“We’re Minnesotans, Hospitality Is In Our DNA” – John Allen
Smiles all around from the folks in Minnesota.
When Jimmy & I first arrived at Gull Lake, we had the pleasure of spending some quality time with host and Bar Harbor owner John Allen. During that conversation John said (and I quote:) “We’re Minnesotans, Hospitality is in our DNA.”
Then as the Woods and Water events continued, it seemed like every time we looked through our camera lens, we noticed that everyone there had big, welcoming smiles out in their boats, on the docks – everywhere!
Dee Dee one of the many volunteers that made the days brite.
The happy, welcoming atmosphere was contagious and it was great to spend a few days surrounded by these happy people. So we thought it would be fun to put together a short compilation of postcard photos, describing what we saw through our camera lenses – to share with the less fortunate that couldn’t be in Minnesota last week.
“Miss Florida” 1937 Chris-Craft 19-foot Special Race Boat – He has a reason to smile…
Folks even smiled at each other. This went on all weekend!
We discovered a Speedboat Outlaw in “The Badger” on Gull Lake – but we couldn’t get his attention.
We are positive that this boat spent more time out on Gull Lake than it did tied up at the Bar Harbor dock. They just loved being out there giving rides and having a fun time in their old wooden Chris-Craft. Great to see.
And of course the Chris-Craft girls in the XK-19 on Tuesday.
And we think there are some smiles in there somewhere, so we decided to include the shot.
And although these guys aren’t smiling, this shot may bring a smile to your face.
BEAUTY….
…. and THE BEAST (Tommy Holmes “Woody Boaters 2012 Sexiest man alive”, actually loves having his picture taken at boat shows)
An elegant smile in an elegant Hacker-Craft triple.
Wow! I don’t need coffee after seeing Tommy Holmes mug in the morning. I’M AWAKE!
With all the heritage from Scandinavia, you must be a happy people in Minn. Thanks for bringing Gull Lake to the rest of the world. You’re doing a fantastic job.
Great to have you back from the Old Country, Anders.
Hope you got to see all the great Falls Flyers!
GREAT to see everyone had such a fantastic time.
I have heard in the background chatter that this was in fact the BEST show ever put on. These accolades are coming from people who have been to A LOT of shows and events.
Who knew that Minnesota was such a warm place? One can never capture that feeling, nor could we capture the amazing event. It was without doubt the event of the decade. So much of all that goes to our hosts! Thankyou 10,000 times.
And thank you guys for all the great coverage
This was the very first boating event that Shannon and I have attended as participants. We can not express enough how welcomed we felt by the BSLOL chapter. Nothing but warm smiles and bend-over-backwards help from the moment we pulled into C&C for the first event on Monday morning.
Not only were they the perfect hosts, but they made us feel as if we were part of the “family”.
We hope that the event can return there soon!!!
Scott K expresses our sentiments perfectly. We hauled our boat from Washington state to the amazement of the locals and they continually thanked us for coming. At least a a half dozen volunteers were in the water at C & C when we trailered the boat.
We drove 19hrs to get home and it was worth every hour. The place was magical and the number of red vest all around to help was perfect. Ya “ll who call this home are lucky to have it. Thanks for providing us with a great week.
Wow, It’s Monday and I still smiling as I think about everything that was experienced. Even my wife is still talking about it…. now let’s be serious, how many wives have ever remembered a boating event?
?
The fact that it was not snowing might have a little to do with why all of us Minnesotans were smiling!
Hey where did everyone go?
Just made me laugh-out-loud Tommy. Everyone is on the ferry crossing Lake Michigan right now!
Tommy, I think they all headed for Windsor.
Yes. I hear the ballet is in town… always.
You guys are making me really sorry I missed it. I just couldn’t make it work with my schedule. Darn!
BTW, the site now says we can upload photos that are up to 50 MB? I am not going to test that just yet, but that seems a bit large for comment photos.
That’s John Williams (not the composer) riding in the Chris-Craft Miss Florida. Heck of a story – ask him about it sometime. We saw John and his lovely wife showing another couple the WoodyBoater lifestyle in a 25′ Sportsman on Labor Day weekend in Kentucky. A perfect evening cruise. “See you in Church, John!”
Thanks KW. I actually found his name in the show program, but wasn’t sure if that was John in the boat / photo so I decided to leave the name out (not to make an error). Thanks for the clarification. – Texx
I was a crazy good time! Weather, people and location this show just had it all. BSLOL chapter all I can say is thanks! Big shout out to Matt, jimmy and your WoodyBoater crew. I don’t know were you guys find the energy to do what you do. Mike Lang and I were just not smiling thinking about the drive ahead and the end of an epic week of fun. We headed out to see if we could blowup our flat-heads and we could not as they were a trustworthy as ever. Time to look over the score sheets, make our winter to do list and try and make the judges a little happier next year.
Wow! What a fantastic venue with a wide variety of beautiful boats. Great to see old friends, explore the beautiful lake and enjoy the hospitality of a John Allen and the gang. Everyone was so accompdating! Too bf’s we had to haul the boat out and head back home!
Texx, Dane and all the others with Woody Boater,
Thank you for the great coverage of the 2015 International, your pictures were awesome and really captured the fun, excitement and beauty of the event, boats and the Minnesota lakes.
It was a lot of fun, and yes, plenty of smiles!
Michael
We were in the truck all day, doing the last of the 1200 miles home. Great show – best I think I have been to and the diversity of boats was unparalleled.
Kudos to Woody Boater for great coverage of an event that had the scale and spectacle of this one. It was almost overwhelming in visual splendor – especially the museum event on Friday. The crowds made the standard dock shots we see from shows almost impossible to get.
Woody Boater does this on a small budget with a skeleton crew, which makes it all the more amazing. It is a huge effort to put out this kind of content and show coverage over the course of a week long event like this.
From the perspective of both an attendee and a boat exhibitor, I felt from day one that the BSLOL Chapter did an absolutely terrific job, just fabulous. Everything was looked after and we encountered not a single problem in our experience there. Great work by all!