Goin' to the Lake: Glenwood

Shayla, Frank and Chris just wrapped up a trip to Glenwood that featured a few firsts, and plenty of fun!

We'll be back at the lake next week. This time, Erin Hassanzadeh and Amelia Santaniello will make their way to the Cameron-Chetek area of Wisconsin. We'll bring you up to speed on our adventures next Wednesday and Thursday!

On Thursday morning, Shayla, Frank and Chris headed out on Lake Minnewaska with guide Nancy Koep from Koep's Bobbers & Bait for a little fishing contest!

Before they went fishing on Lake Minnewaska Thursday morning, Shayla headed over to the Ann Bickle Heritage House, where they're celebrating the women of Glenwood and the contributions they made to the Minnewaska Golf Club, celebrating 100 years in business this year.

This exhibit was put on as a partnership between Ann Bickle Heritage House and the GFWC Potpourri of Glenwood.

Over the years, women have raised money for breast cancer awareness, collected food for the local food shelf, among many other things.

When the golf course first opened in 1923, women were allowed to play the course, but only at certain times.

Also on display outside of the house is the artwork of Faythe Mills. You'll find it inside the Bremness Art Gallery. She's got lots of great stuff and you might even see what of her pieces on display at the Minnesota State Fair.

Our Goin' to the Lake crew started their Thursday adventures outside the Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood, a place in town where many special events have been celebrated.

You may remember it was 20 years ago when the Lakeside Ballroom was burned to the ground. It took a couple of years and a couple of million dollars to rebuild, but now the mainstay is once again going strong. The building was almost 100 years old when that fire started, and it went up fast.

Stay tuned for more fun with Shayla, Chris and Frank!

Before Shayla, Frank and Chris cast a line Thursday on Lake Minnewaska, they visited Koep's Bobbers & Bait to gear up. Nancy Koep from Koep's Bobbers will be their guide when they hit the lake for a little fishing contest.

If that name sounds familiar to you, it may be because you know her uncle Mark Koep, who ran a bait shop in Nisswa and was inducted into the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame in 2000.

Summer is all about making memories and discovering new happy places.

In downtown Glenwood, you'll find a little village of sorts. A new shopping venue was sprouted about three years ago, as we were in the middle of a pandemic and a lockdown.

WaskaVillage's pretty simple concept that took three years to bring to life thanks to the hard work of Pat and Jayme Baker.

"She had this idea to have sheds in a field," he said.

Flexiblity is precisely what you'll get at WaskaVillage -- 10 small stores all selling something a little bit different. They're always changing, so every week there's something new.

Shopping is just part of what the village has to offer. There's also a place to play games, eat ice cream, and grab a coffee. The kitchen is open for lunch daily until 2 p.m. They are open early for coffee lovers and the stores are open until at least 4 p.m. every day.

If you've spent any time in the area you know there are a lot of rolling hills surrounding Lake Minnewaska. That landscape is the inspiration behind the name of a fairly new vineyard in Glenwood.

Rolling Forks Vineyards is just outside of town and, while the wine might get you in the door, it's the views that will keep you coming back for more.

"When we decided to get married, I wanted to move back to Glenwood and be a farmer it's always been a goal of mine," Joe Cihlar said. "We wanted to do something different so we found the property here to grow the grapes."

Joe and Melanie Cihlar broke ground in 2019, not long before COVID.

"We had to figure out how to make this work," Joe Cihlar said.

Now, four years later, business is booming ... and so are the grapes, despite the summer drought. The best thing for the grapes, it turns out, is sunlight, low humidity, and a small amount of water.

"What's really special about our winery specifically is we grow 95% of all the fruit that goes into our bottles," Melanie Cihlar said.

It's a labor of love for the Cihlar, who work hard to find that balance between home life and work life with three boys, ages 6, 9 and 11 that keep them on their toes.

"We've really tried pretty hard to keep a schedule so we can be at home at night with our boys, but we're fortunate to have great staff to go to baseball games, take a vacation, do those things together as well," Melanie Cihlar said.

A family ready to greet yours with a flight of wine and a bite to eat on the patio or an award-winning bottle in the tasting room. Their Marquette and La Crescent won double golds from the San Francisco Chronicle.

You can find their wines in more than 120 liquor stores across Minnesota. They also sell wine slushies at the vineyard along with local beers, a flavored hard seltzer that they make, and of course water and soda too. And they have a full menu of handmade sandwiches, appetizers, and pizzas.

Glenwood is the county seat of Pope County. It's been that way since 1866. That means the Pope County courthouse is right there in downtown Glenwood.

Right now the population sits at around 2,600 people but, like many lake towns, it swells in the summer to almost double that.

Tourists flock to town to hit Lake Minnewaska and take in the breathtaking views of the rolling hills. It's about a two-hour drive northwest from the Twin Cities right up I-94.

Chris, Frank and Shayla's first stop in Glenwood: Lake Minnewaska, an 8,000-square-mile lake with about 20 miles' worth of shoreline. At its deepest point, it's 32 feet, and it's well stocked with crappies, bluegill, bass, muskie, northern pikes, perch and, of course, walleye.

The first thing you might do is pick out what music or podcast you're going to listen to, but then you quickly move to the road trip snacks. What do you go for -- sweet or salty? WCCO's team made a quick pit stop to pick up some of their favorites on the way up here to Glenwood and here's how it went.

Last week, Heather Brown and A.J. Hilton were Goin' to the Lake in the Brainerd Lakes Area.

Click here to see everything they did.