The Last of the Summer Fun

We are getting dangerously close to the beginning of September and the start of the school year. Once again we packed our lives in the pickup and headed northeast to Bayfield, WI to tent camp for four days. This is our third year in a row of camping here with our good friends who haven't yet packed up their gear midweek and changed campsites.

We had near perfect weather for the third year in a row also. Hot during the day and cool at night. The animals liked the cool night too because we were visited by many. The first night there was the noisiest night we have ever had to sleep through. The raccoons made not one but three separate passes through our campsite looking for food. In between raccoon raids, two White Owls were hooting back and forth like an Owl Idol competition. Then just as things quieted down for a whole fifteen minutes, and my eyes started to close, a pack of coyotes started to howl and yip. All these noises of nature would have been kind of pretty to listen too if it weren't for the thin piece of nylon tent being the only protection between my head and sharp teeth.

Perhaps the animals were drawn to our tent by our festive string of battery operated blue tent lights. Actually, they are Christmas lights but we didn't tell the raccoons that.

The second night we found out that duct tape doesn't hold lights on nylon very well. So the festive lights only lasted one night. Surprisingly, there were also no more nights of howling coyotes. Hmmm.

The weather was so nice this mermaid washed up on shore one of the days.

Our friends also rented a paddle board for the day. I don't think the kids did much paddling though. Instead, they used the board for a lot of falling in the water.

Later in the afternoon, we spotted some teenagers climbing all over a fifteen foot long log which had floated into the bay. They were about a hundred yards out. When the teens got tired and abandoned their find, Lady Di and her friend Kerry decided that they wanted that log. So they both jumped into the kayak that we had rented for the day and paddled out to get it. It took them about ten minutes to get to the log and about 50 minutes to tow it to shore. It was big and waterlogged and heavy. When they were within 20 yards of shore, a young swimmer told his dad, "Hey, I want to play on the log!" His dad, who had been watching LD and Kerry the whole time said, "For as much work as those two have gone through for that old log, I don't think they want to give it up so easily."

But it was so worth it. As soon as the log arrived, everyone from our two families immediately wanted to get on it and float. The boys even tried to pull it back out to sea but soon realized that they didn't want to invest 50+ minutes in the endeavor. Who would have thought that a big old log would be the hit of the beach?

The log is half submerged in this picture. It was also so slippery that a picture with all four kids actually standing on it was rare.

Since we usually camp the last week of August, it usually falls on Number One Son's birthday.

Here he is blowing out his birthday citronella candle surrounded by cupcakes. That orange ball on the table is our homemade ice cream maker. There is a metal cylinder inside the ball which holds the cream and vanilla. Ice and salt go inside the outer area of the ball to cool the cream. Once each section is filled with appropriate ingredients, it's up to the kids to play soccer with the ball to mix it into ice cream. It was a delicious thirteenth birthday party.

So that puts a cap to our summer of 2011. Now we can look forward to school starting in a couple of days. How will we ever get the kids to go to bed without White Owls lullabying them to sleep?

How Much Can We Do This Weekend?

Two weeks ago marked our first family camping trip of the summer. Our neighbors were kind enough to invite us to set up our tent alongside their campsite. We set up on Saturday afternoon and packed up on Sunday afternoon. We thought it was a good idea make our first tent outing of the year a short one. We also made sure the campsite was only about fifteen miles from home.

The campsite is on a large lake with a very nice swimming beach. So, predictably, we spent most of our time there.

We were also visited by our other neighbors who just happened to bring their boat to the lake. They were kind enough to pull us around the lake on their tubes.

The kids really were having fun despite their bored expressions. At one point their tube dipped under the water, flooding the tube. Once we noticed the kids were submerged, the boat slowed down to see if they were alright. Once the kids had air to breathe they both screamed, "That was AWESOME! Do it again!".

After an afternoon of swimming and tubing the kids were tired enough to sleep right through a rain storm that night. Lady Di and I, however, enjoyed the constant noise of a million rain drops trying to tap their way into our tent to soak us. Luckily, the tent proved water proof and the rain gave up around 2:30 am. We packed up our wet gear early Sunday morning and started the long drive home. Fifteen minutes later I was home re-setting up the tent to dry it out.

This left us just enough time for a short rest before surprising the kids with a trip to the X-cel Energy Center to see Star Wars In Concert.

When I say we surprised them, we didn't let them know where we were going. The kids only found out at the front gate when Lady Di told them to read what their tickets said.

Then we had to race to our seats because we were three minutes late thanks to the 'wonderful' detour signage put up by MNDOT.

It was difficult to get any good photos of the concert, but the music was very good and the sound was great considering we were in a giant hockey arena.
The concert consisted of a full orchestra playing score music from all six of the Star Wars movies in front of a large movie screen which showed various clips of all of the movies. The actor who played C3PO, Anthony Daniels, narrated the show introducing each movement. Every once in a while a laser light show would dance to the music too.
We had a twenty minute intermission to enjoy the Star Wars displays in the lobby.

The displays consisted of authentic costumes and props from the movies. In this picture Number One Son is trying to be cool by not smiling. Newsflash N1S, if you are at a Star Wars event, coolness pretty much gets checked at the door.

The lobby also had these large backdrops to take pictures in front of. Lady Di drew a laugh from the kids when she told them to stand in front of this moon. "Oh Mom, don't you know that's the Death Star?!" We couldn't get a picture of the kids with the Ewoks because they were laughing too hard when Lady Di called them bears.

Here we caught the kids red handed playing with fire again.

This wasn't a display. Just a dad and his kids, but Lady Di thought they were good enough for a picture.

After intermission was over and we had avoided buying a $30 program, we found our seats for the second half of the show. I saw more than a few families with the expensive programs though. And even though it was only 3:00 in the afternoon, I also saw many parents come back from the concession stand with beer. I can understand drinking beer at a ball game or even something cool like a rock concert. But this was Star Wars. This was classical music set to space movies. It all just seemed a little too nerdy for beer. But perhaps some parents needed a few beers to make it through to the end. I asked Lady Di what she thought of the show so far. She confessed, "This is torture for me."

She isn't much of a fan.

She also was a little bit miffed when she saw a couple dozen audience members video taping the concert from their seats. Then she realized that the lights from the camcorders were actually little pen sized light sabers that were sold in the lobby.

All in all it was a very busy weekend. Thank you G & P for letting us crash your campsite. Thank you D & T for towing us around the lake on your tubes and thank you Lady Di for enduring an hour and a half of nerdy torture for us.

Now what are we doing for next weekend?

The Last Crusade

The final chapter of our camping trip involves the activities that we enjoyed while trying to get away from it all. And since 'it all' included electricity, Number One Son valiantly battled his video game withdrawal. It wasn't until the second day that he started asking how he could recharge his game using pine needles and acorns. He made the mistake of asking me as I was going to the well to pump some more water into our cooler. "Here's the pump game, N1S. You get a point for each pump. See if you can get the high score!", I cheered.

"What do I get for high score?", he asked with suspicion.

"Bigger arms and a pat on the back.", I offered. It must have been enough because he filled the cooler.

"Next time, can we get a camp site with electricity?", he pleaded.

Since we were in the woods, there were a few nature trails that the kids and I wanted to explore. One morning N1S asked if we could go on a trail close to the beach. N1S, Sweet Pea and I found the sign at the beginning of the trail and entered the forest. SP thought of a game to collect one thing to match each color of the rainbow. Green was pretty easy since everything was green. Red and yellow were found pretty quickly too. Blue and purple were going to test her. We walked quite a ways and SP's collection was growing too large for her to carry so we made a birch bark basket to hold it all. She had found red, orange and green leaves. She found yellow, white and purple flowers and even found a bright pink leaf somehow. As my legs started to tire we came to a bridge that had a wild blueberry plant with two tiny blue berries. She actually found blue in the forest. They were the size of two shrivelled peas but she found them.

The longer we walked, the more I thought, "I really should have found out how long this trail is before we started." SP's legs were Jello-ing and N1S was sweating. Then, just over the hill, we saw a sign. Finally, the end! But the sign only told us, This trail is 2.5miles long and does not loop. Does not loop! Why wasn't this sign at the other end of the trail? As both kids howled their discontent I could swear I heard their call answered by a pack of wolves miles away.

So now I had to convince the kids that going back the way we came was the only way to get home. We hadn't planned on a five mile hike this morning but that's what we got. The whole way back the kids would ask me, "How many more miles?" "Almost there.", was my favorite lie. Luckily, we made it out of the woods and were welcomed by Lady Di and a big egg, bacon and flapjack breakfast.

If hiking to the next state and back wasn't enough, we also burned some calories kayaking around Lake Superior. We actually didn't go all the way around Lake Superior but found a nice lagoon to see turtles and toured some caves along the shore. Number One Son and Lady Di paddled one kayak and Sweet Pea and I were in the other. For some reason SP and I drew the slow boat. It may have had something to do with our uneven weight displacement. With me in the back, our kayak quickly filled with an inch of water at my end. SP felt great glee in telling everyone she saw that her dad's pants were wet the whole time we were in the kayak.

LD and N1S's kayak must have had a motor on it. As soon as we hit open water, they left us in their wake. They took off across the lake to the caves, two miles away. SP and I got about half way before we stopped in the middle of the water and started making up new verses to 'Row, Row, Row your Kayak'. Most of my verses included a muscle ache or bruise.

And camping wouldn't be complete without wildlife. We were fortunate to see and sometimes interact with the locals.

On one of our bike rides this doe bounded through the woods beside us. She had a fawn with her but I couldn't get her in the picture.

We had squirrels chittering every morning in an alarm clock fashion. Every night we had raccoons visit our coolers to check if they were shut or not. LD and I could hear them at night so we shined our flashlights on them. They would look at us, finish scratching at our coolers and move on. They were pretty smart to only check the coolers and didn't stay long when they couldn't get in. We also had a few less cuddly visitors to the campsite. Each campsite had a numbered post at the front and ours housed a hive of honey bees. And as if that wasn't enough, N1S made a friend in the grass just to the right of our post.

If you can't make it out, N1S is holding a small garter snake. It even bit him a few times. He said it didn't hurt, but felt like a little pinch. LD said she could feel it and ran for the tent. We suffered very few mosquito bites and almost no injuries. Only one stick wound above N1S's eye had to be attended to.

Well, those are the highlights of our trip to Madeline Island. Hopefully, you don't feel too itchy or dirty from so much camping reading. If it sounded fun to you, it was. We would like to go again next year. Lady Di started out firmly on the anti-camping side but I think after this trip, she has changed teams and is even looking for deals on camping equipment that we had to borrow this last time.

Thanks for joining us on our adventure.

Gourmet Camping

Even though our camping trip got off to a rough start with cooler than normal weather and less than normal sleeping equipment, the morning brought with it a crisp sunny day.

Almost as soon as the squirrels told us it was morning, the kids wanted to swim at the beach. We had to delay them long enough for the temperature to reach the sixties at least. But as long as the sun was out, the kids wanted to swim. So 'Joe' and I took the kids to the beach to give the wives a break from the kids and us. The campground had a path and a boardwalk down to a large sandy beach on Lake Superior. The water was definitely too cold for me, but not for our little fish. This turned into our morning ritual pretty much every day. Breakfast was always followed by a morning swim and sand digging.

I'm not sure what Number One Son has trapped here. Or he might be setting up his green army men to recreate Normandy Beach. Each kid also had a net to catch minnows. Sadly, minnows do not react well to water filled sand holes on the beach.

Sweet Pea convinced her friend to bury her in the sand. It looks like SP is trying to tell her where to stop.N1S's friend had the same swim shirt so we were never sure who was getting into trouble.

Our friends, the Sir Camps-a-lots, had a tradition of collecting rocks from their camping trips over the years. Actually, their kids collected, the parents transported the collections before quietly losing them once at home. Our kids thought this was a great idea. Although we didn't truck all of their gravel home, we did keep a few stones until we can figure out what to do with them.

The one on the left has SP's name scratched into it. The middle one is the biggest rock N1S could find and named it Blackie and I think SP named the one on the right Rocky.
N1S also stacked some rocks and made LD promise not to tell anyone. I think he wanted people to think that they naturally stacked themselves.

Day two of our trip brought much improvement in our camping outlook. When we booked our campsite, we couldn't get the site next to our friends' site because it was already booked. But that site would be vacant on the second day of our stay, so we booked two sites down from them for the first night. On day number two we awoke and quickly looked next door to see if the family on our next site had vacated yet. Not only were they not ready to go, they looked as if they weren't going anytime soon. No totes loaded, tent still up, fire in their pit. They were still taking their kids for walks around the park! They did have until 3pm to move out, but were they going to wait until 2:59pm to pull out?

Our worries were unnecessary though. By noon they were pulling out just as we were coming back from our morning at the beach. Lady Di had almost everything re-loaded into the back of the pickup. All that was left was to transport our tent. We decided it would be easiest for all of us to grab a corner and lift. So we radioed ahead to clear the road of any traffic. Made sure there were no low hanging power lines to lift. Then we started our home moving.

Our move went quickly and without tragedy. That's me in the front with the heaviest part of the tent, of course.

Now that we were in our more permanent place, we were able to completely unpack and set up our campsite the way we wanted. And once Lady Di had her kitchen in order, we were treated to the best camping meals we ever had. Every night one or both of the kids would sing praises about the best meal of their lives. How many camping trips have you been on that featured tacos one night, pan fried fish the next and shish-ka-bobs the next? And we ate better breakfasts in the woods than we do in our kitchen. Bacon and cheesy scrambled eggs with chocolate chip and butterscotch chip pancakes. Or I suppose you call them flapjacks when camping. Dessert was provided by our neighbor's homemade icecream ball that the kids enjoyed kicking around the campground to mix the cream. And we had smores, of course. I didn't think I would actually gain weight from a camping trip.

I'm running out of room so I will have to tell you about the nature hikes, kayaking and wild animals next week.

The Island Awaits

Last week, we ushered out our summer vacation with a bang. We took a family camping trip to Madeline Island in Wisconsin. This was our very first attempt at 'tent camping' as a family. We were warned by many of our friends and relatives. Almost everyone we told said, "Oooo. Goin' all da way up der, huh? Do ya want ta borrow my generator? Ya know it's goin' ta frost at night, don' cha?"

Despite our friends' efforts to scare us, we loading up the pickup and took off. And when I say we 'loaded' the pickup, I mean we had stuff stacked so high under the tarp, we looked like pioneers in our covered wagon. All we needed to complete the look, was a frying pan dangling from the side and a milk cow walking along behind.

We had every nook and cranny packed with something. The kids were separated by two duffel bags of clothes, four pillows and Sweet Pea had a case of bottled water under her feet. They were so cramped the back windows had the kids' cheek marks on them.

So with our back end scraping the driveway as we backed out, I yelled, "Who's ready for camping!" Both kids screamed, "Me!" Lady Di just sighed, "Oh Clark."

After our rousing start, we proceeded down the highway for our four and a half hour drive north to Gramma's house. We stayed with them for two days before beginning our trek 'Into the Wild.' Which was another four and a half hour drive east to Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was a pretty ride though. The leaves were about a week away from starting to turn their colors. The kids played video games. They did take a short break from Nintendo to see a bear, though.

Once in Bayfield, our adventure continued aboard a ferry ride to the island. I had never driven on a ferry before. I was kind of hoping to be just a little late and arrive just as the ferry was pulling away. Then I could say, "Hold on Honey! We can make it!" and then gun the accelerator off of the dock and do a Dukes of Hazzard jump over the water, to the boat, to much amazement and applause.

But we were on time.

We went with another family whom Lady Di has known since grade school. They wanted to play a trick on us and asked the ferry ticket lady to ask for our passports when we came through the line. We were completed suckered and our mouths dropped in bewilderment when we thought we really needed our very absent passports. But rubes will be rubes, so the rest of the camping trip was spent trying get them back.

We got across the lake without mishap and drove to the state park. We checked in with Ranger Rick and made sure to mention to check the pickup following behind us for illegal importation of firewood. Sorry about that guys. I had no idea they strip search you for that.

We got to our campsite and found it small but fine. Our traveling partners come here every year, so they got the elite campsite complete with large open area, natural gas bonfire pit and digitally timed, Glade pine scented air fresheners on each tree. We got free mosquitoes and extra bees.

Since they have camped before, 'Joe' just backed his pickup into the site, pressed the 'eject' button in his cab, and all their camping stuff flew into the air and set itself up as it landed.

I had a little more trouble.

Did you know tents had really necessary instructions? Once we had our site set up it was already getting dark and starting to cool quite rapidly. We got our sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses ready when 'Mrs. Joe' came sneaking over to our site. "Guess what!", she said with some slight irritation. "We forgot our mattresses!"

"What? The professional camping family forgot that? Oh, you must be so embarrassed.", I said with mock sympathy, try not to snicker.

Lady Di stepped right in, "We have two. You can have one of ours. We'll make do."

"Now wait a minute.", I protested.

But it was already a done deal. Luckily, we had packed two cots along with our mattresses for the kids. Unluckily, one of the cots ripped on the first night. So Number One Son, Lady Di and myself got cozy laying crosswise on one inflatable mattress with Sweet Pea getting the other cot. When we were finally all set in our sleeping bags, Sweet Pea said, "I'm so tired and my bed is soooooo comfortable. Good night." And then she started snoring. While Lady Di and I had to lay flat on our backs with our arms at our sides and my knees hanging over the edge.

We made it through that night, fixed N1S's cot with duct tape the next morning, and the rest of the week was much better.

I will write about day two in my next post. Stay tuned.

And so you don't get the wrong idea, our camping partners are still our friends. They helped us out greatly and made the trip a lot of fun. I only poke fun at them because they are such good friends. Right guys? And I'm not just saying that to get invited next year. Honest.

The Great Outdoors

In an effort to fill our last days of summer with memories, we went tent camping as a family for the first time last night. We packed our smores and hot dogs, borrowed a tent from our friends and set up camp at the 'Cheapskate Park' located ten feet behind our house.

In the picture you'll notice the circle of dead grass where the park's above ground pool was this summer. Our park even had wild animals walking about as you can see the small black bear (Liberty) snooping around the deck.

I know we didn't travel far, but we saved a lot on gas. Even though we were in the backyard, we still had trees, a bonfire and sleeping bags. I even lit some tiki torches for some 'Survivor' ambiance. Lady Di and I were hoping it would cool off a little since our tent was sitting in the sun and quite warm. The kids had their own two person tent and were excited to start camping.

I got the bonfire going and we started to roast hot dogs. When that was done Lady Di and kids asked, "What's next?"

"I don't know. I guess we just sit around the fire until dark. Camping, right?"

We watched the fire until dark and then headed inside our tent to watch a movie on the portable DVD player. Just like our pioneer ancestors.

When the movie ended, the kids got into their tent and we went to sleep in ours. I woke up about an hour later with frozen ears and nose. The temp had dipped down around sixty degrees and we only had one blanket because it was so warm before. As I went into the house for another blanket, I checked on the kids. Their little pup tent was toasty and both were snoring in their sleeping bags. When I stumbled back into our tent, Lady Di said that our dog, Liberty, was shivering in her bed so she snuggled between us under the covers.

Let's just say the rest of the night went better for the kids than for Lady Di and me. Inflatable mattresses are not very helpful to my back. Thankfully, around six AM, Sweet Pea woke up and said she had to use the bathroom. So I walked her into the house, making sure to carry my pillow with me. When she was done I asked her (tried to convince her) if she wanted to sleep in her room until breakfast time. She looked at me with a bewildered (what are you talking about) look and said, "No. I want to go back to the tent."

Groan.

I went back upstairs to get my pillow to follow her out, but on my way to the back door, Number One Son and Lady Di were coming in the house to announce that camping was done. Both kids whined a little but didn't fight too much and got into their beds for another hour. Aside from the sleeping arrangements, I did have some fun. The campfire was nice and I got to see stars in the night sky at 1am. The kids had fun sleeping outside and actually did some playing and reading in their tent most of the afternoon.

Even though we didn't really rough it too much, it was enough for Lady Di and myself. I'm sure we could have prepared a little better, but we didn't think we had to in our own yard. Lesson learned I guess. We know that we need a little more room in the tent for all of us and we need to pack warmer clothes, even in August. I think we will probably try this again but we will definitely include a few more comfort items next time. (blankets, TV, fridge, X-Box)

Roughing It

Last weekend we went on our first family camping trip. Some friends of ours invited us to go camping with them, so we thought it would be safe to go with someone who knew what they were doing.

Lady Di was in charge of the packing. Since she is more prepared than a Boy Scout, she made sure we had everything plus two kitchen sinks. We loaded up an RV we borrowed from our other friends and hit the road.
Fifteen minutes later, we were at the campsite. Did I mention the campsite was very close to our home. Just in case we had forgotten a necessity or two. I didn't want to be stranded in the wilderness without a proper DVD to watch.

We arrived at the campsite ahead of our friends, so we set up our camp. Lady Di unpacked the food, set up chairs, and brought out bags of art supplies and games for the kids. I think she even chopped some firewood and chased a grizzly away. The kids and I hopped on our bikes and raced to the lake. Sweet Pea wiped out on her bike two minutes into our stay. Two band aids later and we were racing down the bike path to the lake. Lake Independence has a long sandy beach. The kids and I had fun throwing stones into the lake. I tried to teach the kids to skip stones. The kids were more interested in finding the largest rock to make the largest splash. We then found the playground and the kids played on a zip-cord. The zip-cord had a cable connecting two platforms with a hand grip which rolled along the cable from platform to platform. Like something you would use in an action movie when the hero throws a sock on each side of a rope and slides down to safety from a burning building.
We biked back to the campsite where Lady Di had the RV ready and snacks out. The kids then played in the woods while I put up a tent. This tent was new to me and I was just as surprised as Lady Di when I finished and it actually looked like a tent and didn't collapse immediately.

Our friends showed up later that afternoon and we had a cook out and bonfire complete with smores. And nobody got a flaming marshmallow stick in the eye. We all retired to our campers to get some sleep for all of the swimming we were going to do the next day.

The next morning brought a light mist with it. It was overcast and cold. The kids played in the woods and found enough mud to cover themselves from top to bottom. After a couple hours I went into the trees to call the kids back for lunch. They all came back except Number One Son. He wasn't in the trees anymore. He was in another campsite posing for a picture with six or seven other kids. He had made some friends and their parents were taking a group picture with him in it. I asked if they had an extra kid and they said, "Take your pick."

After lunch, the rain really started to pour. I thought to myself, "What would survivorman do if he were stuck in the middle of Minnesota, in the rain, with nothing but a fully stocked RV?" I guess he would grab some snacks and play cribbage until the rain stopped.

Since it was raining cats and dogs, the Moms decided to do some of their 'camping' at the local Target store. "We'll be right back.", we heard over the squealing of mini-van tires. I didn't know tires could squeal in mud. The Dads were left with four young campers with sugar highs and cramped quarters. A short five hours later the Moms returned. To their credit, they did drop their Target bags immediately to free the Dads from the stake that the kids had tied them to. It was lucky that the firewood at our feet was still wet from the rain.

Well, the rain did not stop all day. It continued into Sunday as well. We cut our camping trip a little short due to the weather, packed up, and went to Perkins for brunch.

Swimming in the lake kinda got rained out but we still had fun. The kids got to do art projects and watch movies. They got to explore the woods and went on leaf and pine cone hunts. We got to relax, eat and visit. Plus we got to sleep in a rockin' camper. For some reason, even every day things are always better in a camper. We would like to thank our friends for inviting us. We also want to thank our other friends for the RV loan. In spite of the weather, it was a great weekend to celebrate Lady Di's recent achievement. Stay tuned for more on that.

So to sum up, I would highly suggest camping to anyone who is interested in getting back to nature and roughing it. All you have to do is:

1. Get a camper

2. Plug in your portable DVD player

3. Go to Target to shop

4. Go to Perkins for brunch.

That is all there is to camping. It's not so hard. I don't know why people think camping is so tough.

This was the 'grizzly' that kept us up all night. (snoring)