Friday, October 29, 2010

A Weekend With My Sissy

I finally took the time to download and edit my photos from a couple weekends ago when my sissy and I were in Nisswa, Minnesota in the heart of Minnesota's lake resort area. My sissy had a 1-day Minnesota Dept. of Health nursing seminar on immunizations. So while she was indoors making the most of her registration fee, I got to spend my day enjoying the beauty of the Grandview Lodge -- the host location for this conference.

Here's the little cabin we got to call home for 1 night (with my sissy's "new" car parked out front).

This was such a cute little cabin. We were sad the conference rate only applied to the 1 night's stay (it doubled after that) because this was the view from our living room. I can see this would be a very cool place to spend a long weekend during spring bird migration. You can see over to the right that there's a big deck out front too (coming off a large screened-in porch).

This is another view of the living room. It was a little chilly in here, but we couldn't start the fireplace because one of the glass doors was broken. It was a pretty room to sit in though.

Kitchen/dining area. We figured most people probably didn't spend much time making their own meals, but you sure could if you wanted to because there were dishes, silverware, etc. in the cupboards. I love the knotty pine interior, but wondered whether you might eventually get tired of seeing that golden color all the time?

There were 3 bedrooms in this cabin! My sissy took the big bedroom (which also had its own bathroom.

I took one of the little bedrooms. The other bedroom was about the same size as this one and they both shared the other bathroom.

After breakfast I took a walk around the resort to see if I could spot any birds or wildlife. It was a really nice day and the fall colors were still very much in evidence.

I headed up to the main lodge to check out some trails that were shown on the map. This is the back side of the lodge (facing Gull Lake). I enjoyed my breakfast seated at the table right next to that biggest center window. They had wireless internet access here too.

This is the view of the main lodge building from the back. It's quite a beautiful building and on the National Register of Historic Places. My sissy said it reminded her of the resort from the Dirty Dancing movie. I was impressed with the landscaping. It looked like they tried to incorporate a lot of native Minnesota plants and flowers.

I just turned around on the path from where I took the above picture and snapped this shot of the walkway out to Gull Lake. Wouldn't this be a really gorgeous place for a wedding?

They had an indoor pool and these lounge chairs were all outside the building where the indoor pool was. It was hard for me to imagine how busy this place must be in the middle of summer when lots of families are enjoying their vacation time here.

There was a nice sandy beach all the way along the resort property also. What a pretty view don't you think?

There were also some lakeview cabins down here. These were designed to accomodate 2 separate groups -- 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs.

And this is the view from the front of these cabins. Wow! Pretty even in the fall!

Unfortunately, I really didn't see much for birds or wildlife. I did see this one obliging gray squirrel who sat still long enough for me to capture a photo before scurrying higher up to the other side of the tree to escape the paparazzi.

I also spotted this Great Horned Owl guarding the dock from pesty seagulls.

And one tiny ducky was riding the waves next to one of the other docks in an apparent effort to seek refuge from any duck hunters who might be nearby.

We were fortunate that the weather for this weekend was beautiful and clear for both of the days that we were out and about. Here are some photos of the beautiful blue skies and cloud formations.

Thanks Sissy for inviting me to come along on this trip! I had a great weekend!


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow Ruthie! You sure saw a lot more of the place than I did! LOL
It's really pretty in the daylight. All I saw was the inside of the conference rooms :(
It WAS a fun weekend. We'll have to do that again soon :)

Mary said...

Perfect for a wedding, perfect for a weekend of peace and quiet, just perfect. Your views are so good, Ruthie. Your cabin reminds me of the one I shared with Nina in West Virginia last spring. I adored it. Birding on the back deck! I'm so relaxed after reading this post that I think I'll say g'nite!

KGMom said...

I checked out the Grandview Lodge website--great looking place.
I love the "wildlife" you spotted.
And the clouds--amazing.
Glad you had a sweet little get-away.

Anonymous said...

WOW what a pretty conference center, just beautiful. I love the trails and paths around to walk on. To bad no birds but a squirrel will do.
That cabin was very comfortable looking, a perfect place to sit and read (you can knit). Glad you two sissies had fun together, you don't get that opportunity very often.

MOM

Gaelyn said...

What an awesome place! Your "cabin" looks real livable, even if not affordable at the normal rate.

The sky in the second to last shot looks like a landscape from the sky. I see mountains and valleys.

Too bad there wasn't more wildlife, but hey, ya' can't have it all. ;)

Jayne said...

What a beautiful place Ruthie. Wonder why there weren't more birds? Loved the little duck you spotted. :c)

troutbirder said...

The Brainerd area and Gull Lake in particular are obviously popular for good reasons. Beautiful resort there and I can add Gull Lake fishing can be very good having fished it a few times. :)

RuthieJ said...

Hi Sissy,
Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures posted, but now you finally get to see what you missed! I was glad it turned out to be such a nice weekend.

Hi Mare,
I loved the cabin too. But it was just too nice of a day to spend indoors. If the birding was better there, this would be a great spot for a "Flock" get-together!

Thanks Donna. It was a fun place to visit and the food was excellent. I hope I get a chance to go back there again someday.

It was a really nice place Mom....very quiet and peaceful. And I can testify that the cabin was a good place to sit and knit too!

Hi Gaelyn,
Although there wasn't much wildlife to be found, Nisswa did have a yarn shop, so I spent some time (and $$) consoling myself there!

Hi Jayne,
I think the lack of birds was just due to the time of year -- that transitional time between summer and winter. I'm sure songbirds are plentiful in the summer and all the lakes would definitely provide great waterfowl sightings during breeding and nesting season. It would be fun to go back there next summer and see what we could find.

Hi Ray,
I actually saw some guys out on Gull fishing that morning. It was cold and a little choppy, but I guess fishermen don't mind that much. It was hard for me to imagine how busy it must by in the summertime because it was so quiet there this time of year.

Joyful said...

Simply beautiful there. I happened upon your blog this early morning from another blog. I've enjoyed the photos of your birds. It seems they are all so fat so they must eat very well there in Minnesota :-) Have a Merry Christmas.