You can spend big bucks for a weekend at a B&B or resort with all the frills, or you can spend hardly anything and get no frills but all the fun. Here are a few ideas for a cheap getaway.

$135: Bicycling southern Minnesota with the Parks & Trails Council, Aug. 29-Sept 1, including expert guide (Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge David Minge), many tours, meals and camping in Lake Louise State Park.

After nearly 150 years, the Civil War still inflames imaginations. Many Upper Midwest historic sites host encampments, where re-enactors offer artillery drills, medical demonstrations and a row of sutlers, or period vendors.

But some re-enactments also include battles, which give spectators an incredible opportunity to see history in all its sound and fury. Some feature thundering cavalry and dozens of cannons; others are more intimate, with affecting human dramas woven into the smoke of battle.

For some reason, the last week of July is a great time to pig out on baked goods:

July 25-27, Kolacky Days in Montgomery, Minn. This southern Minnesota town, settled by Czech immigrants, calls itself the Kolacky Capital of the World and makes thousands of the fruit-filled pastries for its annual festival.

Thanks to volunteers who love locomotives, excursion trains live on.

And these days, trains also are rolling entertainment venues, offering staged robberies, murder mysteries and beer tasting in addition to barbecue, pizza, brunch, box lunch, happy hour and holiday trains.

Of course, the scenery is great, too. Below are five of the best trains to ride.

Watch a water-ski show, and you'll want to climb into your Thunderbird and go get a chocolate malted.

There's something deliciously retro about spending a balmy summer evening listening to '50s party music and the roar of marine engines as spangled, sun-bleached teen-agers fly by. A corny comedy routine is part of the show, but it's the tricks that keep the crowd enthralled: double flips, dance lines and pyramids that can go up to five tiers.

There are festivals honoring writers Sinclair Lewis and Laura Ingalls Wilder, musicians Bix Beiderbecke and Bob Dylan, explorer Father Marquette. From fiction, we celebrate Heidi, Paul Bunyan and William Tell.

But in some towns, an earthbound festival just doesn't cut it. Below are five places that look to outer space for a reason to celebrate.

If you're interested in sea kayaking and ready to jump in, kayaking festivals are a good place to improve skills and meet other kayakers. Programs include classes, seminars, demos, on-water tours and, often, races.

Sign up as early as possible for the best selection of classes and tours. Below are six of the best festivals in 2008.

Whitewater kayaking is a lot of fun to watch, but not everyone wants to go bumping  through froth on an obstacle course of rocks.

Many of the best-known whitewater-kayaking rivers — the Kettle in eastern Minnesota, rivers of Minnesota's North Shore, the Presque Isle on Michigan's Upper Peninsula — are not suitable for beginners.

I don’t do a lot of camping when I travel around this region. Camping is a leisurely kind of travel, and I’m always moving too fast. But that doesn’t stop me from admiring a great campsite when I see one.

Here are 10 of the campsites that have made me say, “Wow, this is really choice.’’

A patch of grass, a plump sandwich, the warmth of sun on skin — this is what we look forward to all winter.

But some picnic spots are so great a picnicker might want to while away a whole afternoon there. Here are five of the best, along with good places to pick up a box lunch on the way. If you want the lunch ready when you get there, call a day in advance or early in the morning.