Weekend at Pelican Lake

I spent this past weekend at Pelican Lake, celebrating my friend Angie’s birthday.

Located just outside of the town of Glenwood in Pope County, Minnesota, Pelican Lake is about a two hour drive northwest from the Twin Cities.

Angie and I first met in 1995, which was my second year in the U.S. after my relocation here from Australia. At the time, both of us were students at the College of St. Catherine (now the St. Catherine University) in the Twin Cities. Angie’s hometown is Montevideo, west of the Twin Cities, and back in the late 1990s and early 2000s I spent many happy summer weekends and Thanksgiving holidays in Montevideo with Angie and her family, who welcomed me as one of their own.

A number of Angie’s family members and close friends were at Pelican Lake to celebrate her birthday, so it was a great reunion for all of us. I hadn’t seen many of them since the summer of 2018, when we gathered in Minneapolis to celebrate Angie’s nephew’s wedding.

This was my second visit to beautiful Pelican Lake, where Angie and her family have a camper at the Pelican Lake RV Resort. I was last there in July of 2016.

Above: With Angie and her husband Bryan
– Pelican Lake, Saturday, July 10, 2021.

Above: Everyone was impressed with my fire-building skills!

Above: With friends Kelly and Randy.

Above: Angie, Cassie and Bryan.

Above: Zayna.

Above: Elena, Jordan and Patty.

Above: With Cassie and Elena.

Above and right: I returned to the Twin Cities via Montevideo, where I visited Angie’s mum. It was lovely to catch up with her, especially as we hadn’t seen each other since January 2017, when I traveled to Montevideo to celebrate her 80th birthday.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Pelican Lake (2016)
• Days of Summer on the Bayfield Peninsula
• Gull Lake

Images: Michael J. Bayly.