Plan C: Clothes, Caribou Coffee, Cinnabon, Cub Foods, and Culver’s

After a good night’s rest, we awake on Saturday morning, ready for a little shopping.

Since they missed out on Hazelwood Food and Drink the night before, the girls walk over for breakfast, while Tom and I finish packing up. Then we head over to REI, finding a few things we need to gear up for biking.

Our annual pilgrimage to the lake wouldn’t be complete without a few hours of shopping at the Mall of America to pick up some tax-free clothing for our summer wardrobes. We also get two pounds of Caribou Coffee, our wake-up juice for the next couple of weeks, and a pack of Cinnabon rolls for Sunday morning’s breakfast. All of this has become routine, but these are the traditions we’d miss if we had to skip them.

At around 3:30, we are back on the road, northward. Destination: Cass Lake.

But first, a stop for our big grocery run at Cub Foods in Baxter. With the “Our Groceries” app on our phones, we divide and conquer–Tom and Leah heading toward the canned goods and dry goods. Chloe and I hitting up the produce, meat, and dairy. We meet up at the frozen foods and compare notes, before heading to the check out lanes. Forty-five minutes and $234 later (thank you, inflation!), we are out the door.

After a quick supper stop at Culver’s we are ready for the last 85 miles of our 700-mile trek. Along the way, the girls, who are trailing us, are thrilled to spot an adolescent black bear along the road! We pull into Cass Lake and Birch Villa Resort around 9:15 p.m. The sun has just set but there is still plenty of light for unpacking the car.

We greet my sister Phyllis, who has arrived earlier in the evening, and we start to settle in. After a long day of driving and another day of shopping and driving some more, we are grateful to snuggle into bed in our cozy little cabin at the lake.

Sweet dreams!