Lots o' Lights (Fo Free!)

I apologize cyber world for neglecting you all week... please forgive me! It's actually been a surprisingly busy week for the Bogart family. More so for Ryan than it has for me I guess since he's been busy with actual obligations and I've been busy just trying to stay busy (so I don't sit around and dwell on the fact that I'm still pregnant). I've done more cooking, some baking, a lot of Target/mall walking (even though my Christmas shopping is completely done) and I even treated myself to a pedicure, too! It's been a good relaxing and yet productive week. Ryan even took some time out of his busy schedule on Tuesday for us to go see the Bentleyville Tour of Lights.

For those of you who aren't from the Duluth area, or haven't had the pleasure of experiencing the magic of Bentleyville before, you are missing out! It's pretty much amazing. It has been held in downtown Duluth's Bayfront Festival Park for the past couple years now, but  it was first started by a man named Nathan Bentley back in 2004 when he hosted the event on his own property.  Now it is the largest light show in the upper Midwest with almost 3 million lights and it was voted the "Best Light Show in Minnesota". I told you.. it's pretty much amazing!

Plus, it's free! That's right - it costs nothing. It's sponsored by the Salvation Army and various businesses in the Duluth area and it's set up, staffed, and tore down completely by volunteers. And while you walk around the paths enjoying the pretty lights and views of Duluth you can sip a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, munch on some cookies or popcorn, and roast marshmallows in little fire pits for free! They even have Santa there every night too handing out Bentleyville embroidered hats to all the kids. You guessed it - for free!

Since it is sponsored by the Salvation Army, they appreciate canned food or new toy donations to support their other projects, but it's not a requirement. It's just such a cool event for the community and I've looked forward to it every year since Ryan and I first drove out to the middle of nowhere to experience the original Bentleyville our freshman year.

This year they added something a little different to the lights display - dinosaurs. Sort of weird, right? Not exactly something you would expect in a holiday light show. There was even an article in the Duluth Tribune a couple weeks back commenting on how that and how it didn't fit in with the "holiday theme" and apparently that offended some people...? I don't know. It didn't offend me but it's definitely unique, that's for sure. On a side note, Ryan wanted me to add here that it was his favorite part. (Go figure, right? Ryan liking something that everyone else finds weird and/or offensive... that's so unlike him! Hahahaha!)

The pictures I have don't really do justice to how great Bentleyville really is since my fingers were slightly numb.. So you should all visit the website, learn a little bit more about the "Best Light Show in Minnesota", and go enjoy it for yourself! It's open until December 26th!

http://www.bentleyvilleusa.org/



TGIF!