we took advantage of a long weekend from school to take a quick family trip to see the colors of fall in the midwest.
our 6am flight this morning meant we had to get up super early. i was already pretty stressed out for a couple of reasons, before my 3:20am alarm even went off:
1) late to bed friday after working concessions at the football game, then waking at 5:55am saturday to check into our flight for boarding passes, then getting big sister up at 7am and out the door by 8am, then getting little sister and up & out by 8:30am….
2) worrying since wednesday about the freak early blizzard that had rolled in just barely west of the areas we were travelling to, which meant the forecast for the trip was now 20+ degrees below what we were expecting with more chances of random rain/sleet/snow to dampen our driving and outdoor activities
3) spending much of the day saturday doing laundry & packing everyone’s suitcases
4) late to bed again saturday due to waiting for big sister to get home from her competition – you know a mama bear cannot sleep until all her cubs are home safely!
so when we finally got on the road to the airport at 3:50am – about 20 minutes into the drive, big sister announced that she had forgotten her headphones. and so did little sister. and so did daddy! thus…..we u-turned and raced home to get them…..then we raced back towards the airport. somehow….despite that minor hiccup, plus a smidge delay at the remote parking lot waiting for the shuttle, plus a long checked-bag line that thankfully moved quickly, plus me being detained at the security checkpoint so they could search my backpack……we made it to our gate with only 5 minutes to spare before we started boarding at 5:30am. i was impressed, but never want to do that again!! but then, i always say that about 6am flights – “never again!!” lol.
the first leg of our flight landed us in kansas city at 7:25am (which by the way was a horribly small, oddly-laid-out, crowded airport…), then we were off at 9:45am for an 11:05am arrival in minneapolis. (now that was a great, clean, spacious airport.)
with our bags and rental car retrieved, we were on our way to find lunch. we had upgraded our full-size car to a full-size suv in anticipation of some icy or snowy roads, and the tahoe we were given had low mileage, seat warmers, & free navigation. score! plus the new york plates gave us a free pass to drive like tourists… ;-) we settled for a mcdonald’s along the highway & watched a small rain shower pass through while we ate. then we continued to drive northwest and started seeing some beautiful fall color.
we looked around the store and restaurant first, then paid the $5 each admission to go apple picking. we picked up an apple bag, but there were lots of other activities that the girls wanted to try first.
first up was the corn maze. the girls have never seen anything like this! it was huge and easy to get lost in it. it was shelter from the wind, though, so relatively warmer in between the rows.
then we saw this big tented area surrounded by hay bales. upon closer inspection, we realized that it was a corn pit!! like a ball pit, but full of dried corn kernels. (another first for us all!) the girls took off their shoes as instructed and jumped in. they made corn angels, and tried to bury each other. i think they could have played here a very long time. there was a brief rain shower above us as they played under the tent, but we were protected.
we enticed the girls out of the corn pit by talking up the apple canon. it was hard to miss because it was the loud popping sound at one end of the cornfield. after shaking off the corn and dust, and picking off hay, the girls put on their shoes and took aim at targets with their apple ammunition. only little sister and daddy were brave enough to try.
next to the apple canon was the zip line. the girls were right at the top of the weight limit, but the workers still let them try. clearly, the middle zip line was lower that the one on the left, so whoever was in that position bottomed out quite a bit.... ;-)
around 2:00pm we started down the rows of apple trees, looking for the biggest and best we could find. many apples had fallen on the ground or had insect holes or soft spots. big sister is our main apple-eater, so she got to do the honors. we picked out only 6 apples, which at $3.99/lb ended up costing $10.
it started sleeting just a bit, so we tried to hide among the trees for a little protection. i would say that we definitely got to experience many activities and weather conditions that we would not get in our native texas. little sister tried out the bounce pillow right before we left. it looked slippery from the random rain/sleet that was falling.
we stopped into the store on our way out and picked up a few apple donuts for the road. i'm pretty sure the donuts were devoured before we even got to the main highway. so tasty!
by 2:30pm, we were on the road again headed towards north dakota. daddy was happy to be listening to the cowboys-jets game, rooting for the jets in our rental from new york. (he roots for whoever is playing against the cowboys…)
by 5:30pm, we were passing into north dakota, still with temps at 39/feels like 34. we stopped at the fargo-moorhead visitor center, but it was closed already, so we had to settle for some outdoor pictures and some of the attractions.
we headed back into minnesota and ate dinner at buffalo wild wings. then we had about an hour still to drive to our hotel in detroit lakes. we got to watch a full moon rise over the highway as i drove east.
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