Blowed 'em Up Real Good

Had to cross state lines! Yep, this is what 12 year old boy normal looks like. You should have seen their faces when I told them an open weigh station on the Minnesota border was a fireworks confiscation check point.

Hey, I have to have my fun too.

Sam now wants matches, lighters, and combustables for his birthday.

Jay Cooke State Park and the End of the Munger Trail

It wouldn't be a vacation without some sort of swinging bridge to scare your mom. I went two steps farther than this picture to take the next ones!

Jay Cooke is beautiful, although we still don't know how to spell it. Several signs throughout the park had different spellings. Jaye Cook Jaye Cooke, Jay Cook. We'd like to go back there and camp someday. Sam and I both picked out a few rocks we'd like to climb (him) and sit and stare on (me).

Hiking up in the bluffs. Gorgeous. Charlie was getting tired, though.

So after Charlie pooped out, we went back to the picnic area, had some lunch, and read and napped until Darren finished his ride. Of course he had to go to the end of the trail!

Back to camp for fishing, BBQ ribs and grilled corn on the cob. Fun Father's Day!

Moose Lake State Park

While Darren was riding the Munger Trail, Sam and I decided to add more stamps to our State Park Passport.

So, we spent an hour or so exploring Moose Lake State Park. Sam is a rock hound, so he enjoyed the Agate and Geological Center at the visitor's center. Think we're going to have to join the Hiking Club too. This would have been a fun park to hike in, if he rain hadn't rolled in!



We both thought that Moose Lake SP seemed a little sad and unused. Maybe it was because of the weather, but it seemed a little more worn than other parks we've visited.

Echo Lake was pretty, but you could hear the "ocean" (aka the freeway). There's a nice swimming beach and fishing pier.

Looks like we're going to have to return. The raspberries (blackberries? black raspberries?) weren't ripe yet.

Date Date Date Date

Kid was at a friend's cabin, so we got to catch up on date night*.

Sort of a United Nations Theme?


Date 14/52 You're a Turkey. Lunch at our favorite Turkish Restaurant, Black Sea. Best service and food in town. Follow them on Facebook or check out their website. And if you go, and they ask you if you want to wait, say yes. And then thank us.

Date 15/52 Dinner and Movies. Dinner from Casa Lupita our favorite taco joint and watched The Road (depressing, but true to the book) and When in Rome (don't bother, probably lost a few brain cells and I fell asleep well before the end).



*Date night is when you make a joint New Year's Resolution to go out on 52 dates in 2010 with your spouse and then feel guilty when you realize just how hard this is to fit in. We should be over halfway there! Ahhh life with kid...

Father's Day!!

Our annual Father's Day surprise trip was to Banning State Park, so D could ride the Munger Trail. Banning is so close to my hometown, it felt a bit weird to vacation there! D loves to ride, so Sam and I knew this would be a great trip for him. Charlie came along. He's still too little for the camper. He's easy to travel with, so it was no problem.

I'll post more tomorrow.

Scenes from the Campsite

Watching a fire was a sure way to de-stress an almost done sixth grader who still had a boatload of stuff to do.

Good thing he's cute.

Because yes that is the pan on of hash browns that he knocked off the picnic table.

We share the best laughs and chats around the fire.

Charlie the world's first levitating dog. Not levitating at the moment.

Can't be nature boy all the time.

Jeffers Petroglyphs

This was a highlight for Sam. He loves anything the Minnesota Historical Society can throw at him. I didn't think he'd be as excited as he was, though. We had a great time walking the trails, trying to see the petroglyphs, and checking out the Buffalo Rub.

Buffalos have evolved with WHEELS down on the prairie.

The path out to the 'glyphs.

"No. Oh, there it is." We did a lot of that. Sunrise or sunset are the best times to visit. It was cloudy, so, like any good traveler, we made the best of it. They're in the process of starving the lichen (the green stuff), so only half of the petroglyphs were available to view.

It's there. Look harder. :)

Check out the fish.

An atlatl. The rubber tomahawk of the Jeffers Petrogyphs.

Damn, My Sun Bonnet was at the Cleaners

This was a big moment for me. The Little House on the Prairie books still rank at the top of my all time favorites. Visiting the site of their dugout had me revisiting the stories in my mind. It's well worth the trip if your kids have read these books.

The owners of the site are restoring the prairie. The flowers were amazing.

Sam loved watching the grasses as they waved in the wind.

Plum creek was clear and full of minnows. I could just picture Laura and Mary playing here.

Walnut Grove was a sad little town. There's a nice campground outside of town near the Wilder Pageant site.

After we left Walnut Grove, Darren let me have one more moment. We drove to Sleepyeye. Seems Mr. Edwards was always going to Sleepyeye. There was a nice small campground there too. I could see why Mr. Edwards was always going to Sleepeye. It was much nicer than Walnut Grove.

On to Jeffers. More tomorrow.