old of course.
The park also had a tiny pond for swimming in.
Or for playing chess with stones as demonstrated by Dan and Andy.
We also went swimming in Mille Lacs which was pretty chilly.
As we were close to Brainerd we had to go to Paul Bunyanland. Paul Bunyan is the mythical lumberjack who did all sorts of legendary feats accompanied by Babe his blue ox.
Paul Bunyanland is not really a grade A funfair. For those familar with Father Ted it was a half way between a school fete and the craggy island funfair. However the kids had a great time apart from the Ghost Mine which Dan declared as 'that was the worst ride ever', which may well have been true as you simply got ina life that wobbled about a bit with a couple of drums rotating outside of two 'windows' to give the impression of downwards movement and a second set of doors which opened to a couple of bright blue skeletons digging. Really sad.
The best bit was the Paul Bunyan figure himself, when you go into the park you write down the names of your children then Paul (or at least a man who peeps through a spyhole pretending to be Paul) strikes up a conversation with them - it was actually really witty and we enjoyed it more than the kids did.
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