destination unknown

We try, at least once a year, to do a "destination unknown". Bear and I will pack up the car and hit the road. We drive anywhere and do anything for one day. This year we added an extra day to our New Ulm family reunion trip. We left a day earlier than anticipated. Which meant, we drove on Friday of Memorial Day weekend with no idea of where we were going or what we would do...or where we would sleep. We did end up discussing options of what to do. But it mostly was him or I spelling the word or phrase of the idea that popped into our heads so we wouldn't alarm the children. Parker was not so sure he liked the answer of "I don't know" to his question "where are we going?". But we did our rest stop trips of course, went on trail walks and pine cone hunts. We packed a cooler of food and ate the whole day in the car. We decided on Eagan, MN as our destination, because they had a hotel room available for us and a pool. The kids thought the pool and hotel were the surprise so we went with it. Emmitt taught himself how to swim in the Hampton Inn pool. He had his little life jacket on and the hotel had little kick boards available, not to mention an over the average temperature of pool water, and little Emmitt would bounce up and down on a stair in the pool and push off and motor those little legs and propel himself around the pool. Only once did he let go of the board and start the crocodile death role. He scared himself enough that he didn't let go again.

The next morning brought the same question, "what do we do?". We checked into the local sites and hit the MN Zoo in Apple Valley. It was a whole 5 miles from the hotel. When Parker saw the zoo entrance sign he noticed the Z and asked if the new surprise was the Zoo!? Couldn't believe it.

The zoo was of course a blast. We made it for 4 and a half hours and the kids loved it. We had the most entertainment in the aquarium section. The boys were simply fascinated with the fish and the colors. We parked a spot up front and just watched the fish swim around. Parker would tell us stories about the fish. What they were saying to each other, what they were looking for to eat...all kinds of stories. It was just at the end when we were watching the Lemurs that Emmitt took a tumble, I grabbed an arm and he hit the floor with his forehead. I think I made it worse by grabbing him, he didn't have a chance to stick his arms out to catch himself. Thank God for the Twins hat we had along! Covered that puppy right up. We finished the zoo trip with a $3 snowcone each and ate it in the grass by the car. The boys napped most of the way to New Ulm and low and behold...another hotel and a pool! It was like Christmas morning for these two!

We made their pull out couch into a bed (which they never did sleep in) and lugged in the DVD players from the car...good night to my Wild Boys-they were watching Where the Wild Things Are...book on DVD format.