Voyage up north

Last weekend I make a trek "up north" to visit my friends Phil and Rachel in Underwood, Minnesota, in lake country. Check out my GPS screen as I entered their area...seems like more lakes than land! Otter Tail County contains over 1,000 of Minnesota's famous "10,000 lakes."





Rachel met me in the nearby town of Battle Lake. Each town in the area has a statue to commemorate its history or character. This one is in honor of a man who led the successful effort to hold off an attacking tribe while his own tribe fled to safety.





On the way back to their house, we met Phil at Zion Lutheran Church of Amor, where he's doing his internship. I got to meet his supervising pastor and check out the lovely, updated building. (And they're putting together another building project!)





Friday night we just grilled some brats for supper and relaxed while we waited for our friends, Ben and Stephanie, to arrive from St. Paul. (Incidentally, the tomato-basil brats were amazing. They were from Amor Pork. We stopped there the next day and had a great conversation with Bob.)

It's not hard to relax when this is your back yard view. Or when you have a host like Rachel, who bought the wine and chips I like because she knows me so well and she's thoughtful like that!





The next morning we went out for breakfast at Betty's Pantry in Ottertail, where they were aggressively celebrating autumn. Here's a tiny corner of the bathroom. The entire restaurant looked like this. It was glorious. Fantastic food, too.





On our way back, we had to stop at the Ottertail statue. I told you all the towns around had their own statues.





Finally, we went for a walk in the neighbors' woods before I had to head back to prep for my busy Sunday. As Rachel wrote, we really enjoyed the crisp air and sound of leaves crunching under our feet. She took this picture, because she is the master of makeshift tripod photography!





All in all, a wonderful weekend with wonderful friends! It was great to seize the opportunity while the weather was still so beautiful, but hopefully the snow (and busy schedules) won't keep us apart all winter!