Arriving at Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport in Brainerd puts regional highlights within easy reach. Brainerd is the capital of Minnesota cabin country, a resort region with more than 400 lakes, towering pines, and generations of families who return to the same dock every summer. The town itself is easygoing and a little kitschy, with Paul Bunyan as its unofficial mayor.

Ways to spend a day around Brainerd: - Say hello to the giant talking Paul Bunyan statue at Paul Bunyan Land - Mountain bike the red-dirt singletrack of Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area in Crosby - Rent a pontoon or fish for walleye on Gull Lake - Bike the paved Paul Bunyan State Trail through the woods toward Nisswa and Pequot Lakes - Cheer on the Wednesday turtle races in downtown Nisswa each summer - Catch drag racing or a car show at Brainerd International Raceway - Golf one of the lakes area's many resort courses - Pick up pie and antiques in the small towns of Crosslake and Pine River

From Brainerd, the rest of central Minnesota is close. Mille Lacs, one of the state's biggest and most famous walleye lakes, is about 45 minutes east, Little Falls and the Charles Lindbergh boyhood home are a half hour south, and St. Cloud is about an hour down Highway 10. The Twin Cities are roughly two hours away. In summer the resorts fill with lake life, in fall the maples light up, and in winter the lakes freeze into a playground of ice fishing houses and snowmobile trails. Wild rice soup and a supper club walleye dinner are the right way to end a day up here.