Northern Minnesota Getaway

A few months ago, Andi bought a Groupon for Chase On the Lake resort in Walker, Minnesota which included one night's stay, a $50 meal coupon and a day of snowmobiling. At such a great discount, we thought a road trip up North would be the perfect little getaway for us to relax and reconnect sometime this winter. Except, as the winter calendar ticked away and the more pregnant I became, we realized snowmobiling was less of an option for us. My thoughtful husband called the resort last week and traded in our snowmobiling adventure for a day at the spa and an upgraded night in the resort's two bedroom condo overlooking Leech Lake.

On Sunday morning, we loaded up the truck and left our Crosslake cabin for the very last time. As bittersweet as it was to leave, our destination to spa appointments helped ease our sadness and we reminded ourselves of the fun summer ahead at our new cabin in Wisconsin (more about this in another post).

We brought Chloe with us on our weekend getaway, but pets weren't allowed in the condo section of the resort where we were booked. Chase on the Lake does offer select hotel rooms for guests with pets (with a non-refundable deposit) so Andi and I went back and forth about sneaking her into the condo or calling the resort for the hundredth time to downgrade to a pet-friendly room. After many discussions this weekend (apparently, this was a pretty big decision for us), we opted for the pet-friendly room to play on the safe side. I knew Chloe would bark if we left her alone and I didn't feel up to the confrontation with the hotel staff if she got busted. I don't think Andi was all that pleased with me for siding with that option, but eventually he agreed and we checked into a smaller, pet-friendly hotel room which was still very nice.

After leaving Chloe and our bags in the room, we navigated to the Copper Door Spa inside the resort for massage appointments. I was a little nervous about getting another massage during my pregnancy. At 12 weeks, I had a treatment at another spa in the Twin Cities and experienced some spotting and cramping for a few days after. I'm not sure if the massage was directly responsible, or if it was just a mere coincidence, but it was scary! This time, Andi specifically requested a pregnancy massage for me and I hoped for the best. And thankfully, everything turned out fine. It wasn't the best massage I'd ever experienced, mostly because I was under the impression they had one of those cool tables with a hole cut out in the middle and that wasn't the case. The therapist had me lay on my side instead. It was still a nice treat to be pampered.

After our spa appointments, we were starving and set out on a quest to find some lunch. While the resort itself was really nice, there weren't very many restaurants open in the tiny town because it's basically the one month of the winter where there's no ice fishing or snowmobiling. We noticed many of the restaurants had "winter hours" which didn't include Sundays or were completely closed for the month of March. So, we walked across the street to Benson's Eating and Drinking Emporium (isn't that a fun name for a bar/restaurant?) and shared a burger and nachos.

The rest of our day was spent lounging around the hotel room, taking naps and reading baby books. We brainstormed baby names and Andi asked me if there were any baby topics I wanted to discuss, which I thought was very sweet. We used our $50 meal credit at the 502 Restaurant inside the resort for dinner. Andi ordered Scallops and I had a Cobb Salad. We sat at the bar because well, romance in nearly dead when you're married and sometimes we prefer sitting at the bar instead of a stuffy table. I enjoyed my meal but as our bartender/waitress commented, she knew Andi's scallops were "questionable" when she served them to him. It wasn't his favorite meal. (Our bartender was a friendly but interesting woman. Who says that to their customer, by the way)?!

Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Walker and would definitely come back to visit someday. Mostly, I really loved spending three technology-free days with my husband.

Now back to the crazy ...