Day 1
Normally Scott does his annual New York Mills trip the last week of school, but this year it got pushed to the week after.
That meant the family could tag along. We returned to Spirit Lake Resort & Motel in Menahga.
Nice rooms, super affordable and now home to a sweet ice cream shop.
I read that there was a playground next door. I guess this was it.
Come on you got a beautiful private beach right next to the bigger city one.
They have way more fun by water anyway.
Day 2
The only bad thing at this motel is there's no breakfast or kitchen. The next morning while Scott was working the kids and I walked over to The Cotty for breakfast.
Jello. I was busy shooting another round of boats at the Lund factory in New York Mills.
Even though it was cooler and looked like rain, the kids still wanted to play in the lake.
This was the main reason I booked our hotel here. Too bad the weather was cruddy.
We didn't stay too long as it started storming.
After hanging out in our room for most of the day, there finally seemed to be a break in the clouds. We walked down the street to the Menahga Memorial Forest and Campground that had a frisbee golf course.
Apparently my 20 year old frisbee could no longer handle it.
Rain stopped us in the middle of the shoot, so I headed back to Menahga.
The motel converted the back of the office into an ice cream shop: Scoopology.
This place was so cute.
10/10. Just made a dang motel even better.
We waited for the rain to stop, but it just kept pouring.
The rain wasn't going to quit so we went to Park Rapids to check out the shops.
I loved this mural.
We stopped by Revel Brewing for a couple drinks. Meadow got The Hatchet at the bookstore and dug in right away.
Until Theo insisted they play games.
Our original plan was to go to the Pizza Hut Classic in town, but the pizza looked better here.
The beers were good and pizza solid. But we really need to go to one of the Pizza Hut Classics.
We had to stop at the popcorn shop before heading back.
Day 3
The next morning for breakfast we went to Chocker's Bakery. Meadow couldn't decide what to get so picked something quick. Then went back and got what she actually wanted.
Theo was mad because he wanted another donut too. I told him I would give him money and he could go up and do it. He wouldn't do it and then was mad at me the whole walk back to the motel.
He soon got chipper after we found the school playground.
I eventually finished my work at Lund, came back and processed my images and sent them off to my client. You may have thought this was the whole trip, but we were just getting started.
Our next stop was Badlands National Park, but when we pass a Zorbaz we have to (possibly ironically) go.
You know we had to.
We drove west into North Dakota for a few hours before heading south into SoDak.
We were almost to the campground just south of Pierre when rain rolled in. It looked like it was going to be pretty rough so we needed up a hotel in the capital city.
Day 4
I hate wasting money on places just to sleep. We got spoiled by our campervan trips and the ease of being able to camp anywhere.
The Country Inn and Suites we stayed at had some horrible reviews, but it was cheap and recently renovated. At breakfast there was no milk or cups. So apple juice in the Golden Malted batter measuring cup it was.
There also wasn't any forks.
I think more on online reviews should be like Meadow's note to the staff.
I mean really, it was totally fine.
It was better than setting up and taking down the tent in the rain.
Since we were in Pierre, South Dakota's state capital, we had to visit, well, the capital building.
It was beautiful.
Brooke was super negative about it. It's not a mansion, so she has no interest. The kids were not excited either, but everyone was happy to look up at the capital dome once we were inside.
I was just anxious to get to the Badlands.
We had the Badlands to get to, so we had to say goodbye to Pierre.
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