Long Lake

We have had a great time at the lake. It is always a sad day when we have to leave. But, more adventures lie ahead.

We have been coming to the lake for almost as long as I can remember. It is a bit hard to explain, but it really is one of my favorite places in the world. For starters, it is quiet. There are a mix of pine and birch trees that provide a nice rustle as the breeze blows. Then, you add the sound of the many birds chirping and calling; warblers, loons, and many more. In the middle is Long Lake. There are probably hundreds of lakes named Long Lake. This one is about three miles by one mile. The water is extremely clear with over 15 feet of visibility. It is a bit cool most of the summer - but that feels pretty good when you jump in on a hot day.

When it is just our family here, things are pretty quiet. We swim, fish, canoe, and hike. But, we are usually joined by one or more other families for at least part of our stay. That adds time with cousins, tubing, and water skiing. Lots of fun.

This year on the lake has been interesting. There have been many animals I don't normally see. Most summers there are loons, a beaver, and a bald eagle. Joining them this year have been geese, ducks, an otter, and a pair of birds that looked kind of like pelicans or herons.

Thanks for reading. We will keep you posted.

Andres' thoughts on camp and the lake

Skogfjorden is fun! We get to go swimming in a lake. We also play kanonball (or dodgeball). There is a candy shop where we can buy candy we don't normally get in America like Melkesjokolade (Milk Chocolate), uncommon Haribo candies (like: Sour S'getti, Frogs, Fizzy Cola, and Happy Cola) and Zots ( a hard candy that is sour in the middle). Zots comes in 6 different flavors; watermelon, grape, apple, orange, lemon, and cherry.

At Long Lake, my cousins and I went X-treme tubing. We went over big bumps, went fast and got "whipped". We also went water skiing! It took us a few tries to get up but, eventually, we could ski for a long way. I went fishing and caught three Bass.

Andres

Elena's thoughts on the lake

At the lake, I went fishing. I think the rarest one I caught was a Pumpinkseed, but I also caught a Bluegill and two Bass.

I went tubing with my cousins. They love extreme tubing and it is alot of fun to hit bumps and go fast. (My imaginary friends even went with us. They are such good dogs.)

In addition to fishing and tubing, we had time to watch a movie. We love the movie Matilda and have watched it five times.

Elena.

Bog Trail

Judy and Erling were at Bemidji State Park today. We hiked the Bog Trail. It is a pretty unique look at a bog. A bog is an environment where peat builds up making a watery area fairly acidic. This prevents things from biodegrading - meaning fossils can be well preserved for a long time. It also limits what type of plants can grow. We saw many plants we had not seen before. One of the unique plants was a Lady Slipper. I attached a photo of one to this post. We also saw a tamarack tree which has incredibly soft needles.

As part of our hike, we also learned the origin of the term 'get bogged down' since a peat bog is a bit hard to hike through. Fortunately, the state park has a nice wooden dock through the trail so we didn't get stuck.

More pictures of our bog walk can be found on a Picassa gallery. Click on the image to access the gallery.

bemidji_state_park

Skogfjorden

Andres and Elena are at camp this week. They are attending a one week session at Skogfjorden, the Norwegian language village run by Concordia College. For almost 50 years, these camps have offered an immersion into the language and culture of many countries including Norway, Germany, Spain, France, and many others. They get a passport, use local currency, and eat the food from the country they are staying in. Two of their cousins, Anna and Greta, are also at camp with them.

While they are at camp, Judy and Erling are at the lake with Erling's mom Lorraine. More to come on the lake in an upcoming post.

Heading Out West

Welcome to our blog. This is our first post on Amundson Travels. We are heading Out West, going on an adventure to see some of America's great places. On our travels, we hope to see everything from the Grand Canyon to Glacier National Park and many places in between.

It all started with an idea. Judy really wanted to see the Grand Canyon. I really wanted to go to Glacier, a place I last visited when I was about five. Every year, we take a trip to Minnesota to visit family and spend time at the lake. Well, the drive to the lake gets us over halfway to Glacier. So, we started thinking about how to visit the places we dreamed of seeing.

We have done some tent camping. It is a lot of fun. But, we really weren't sure if we wanted that much time in a tent. We have also done many hotel stays. But, staying in a hotel didn't seem to capture the outdoor spirit we were seeking. We really wanted to be able to wake up in the park, to be in nature. So, we decided to try a travel trailer. We are heading out for a great American adventure. We invite you to follow along. Feel free to leave us a comment - we would love to hear from you.

The Amundsons