Paul and Babe have been guarding this section of town since 1937. According to Eastman Kodak, this is the second-most photographed place in the United States. Since Kodak is most known for film photography, we're thinking that information might be a little dated, as is Paul's mustache.
It's just a short walk to a dock overlooking Lake Bemidji. Even with Denisa's bad ankle she can limp to the end of the dock for a picture of the gray skies overlooking the lake.
Even though it looked like it could rain any moment, we decided to start out on a bicycle ride around the lake. The longer we rode, the better the weather got. Even if Denisa can't walk very well, we've found that bad ankle can still pedal a bike.
Besides Paul and Babe, we found that Bemidji's other claim to fame is that it is "the first city on the Mississippi River." They have a fancy bridge in town that heralds the entrance of the Mississippi River, as it flows into Lake Bemidji.
As we pedaled almost half-way around the lake, we crossed a less decorative bridge where the Mississippi River exits the lake and continues on its way.
It's an 8-mile ride around the lake to get to the opposite side where the state park begins. As we got into the park, the trees got taller.
Our bicycle destination is back to the park amphitheater for another free concert. This afternoon's entertainment is provided by a group dubbed as "Not Your Average Family Band." After enjoying their music for over an hour, we would say they were way above average!
The seven-year-old lead singer kept changing costumes as she sang classics like "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road," and "Icky-Yucky-Sushi" and "The Fox Song." The lyrics made all of us in the audience chuckle. On the far left, the ten-year-old mandolin and fiddle player was the best we have heard! It was another great concert at the state park!
While we were listening to music, we were also resting our legs. After the concert, we were ready to mount our bikes and make the eight-mile trip back around the lake to the car. We are finding that Minnesota has some great bike trails, and this one was exceptional. Paved and flat, it also connects with the longer Paul Bunyon Trail that heads south out of town.
On another day, we drove the car north to find this snow ski area a few miles from us. We found the lodge and three chair lifts, but we never found the mountain. Minnesota has plenty of snow for skiing, but they have to settle for hill skiing around here.
We drove to the town of Red Lake, in the middle of the Chippewa Indian reservation. The public buildings in town were eye-catching, with their spread-eagle roof-lines. We didn't take any pictures, but the town was also decorated with hand-made anti-drug signs.
Mark is an amazing wildlife spotter. While driving down a little country road, he spotted this pair of trumpeter swans. We made a u-turn to take a picture, since we hadn't seen any of these big birds yet. It wasn't until we enlarged the picture that we realized we were seeing a family of three trumpeters.
While we are surrounded by lakes, we are also in the middle of the forest. Driving the roads around us we see staging areas where the freshly-cut logs are stacked.
We are obviously living in the middle of logging country, as we are also meeting truck-fulls of logs heading to the saw mills down the road.
We have really enjoyed our time around Bemidji, Minnesota. Besides Paul and Babe, we found plenty to keep us busy here. We also discovered that our days are much longer here in Minnesota. Compared to Oklahoma, we have 1.5 hours more daylight every day. The sun rises an hour earlier, and sets half an hour later. We took a picture of that later sunset over Fox Lake on our last day. This is a beautiful place to live, but it's time to wander on down the road to find more wonders!
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