What Happens at the Grandview Lodge...

My SIL celebrated a milestone birthday earlier this month.  She wanted to celebrate it with her closest friends.  MY suggestion was someplace warm, but she decided she'd get a better turn out if it was a little more local so she decided on Grandview Lodge up in Nisswa.  She had been to Grandview last summer and thought it would fit the bill for what she wanted.  Did it ever!

11 of us arrived on Friday night to a cabin that far exceeded our expectations.  It had  3 bedrooms with 2 queens in 2 bedrooms, and one queen in a third and a loft with a queen bed and two twin beds.  Each bedroom had its own full bathroom.  The main floor had a full living room with gas fireplace, granite kitchen, dining table for 10, 2 bedrooms and baths and a deck with an assortment of outdoor furniture and a gas grill.  The downstairs had the third bedroom, a laundry room with a full sized washer and dryer, a game room with a card table, a wet bar and a pool table along with a huge flat screen TV, a sofa some chairs and a completely screened in porch.  We all roamed around squealing like little girls for the first hour as we came to fully comprehend how lucky we are.

We played games well into the night before heading to our respective beds, some of us much later than others.  In the morning, we had coffee and bloody marys, made to order omelets,  white cheddar and rosemary cheesy potatoes, homemade cinnamon rolls and TONS of fresh fruit.  Of course that necessitated us doing something physical to work off the wonderful breakfast.  Half the group chose to cross country ski on the golf course, the other half chose to snow shoe across Roy Lake.  I was in the latter group and I have NEVER snow shoed before.  It was AWESOME!  We took a breather and headed to the lodge to check out the gift shop and have a drink in the pub.  We then headed to the hot tub and swimming pool before getting cleaned up for the evening.

Dinner we all brought out a different appetizers and OH MY, was there ever quite a selection.  There were spring rolls , chicken wings, homemade guacamole, shrimp salsa, meatballs, and this YUMMY Parmesan cheese spread with hot bread and roma tomatoes.  After eating our fill, we went to the lower level and played pool and listened to music.

We needed to check out by 11 which meant breakfast couldn't be the leisurely affair it was on Saturday, however that didn't mean we still didn't enjoy the left over fruit, cinnamon rolls and bagels (and coffee...coffee was VERY VERY important to this weekend).

Oh, I know this seems pretty tame for 11 30-40 something women so I'll tell you a secret.  This wasn't all that happened. There was a pretty competitive games of Qwirkle, money changing hands quickly with "LRC" and 654.  There was some activity with pool cues that I'm sure would be deemed illegal in certain countries. There were book clubs to the right of us, police raids to the left.  And in the center?  Well, we all agreed...what happens at the Grandview Lodge stays at the Grandview Lodge.