lydamorehouse | 'Tis the Season (Reply)

Image: A red backpack with Minnesota State Park badges and pins on it.

Normally, on Fridays I have a Zoom with some of my writer friends. But, with Mason home for the summer, we're really trying to get as much practice driving in as humanly possible... while also making it fun. As I've said before, my clever plan is to combine the driving with one of our favorite things: State Parks. Today, we're planning on making a longer return trip to yesterday's driving foray, Afton State Park. Afton is one of the closest State Parks to my house (Fort Snelling State Park being the closest, being only just by the airport.) The driving isn't terribly exciting at Afton, although with winding hills, Mason got in a lot of practice regulating his speed through turns and inclinations. We also *ahem* got in some very tiny practice getting one's wheel up out of the ditch when we semi-failed a y-turn on a narrow backroad. All important stuff, mind you!

Today, we're hoping to make more of a day out of it, stopping to do a little hiking and check out the park more thoroughly.

I also wrote down a list of some of the other nearby (nearby meaning within 2 hours of us) parks:

Banning State Park, a place we've hiked at least one, but long ago,
Charles A Lindberg State Park, a place I have never been,
Crow Wing Sate Park, another new one, and just at the very edge of 2 hours to get there,
Father Hennepin State Park, a big giant question mark of a park,
Frontenac State Park, which Shawn and I checked out during fall colors... last year? Year Before? But which might make for good driving practice now,
Interstate State Park, which, I have, and there isn't--at least on the Minnesota side--much actual driving to be done there
Lake Maria State Park, which I have never been to,
Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, another one that is just under 2 hours, but which I've never explored,
Nerstand Big Woods State Park, another complete unknown,
Saint Croix State Park, which we've walked, but never driven,
Wild River State Park, which we recently drove, but could return to to hike, and
William O'Brien State Park, which I also have never fully explored.

So, this could easily keep us busy if we try to hit a new State Park every Friday. I think it would be especially fun to see just how many of these would CAN see, but, looking at the maps some of them would really not net us a whole lot of actual driving experience. We'll see what Mason thinks. My other thought is that, as he advances in his ability, we could always head to one of these more remote ones and try driving on county highways. We'll see. He might also get bored of this exercise way faster than I will. Plus, in the next week or so, he's going to have a friend (Mason's very best friend, actually,) in town, with whom he will then go visit in their hometown. So, maybe I will end up exploring some of these places entirely on my own.

Any of you local folks who spend a lot of time in State Parks who have advice or recommendations about good places either for me or for me and Mason, please drop in a comment!

In addition to continuing to try to fill-in my passport book, I've also started collecting either buttons or patches from the State Parks we visit to add to my hiking backpack. This is the one pictured above. It was Mason's old kindergarten backpack, so it is actually very child-sized small, but it fits a couple of emergency medical kits, sun screen, bug spray, a flashlight, umbrella, State Park guidebook, Kleenex (and a plastic baggies), a bear whistle, and other such sundries. (You might be laughing at the bear whistle, but I wore it religiously up at Bearskin Lodge, so it stays in the pack.)

This weekend Shawn and I are hoping to go to Deutsche Tage at the Germanic American Institute this weekend, here in Saint Paul, because: why NOT? It also looks as though rummage and estate sale season is in full-swing, so perhaps we will also check out some of those. We also have to do some boring mundane things like buy new shoes, but, honestly, I kind of enjoy that kind of shopping with Shawn.

Anything fun planned for your weekend??