Hey there,

I’m back for another mention of somewhere I’ve been recently that I also really enjoyed. Especially my daughter. That place is the Forest Lake Beach in Forest Lake, MN. Also known as Lakeside Memorial Park. It sounds so simple right? So it’s a beach, who cares? What’s so special about it? Stick around and I’ll tell ya. The weather was starting to warm up and we were looking for a nice place to swim that wasn’t going to break the bank. A lot of these man-made swimming holes and water parks (nowadays.. ha ha!) are starting to cost more than I want to pay to submerge myself in dirty water for the day. Anyway, a friend of mine suggested the Forest Lake Beach, which isn’t terribly far from our house, so I was in. We packed our beach bag and a lunch and hit the road. When I say I was pleasantly surprised by this beach I’m not joking. I never considered Forest Lake to be an especially “nice” area (sorry Forest Lakeans). But when we arrived at this beach, I couldn’t believe how clean it was, and that was only the visual of sand before we even went into the water. So, I’ll tell you a little about our day and experience with this beach because it was wonderful and worth talking a little bit about. Also, no shade on Forest Lake. I love Forest Lake and I do a lot of things there, I always have. I was just impressed with how nice the beach was and I was not expecting that. That’s all.

So, like I said, when we walked up we especially enjoyed how clean the sandy beach was. My 4-year-old daughter is more observant and cognizant of cleanliness than you might think. She tells me if I’m slacking on sweeping the floors I’ll have you know. Sorry about that crumb and piece of cat hair my darling, let me clean it up right away… That’s how that feels. But anywho, I’ve never been to a beach where the sand was so clean. Honestly. A lot of beaches are yucky (thanks geese), loosely maintained, and they are not places that I particularly want to spend my entire day. I don’t want to have to dodge goose poop and band-aids while I’m trying to take my daughter swimming and build sand castles. At Forest Lake, it looked liked the sand had been freshly raked either the night before or early that morning. We arrived around 1030 am and it still looked fresh. I was surprised by this because as I said before, most beaches you go the are not very clean at all. The maintenance of beaches has to be difficult considering all the people and wildlife who choose to attend, and that’s likely why so many are gross. I don’t want to hate on other beaches in the area and the people who maintain them. I know everyone works their hardest to do their own job and there are only so may things in your control. I might just simply rate some beaches lower that others on my bougie beach standards. As many people may know, I’m an RN and I know a bit about germs. I’ve become quite the germophobe in the past few years, mostly because I have a child now so to my own detriment, I’m hyperaware of all the bacteria out there and what it can do to you. I don’t want to get E. Coli from the crazy goose poop on the sand thank you (insert vomit emoji).

We were able to make a whole day out of playing at the Forest Lake Beach. We were just enjoying ourselves so much that time wasn’t really on our mind. I don’t travel lightly with my child, so we had everything we needed from lunch, sunscreen, wagon, sand toys. You name it, we had it; so there’s no reason to leave early if we don’t have to. We usually end up leaving a beach after an hour and half or so. Mostly because the sand = dirty and isn’t conducive to our beach needs. My daughter wants to build sand castles and bury me in the dang sand, but I won’t let her bury me at 90% of the beaches we go to. I was able to enjoy the sand with my daughter this time around. I let myself turn to a full sand monster from sitting my butt directly on the sand to build castles and play with her. There were no weird smells, garbage, seaweed, or animal poop. I was so grateful for this clean sand, and I didn’t realize how much having a clean beach can make or break your time there. Kids don’t generally care- but us moms do. Okay, enough about the sand. I think I’ve been talking about it the whole time. It’s clean, we get it. Let’s move on.

Let’s talk about the water. The water! When’s the last time you stepped into a lake and you could see your tootsies staring back at you the whole time you’re in the water?? If that answer is never, or not in a long time- please get your butt on over to the Forest Lake Beach. Clean sand; clean water. What else do you need? Some shade maybe? Don’t worry, they have that too. And not the kind that I’ve been throwing around on other beaches. This other tidbit might excite you or deter you, so I’m sorry in advance. If you’re not a huge fan of wildlife, you might want to move on from this. But you can see the little perch swimming around at the beach. They are in the water right on shore swimming all around you. I’m not talking like a live bait tank full of minnows or anything. That would be gross and the only thing I’d be writing on this post would be RUN! There’s just a couple “schools” if you will that swim around in the shallow water. They’ll scatter with movement towards them, but they’re obviously used to people and they will come right up to you and nibble your toes if you stand still. My daughter was squealing with excitement when this happened. She was trying to catch them like most kids would. As a nurse I’m also hyperaware of the risks that come with allowing the fish to do this, but that risk is low and we were having fun with it, so nibble on little fishies. I think the fish alone kept my daughter entertained for about an hour. Also kept mom entertained to see her having so much fun, so there’s that.

There were also some non-water things to do there. They had a pretty cool park that was right off the sand of the beach. That’s a positive for parents with multiple kids so kids can do both beach/water and playground without being super far away. It wasn’t a traditional style playground. It also had a few climbing structures that allows the kids to climb and play their own way instead if the one-size-fits-all playgrounds that I saw growing up. I’m having a hard time describing it, but I have pictures of it under the “activities” section on my Instagram if you want to check it out. I’ll have to work on my playground descriptive writing I guess. We walked around a little bit, but not very far because it was hot, but we noticed they have a Little Free Library, restrooms, gazebo, swings, picnic tables, and walking trail (though we don’t know how far because we didn’t walk very far, but I’m sure a quick Google search would help with that). So needless to say this beach is one that will remain at the top of my list of places to go. There’s also many places to eat in Forest Lake if that entices you. I generally pack a lunch, but I’ve had my fair share of food in Forest Lake, I’ve probably tried everything at least once. But that’s all for now, beach day is over.

Talk soon,

Corrah