GOOD TIMES!
Last weekend, I celebrated my birthday with family at Lake Okoboji and Arnolds Park. My son and his family were camping there and since I don’t do camping anymore, I met them there on Saturday morning. I spent some time at the Park with my 3 grandchildren ages 11 ½, 11 ½, and 14 ¾
The boys and me at the Park.
In the evening, they treated me to a play at the Okoboji Summer Playhouse. The play was “State Fair.” I enjoyed that very much. Good times.
Before the play. Me with my granddaughter and daughter-in-law.
After taking the girls back to their camp ground at Marble Beach in Spirit Lake, I headed to my niece’s home to spend the night. However, my Google Map wasn’t talking to me and since it was 10:30 at night, I couldn’t see the street signs in the country. Also, it was very hot and I had the AC on at Max, so my windows were steaming up. Add to that the fact that a super thick haze of smoke from the Canadian forest fires was present. I finally gave up and called them and my nephew came and led me to their place.
The next day I headed down to my brother’s home on the home place and enjoyed some time with him and his wife and a delicious steak dinner. Yum! Good times.
While in the Okoboji area, my memory was nudged and I recalled many enjoyable times spent at Arnolds Park as a child. Yes, I remember the Roof Garden before it was destroyed by fire. But most of all, I remember what was underneath it – the Fun House. At least once during the summer, my brother, my 5 cousins, and I would spend a day at the Park. Our 2 families would meet in the parking lot next to the Park and have a picnic in the shade of one of the trees. We would open the trunks of our 2 cars and enjoy our picnic. We were tailgating before they had a name for it.
After the picnic we had to wait 2 hours before we could go swimming as that was still The Law back then! So we went to the Fun House under the Roof Garden.
I really have fond memories of the fun times there. I spent most of my time on the giant wooden slide. It was so much fun to zoom down that slide on the gunny sack mats they provided. And when not on the slide, I was rolling around in the barrel. I wonder now what our parents did while we were in there. J Good times.
Our 2 families also spent a lot of time fishing in the Iowa Great Lakes area. One of my favorite places was Lake Minnewashta. This lake is the second is a string of three small lakes located on the south edge of East Okoboji in the city of Arnolds Park.
The bullheads would be biting so good that you only had to cast into the water
and you had an immediate bite. Great fishing for kids. After a long day of fishing and catching anywhere from 50 to 75 bullheads, we headed home just in time for us kids to drop into bed. Thinking back now, I sure had it good being a kid. After my brother and I went to bed, Mom & Dad had to clean all those bullheads! Being a kid sure had its perks! Good times.
