Saying "good-bye," saying "hello"

Saying "good-bye," saying "hello" Cass Lake, MN

Cass Lake, MN

It's Saturday, and at Birch Villa, that means saying "good-bye" and saying "hello." The girls woke up early to say "good-bye" to their friends Tomm & Andrea and their family. It's always a little sad to see people go who have become such good friends in such a short time, and who you won't see for another year.

By mid-morning, Tom & I, Seth & Maddie took off for fishing at Strawberry Bar. Although it was a bit windy, we were able to bring home a nice catch of 15 perch, including about four 10-11 inch ones. While we were fishing, we received the worrisome news that Tom's mom had likely suffered a mild stroke, which weighed heavy on our minds the rest of the day.

After fishing we were able to say "hello" to my parents who arrived at Sah-kah-tay (the resort next door). We traded fish stories and tales of our first week of vacation, as they had spent the previous week at Rush Lake with Bill & Beth and their kids, as well as with Uncle Jim & Aunt Eileen.

We lazed around in the afternoon and just before we left for dinner said "hello" to cousin Deb and her family, who, after spending the day at Itasca, had arrived at Birch Villa. Off we went to dinner with all our kids plus Mom & Dad at Ruttger's Birchmont Lodge. This has become another family tradition, as we love sitting out on the deck, overlooking Lake Bemidji. After dinner, everyone went back to the resort except for Tom and I, who had planned a bike ride around the Lake. We changed into our biking clothes and left around 7:30 on our 16.5 mile trek. The ride was beautiful, although threatening storm clouds and a little rain made us a bit nervous. Tom also had trouble with an almost flat tire near the end, but thankfully, was able to complete the ride. When I got back to Ruttger's I rode around in circles for a few minutes so that I could push my ride up to 18 miles, and my weekly total to 50. It feels great to be getting back into biking!