Day 4 we got up early and headed toward Fargo, ND. Our destination was Bonanzaville. Now, our students are not used to getting up early so we had some very cranky 8th graders on our hands for most of the morning. Before we left Wahpeton we took a picture with the Circle of Nations sign and the newspaper from Bethel. The newspaper doesn't really show but our students crankiness does :D
Anywho....we got to Bonanzaville and they were just opening. We were given a mini introduction and a hand out/scavenger hunt. Judy, a family friend, told me that she used to bring her students to Bonanzaville and that they enjoyed the scavenger hunt, so Sheila and I decided to let our students give it a try. It was a lot of fun!! They had to basically go into most of the houses on the property and answer a question on the scavenger hunt, plus a interesting fact that they learned. Our students were not excited about reading anything but the scavenger hunt helped to motivate them to actually learn something about ND in the early 1900's. Sheila and I had a little pack that followed us around and the rest scattered like the wind.
The favorite of the boys was the collection of old boat motors, they loved looking at them and wanted to take them back home for their kayaks. We looked at planes too, another favorite of theirs. They had buildings with tractors, phones through the ages, an old drug store, etc. etc. If anyone is interested, just visit http://www.bonanzaville.com/ It was a lot of fun to visit and the students learned a lot.
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| Visualizing riding on the Kuskokwim |
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| OOHH...guns :D |
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| Mimicking the officers |
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| Group Shot! |
We stopped at Speedway Restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was nice and all the students who completed their scavenger hunt got a pop, so ALL of them completed it. While we were waiting, one of our students found a sign that said "Thirsty? Just whistle" I've connected a video of it, it was hilarious because we got the waitress to bring his drink to him...after he whistled.
Our next stop was my mom's house in Sauk Rapids, basically St. Cloud, MN. It's around a 3 hour drive from Fargo to St. Cloud so a lot of our students fell asleep while driving there. Though the first hour of the trip I listened to A LOT of music that I wasn't really fond of. Sheila and I both bought a cord to be able to connect our iPods with the van. So, I got to listen to our students music and I have to say I'm really behind on the music scene because listening to their music was painful! We also played I Spy with the walkie Talkies between the vans...that is entertaining. Luckily, after about an hour, they all fell asleep so I could listen to my music and chill out for a bit.
When we got to mom's house, all the students immediately went into the water. My mom's house is on the Mississippi River and we have a dock in the backyard, with a boat and jet skis. We were literally there for 2 minutes and everyone was in the water. I quickly got my swimsuit on and my sister Caitlin and I took students out on the jet skis. It was so much fun and they loved the jet skis! Caitlin and I like to do tricks on the jet skis and luckily the students didn't mind. Well...Sheila called me a few interesting names when I took her out but it was worth it, and I knocked Oscar off (our male chaperon) but he didn't mind. This was the first time for all the students to be on a jet ski. Most of our students cannot swim or they can swim but not well. The only opportunity for swimming is at fish camp in the summer and they don't have a lot of time to swim or anyone to teach them, usually.
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| Sheila and Charlene on the trampoline |
It was a great afternoon. They swam, went on the jet ski, jumped on the trampoline, and played badminton. Again, these activities were a lot of first for the students. Sheila got an amazing bruise on her shoulder from a trampoline incident with a student, both of them were crying they were laughing so hard. My mom set up dinner for us and the students got to enjoy supper in between swimming and playing games. They also got to try Shapska salad, a Serbian salad that my step dad makes all the time. New food on top of the regular hamburger and brats.
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| Relaxing in the sun |
Unfortunately we had to leave to drive to Duluth, MN, another 2.5 hour drive from St. Cloud. The students were sad to leave but they heard that the hotel we were staying at had a pool so they eventually got over it and got in the cars. We had our "Minnesota Good bye" and thanked my mom and family for putting up with us. It was another long car ride and not a lot of sleeping this time, they were too excited over swimming.
My favorite part of the drive to Duluth is driving down the hill right when you enter Duluth. Luckily we had the walkie talkies so I had everyone watch entering Duluth, they all loved the view! There were a lot of, "Oh! So Cool!" bouncing around the van.
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| Group Shot! |
When we got to Duluth we went to the Edgewater Resort to check in. We got some great rooms! The boys were set up in a room that had two sets of bunk beds, a pull out bed and a king size bed! They were totally comfortable. Us girls got a room with two queen beds and a pull out. Luckily, we got rooms that were connected so Sheila and I each took a room with 4 girls each. I took the pull out just so I could get a little room at night to sleep. We didn't get to Duluth until around 12:30 am so it was too late for the students to go to the water park...BUT...we had an excellent view of it and the students were So excited to swim the next day.
Luckily, the students were pretty tired after their big day of walking all morning and swimming all afternoon, that they all went to bed pretty early, around 1:30 am. We got a couple of hours of sleep.
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