Showy Pink Lady Slippers

The Minnesota state flower is this lovely pink lady slipper.  They are hard to find in the wild.  These were growing in a flower box in the front of the little general store and gas station at the turn off from highway 53 to Lake Kabetogama.  I've only seen one in the wild once over on Gunflint Lake on the Gunflint Trail out of Grand Marais.  We have seen the little yellow lady slippers growing in the wild up here but they don't compare to the showy pink ones. 

We just had two busy weeks with the resort full.  Most of the guests were a group of Mennonites from Indiana.  They were part of the Newmar corporation.  This is the Mennonite owned company that makes Newmar motorhomes -- very high end RV's.   Half of them had Newmar motorhomes and half stayed in cabins.  They decided that they needed one more boat so everyone could fish comfortably so they just went to the local boat dealer and bought one.    We never saw a group that loved junk food as much as they did.  They took bags full of every kind of candy, chips and other sugary treats out on their boats.  The women did tons of laundry (at 6.50 per wash and dry) and they used every towel in the cabins every day so we were doing tons of laundry as well.   They were very nice but they kept us hopping so we were glad to see them leave.