Brainerd Vacation 2014: Part 3

This is the final post of a 3-part series highlighting our week on South Long Lake at The Lazy Loon near Brainerd, Minnesota in late May/early June 2014. Click here for Part 1 and click here for Part 2.

Tuesday

We started out the morning with a big breakfast, ready to explore the little town of Nisswa on Tuesday.

We had heard so much about it, and about how fun it was, but honestly, it wasn't really all that much fun for us with two little guys in tow. They did have a pretty cool park, which was nice, but other than that, Nisswa was kind of a bust for us.

However, I think it WOULD be a total blast going there with some girlfriends (or even just with Mark) and having a relaxing morning sipping a cup of coffee at the little coffee shops and browsing through the antique shoppes and other little shops. We just weren't really feeling it with two little boys in tow in little shops full of breakables and narrow aisles.

We got a great recommendation from one of the Mamas there to check out a little coffee shop/cafe a little ways down the road, that was apparently very kid-friendly, but it was an additional 15 miles away, and we just weren't feeling it, so we made our way back towards Brainerd and stopped for Lunch at Ernie's on Gull Lake on our way back.

It was a GREAT success, and we enjoyed sitting outside enjoying the gorgeous day and watching all the action on the lake. It was nice that it was a Tuesday, so it wasn't super busy there. The food was great, the service was great, and the boys weren't having meltdowns, so we were pleased :)

Afterwards, Cashel and I went to check out the docks, and then we headed back to the car, where the boys promptly passed out for a long afternoon nap. While they were napping, Mark decided to take the jet ski out fishing, and he caught an awesome northern!

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To be honest, this is about the last "good" part of our vacation. After Cashel woke up, he went outside to play, and when he came in for supper, I noticed a huge bug bite on the back of his leg, and we spent most of the rest of the trip worried about him.

He was acting completely normal, and it wasn't growing in size or anything, but I stupidly posted about it on Facebook and everyone was urging me to rush him to the ER (which we didn't). We had no idea what the bite really was (we didn't find any remnants of a tick, and it didn't have the bullseye; We thought it might have been a spider, but there aren't normally any poisonous ones in our part of the country), so we were a little paranoid about letting the boys back outside for fear they might get bit by something worse.

Our neighbors were so sweet and tried to ease our fears, having seen bites like that before and saying nothing would come of it (and they were right, thankfully!)

That night, Cashel didn't sleep too well (which we found out right after we got home was because he STILL had that nasty double ear infection - poor guy!), so the next couple days were a bit of a downer. I almost took him in to a clinic the next morning to check on his bite, but then realized that he had zero symptoms, he was acting completely normal, and the bite had gone way down in size and swelling overnight. So, of course, we were a little paranoid the rest of the trip.

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Wednesday

Wednesday felt like a total waste of a day, to be honest. With Cashel having been up in the night, we were exhausted, and with him having the bug bite, we were too paranoid to go outside anymore, for fear that even though we didn't think Cashel got bit by a tick, one of us could still. We mostly just hung out inside until the boys were going insane being cooped up inside. We realized how ridiculous we were being, and that they could just as easily get hurt inside. I didn't take many pictures this day, and I don't really recall what we did beyond trying to get the place back in order, get some laundry done, and get a few things packed up to leave the next day.

I do know that we decided to put the jet ski away, so we loaded it up, and got some McDonald's at Cashel's request.

Our sweet neighbors took us out on a nice ride on their pontoon that evening, and we finally got to see where all the Loons were hiding out on the other side of the lake. The ride ended badly, however, when Cashel started frantically trying to jump out of the boat. (Once again, poor kid with a DOUBLE ear infection we knew nothing of about. Add in the wind, and that must have hurt like a banshee!) He did fine for the first 3/4 of the ride because we were going with the wind, not into it. Thankfully, we made it back without incident.

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Thursday

We had reached the end of our trip, and while we were sad to say goodbye to the Lazy Loon, we were also anxious to get Cashel home and to the doctor to check out both his ears and bug bite. We spent most of the morning loading our things up and getting things back in order.

The morning came early again, with Cashel up around 3am again, this time complaining about his ears. We had been so confused, as he had JUST finished an antibiotic for a double ear infection a week before the trip, but apparently it hadn't done its job properly. We snuggled a LOT this morning, and Mama had a boatload of coffee.

While Mark was getting the tube put away and the deck cleaned up a bit, he and Cashel discovered a frog, and Cashel was enamored!

We took off around noon just in time for naps, and then made a beeline home to capture the most of naptime.

We stopped in Saint Cloud for Chinese on the way home, and we made it home just in time for Cashel's doctor's appointment.

We will always think so fondly of this trip. We had so many wonderful memories together as a family, and I hope all our future family vacations are as fun and memorable as this one. :)