Dickerson’s Lake Florida Resort: A Minnesota Vacation Resort For Families

A Great Day away

April 11th was a very fun day.We started the day by meeting friends & resort guests, Wayne & Bonnie at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater.

Cover of the Hairspray Program

What a fun musical and the company couldn’t have been better! If you haven’t been to the Chanhassen for this show, get your tickets!

Wayne, Bonnie, Connie & Bob at the Chanhassen

On the way to the Chanhassen I had seen a sign for 50 cent coffee in Silver Lake. On the way home we needed a cup so stopped. Bob said, “oh look, they have ice cream. My 50 cent cup of coffee turned into $5.64! The ice cream was delicious!

Our next stop on highway #7, was at The Crow River Winery. What a beautiful, new facility. They are adding on and will be able to host 400 people for your next party!

Our next stop was Litchfield. We went to the address of my nieces new home, but no one was there – next stop the hospital. Andrea gave birth to a little girl named Emma on Monday night. She was still in the hospital and Chris and big brother Austin were there visiting them.

Andrea Lucas and baby Emma Rose Lucas

Connie, Emma Rose & Bob

After visiting it is time to head back to Spicer and the resort. It’s about time for the sun to set.

Lake Florida sunset at 7:54

Lake Florida sunset at 8:01

Lake Florida sunset at 8:02

What a great day. One of the last we will have away from the resort before the season starts. We’ll have to work twice as hard tomorrow!

Lake Florida Sunset 4-9-12

The sunset at Lake Florida looked identical on Monday as what we had on Sunday. Changed locations on the beach to take the picture!

Lake Florida Sunset at 7:52

4-8-12 The sunset

Easter Sunday – We left home at 5:50 for sunrise services at Calvary. After the service the youth served breakfast and then I was off to practice with the choir. The choir sang at all 3 services. It was a wonderful morning at church!

At 1:00 we went to be with Bob’s family at his mother’s house just down the beach. We had a delicious meal. Travis, the middle nephew is engaged so we used Shutterfly & made a book about his life. We included pictures of his grandparents and parents weddings as well as baby pictures, family pictures, school pictures, etc. for his fiance’ Thea to ‘get to know Travis’ better. It was a good afternoon.

Travis & Thea looking at the picture book

The sunset on Easter was a beautiful orange ball – not many clouds.

Easter sunset at 7:52

4-7-12 Lake Florida Sunset

Lake Florida sunset at 7:52

Another day – another beautiful sunset at Dickerson’s Resort!

A Big Resort Project – The Chairs

We have a project for the resort that was started many (I mean more than 25) years ago that has never been finished. One day we had a conversation about it and decided that 2012 would be the year to finish. We used to have Adirondack chairs at the resort. About 50 years ago, Bob’s grandfather had made many chairs for the cabins. He was a depot agent in Lucan, MN and in the winter didn’t have much to do so he made the chairs. We had kept one to use as a pattern. My father’s cousin had cut out the parts for 24 Adirondack chairs for us which Bob was going to help him put together. It never happened because sadly, Gordon died. The pieces have been waiting ever since. Bob went to the storage garage and got what he thought was enough pieces to make 1 chair and started fitting the pieces together.

All of the wood for the chairs

I made the pieces into a teepee for a campfire!

The wood - a chair or a campfire?

Things did not go well and some pieces were obviously missing! Bob put them together as best he could with clamps and a few screws and they became a chair! We found that 21 of the left arms are missing!

The first Adirondack chair clamped together

When we went to the boat show in St. Cloud we met Larry O’Shea who was there exhibiting his homemade Adirondack furniture. After talking to him for awhile and telling him our story, he offered to help us! What a nice man. This job may get finished in 2012!

On April 2, we loaded up all of the pieces and some new cedar and Bob went to get Larry’s help.

Bob's pick up full of wood pieces

Larry cutting out the left arms for the chairs

He was gone ALLLL day until 10:15! He came home without any chairs assembled-bummer! Larry and his wife Peggy are so kind and treated him just like family (that means they included Bob in their meals)

Bob went back to work on the chairs again on April 10th.

The jig for putting the Adirondack chairs together.

Larry cutting braces for the chairs

Bob in his first Adirondack chair

This time when he came home he had the one finished chair and all of the rest needing some assembly.

22 chairs - some assembly required!

Those of you who have reservations with us in 2012 will get to use these chairs. Those of you who don’t have reservations should make them and come and sit in our comfortable, Adirondack chairs!

If you are looking to buy Adirondack chairs and furniture we highly recommend Larry’s “Cedar Woodworks” in St. Cloud, MN. Larry and Peggy make a beautiful product!

Larry's Cedar Woodworks Calling Card

Not to be outdone by Bob, I put together some Adirondack chairs of my own for the little children.

Connie putting together Adirondack chairs for the children

Lake Florida Sunset 4-6-12

Today was Good Friday. We went to church at noon as we do every year. It’s always a very good service. After the service we had a quick lunch at Culver’s and then went back to the resort to work. At sunset time we were exhausted and ready to quit for the day.

Lake Florida sunset at 7:44

Lake Florida sunset at 7:50

Lake Florida sunset at 7:51

Lake Florida sunset at 7:55

Sunrise-Sunset at Dickerson’s Resort 4-4-12

I looked out the dining room window this morning and could see that it was going to be a beautiful sunrise. We can get a fairly good view of the sunrise from cabin #12, but I jumped in my car to look for something even better! This is what I saw when I came over the hill-

The sunrise at the top of our hill

I turned west and drove slowly to catch a glimpse of the sunrise through the trees and hills. These cows were out grazing and I’m sure wondering who this crazy woman is out with a camera!

Cows posing for the camera

I turned around and turned into the road that goes to the gravel pit. There should be a hill or 2 here to get a good shot.

Sunrise at the gravel pit

Used the “fish eye lens” setting on the camera to get this shot.

Sunrise through fish eye lens at 6:52

The last sunrise picture – it’s going to be a beautiful day!

Sunrise at 6:53

In the blink of an eye (or so it seems) it was time for the sunset!

The Lake Florida sky at 7:08

Sunset at 7:43

Lake Florida sunset at 8:07

Another “little” project at Dickerson’s Resort

It seems that every day normal work turns into a project.

Today, I went up to the back yard to clean up leaves and clean out the hostas and day lillies. A tree had broken off years ago, but we had kept the trunk which held a flower pot each year. The tree stump had completely rotted over the winter and when I touched it, it fell apart! Start the clean-up! I picked up the landscape rocks, you know the ones 1-2 inches in size in pails to get them out of the way. I also determined that as long as we were doing this, the giant hosta should be split-always more work and mess than you want! We needed more dirt to fill the hole and new landscape fabric too to cover the dirt. After a couple of attempts, Bob located the landscape fabric that we were pretty sure we had and went to cousin Greg’s gravel pit to get the dirt.

Digging out the tree stump and roots

We filled 2-32 gallon garbage cans and the wheel barrow with the dead tree.

Bob found a good size rock under the tree

We found many good size rocks in the roots of the tree. The little tree that was growing next to it is going to be far happier without all of those rocks! One more trip to Greg’s pit to get some rock-gotta cover the area where the tree was.

Bob pruning the tree

We looked up at the tree hanging over this project and saw some dead branches. Might as well get them now or they will surely fall later!

Almost finished-more than 6 tools - it's a project!

Lake Florida Sunset 4-3-12

Bob went to St. Cloud today to continue a project we’re working on. I don’t remember exactly what I did - moved some sand on the beach, washed some cabin decks, put a coat of varnish on the window casings for cabin #7, etc. Getting the pictures of the sunset was probably the most important thing I did.

Sunset at Lake Florida at 7:50

The end of the sunset at 7:55

For all of you who don’t regularly see the sunset we hope you are enjoying these pictures. It’s one of the best parts about living at the lake!

And the beach goes on at Lake Florida

The clean up of the leaves that blew in continues. Here’s another picture of Bob cleaning the leaves out of the lake and off of the beach.

Bob cleaning the leaves out of the lake

We hauled the leaves to the garage apron of cabin #13. Normally, they could go right into the trailer, but it was being used for a different project.They also got a chance to drain and “lighten up” a bit Those of you who aren’t following us on Facebook don’t know that we took a total of 4,760 pounds of these leaves to the landfill. Congratulations to Gary Boer from Sioux Falls who was the winner of our contest.

Bob reloading the leaves

There are other jobs that need to be done also. The decks are looking pretty dirty so I continue to wash them in between other jobs.

Connie cleaning the deck by the resort store/office.

Dickerson's Lake Florida Resort

A Great Day away

Lake Florida Sunset 4-9-12

4-8-12 The sunset

4-7-12 Lake Florida Sunset

A Big Resort Project – The Chairs

Lake Florida Sunset 4-6-12

Sunrise-Sunset at Dickerson’s Resort 4-4-12

Another “little” project at Dickerson’s Resort

Lake Florida Sunset 4-3-12

And the beach goes on at Lake Florida

Dickerson’s Lake Florida Resort

Recent News

Join us on Facebook

Find us on Twittter

Popular Posts