Paul Bunyan is huge up in the Brainerd Lakes Area. We were super excited to travel up there on the weekend, and see what this guy is all about! Sadly, they moved the super giant statue to Bemidji, but there are still plenty of his things around the area! This is the only statue we could find where dogs could actually pose for a photo. To the top of his hand, Paul is almost twelve feet tall, and he weighs about nine hundred pounds.
Next, we found his sidekick, Babe The Blue Ox. Man, she is one huge Babe! Mom set us next to her and we had to take a good look before we could pose for a photo!
Olivia and I determined that she was harmless, and it would be safe to pose for a photo. She sure is a strange and gigantic creature!
Now for something silly. I stumbled across this ox dressed as Elvis! Have you ever heard of Elvis the Ox? I guess that only happens in Brainerd!
Driving along, we spotted this giant fish. Since Brainerd is not just about Paul Bunyan, but also about lakes and fishing, Olivia wanted to take a photo with the fish. It is pretty funny I think.
Mom used to come up to Brainerd all the time as a kid because her grandparents had a house on Love Lake. Since they moved in the late seventies, Mom has only been to the area once. She thought it would be fun to show us their house. For reference, Mom found this photo she took of the house in the mid-seventies. Yes, it’s true. She has been documenting her life with photos since she was a little girl.
Here is the photo we took of it this weekend. Mom says the house seems to be the same basic house, just the big double garage has been added to the front, and it has been painted. It would be fun to be able to go out back and see the lake and check out how the house looks now inside, but Mom is too shy to go up and ask. Still it was fun to see where she used to go as a kid.
Lastly, Olivia had her first NACSW Nose Work Trial at the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds. Her morning searches were fabulous, then she and Mom messed up containers. We don’t know what exactly went wrong, but there went the title out the window. Olivia passed her vehicle search, but you have to pass all four searches to title, so they will have to try again. Even though they didn’t get their title, they had a lot of fun, and it was a great weekend road trip for the three of us.