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.

Fort Ridgely! What a Great State Park!

I've been wanting to visit Fort Ridgely for a long time now. Sam is such a military history buff, I just knew he would love it here. We have the State Park Passport and have made it our goal to visit all 72 of Minnesota's State Parks. I was happy to get it stamped here.

Who knew Ridgely Creek was a clear, babbling brook and also a DNR trout stream? We're definitely camping here someday. The bottom was sandy/pebbly, and there were tons of minnows of all sizes. Sam got bit by the trout fishing bug here!

Sam could hardly get his socks off fast enough! This is near the picnic area, which they seem to use as overflow camping as well. Great rustic sites. The campground was great too. A family with a big tent and small kids had this little sand spit right in front of their campsite. We soon found out why their kids were having so much fun.

Charlie went along with us. He's too little for the kennel. He was a great traveler! He wasn't so sure about the water.

He tolerated a dip in. Check out those muscles.

Sam searched for minnows, tried to catch a few, and checked out the rocks.

After a picnic lunch, we reluctantly left the creek. I could have spent all afternoon there with my feet in the water and a book in my hands, but there was more to see. We toured the campground, checked out the only MN State Park golf course (which looked really hot and hilly), and saw the ruins of Fort Ridgely. Well, Charlie and I checked out the ruins, the boys went inside the museum. Very interesting.

I'm currently reading, Uprising by Dean Urdahl It's a novel about the Dakota Conflict that took place during the Civil War here in the Fort Ridgely area. I always like to read about places I've visited. This is an easy read, a bit fluffy, but enjoyable nonetheless. I love being able to actually picture the setting of the book.

We headed back to Redwood Falls in search of a fishing license, a trout stamp, and Darren's fly rod (which was conveniently stowed in the camper). Sam and Darren went to the designated trout stream at Ramsey Park and caught and released a few brown trout while I blissfully finished a book back at our campsite. Charlie ate some sticks and napped.

Hot dogs for supper and then early to bed for me. I had some kind of allergic reaction and got all stuffed up. Two Benadryl later I was silly, then sleepy, then comatose.

Camping in Redwood Falls at Alexander Ramsey Park

Olivia, Minnesota. The Corn Capitol of the Universe (or something like that)

Hiking to the Falls. Yes, they know I hate suspension bridges. Yes, they jumped up and down on it to terrify me. Yes, I survived.


The Falls

There were cool dudes like this carved into the benches and fence posts.

I've got a tank and some Twizzlers. What else does a boy need?

On the way to Redwood Falls, we stopped in Olivia, where my Grandpa Hank Vosika was from. I'm a sucker for giant monuments like this. Darren is still annoyed about a detour we had to take in Iowa to see the World's Largest Frying Pan. Hey, I'm willing to go to FRANCE to see the Tour. You can deal with an occasional giant ball o twine, right?

Apparently you can camp in the shadow of the giant cob. I think we'll pass. Saw the first signs of the Forest Tent Caterpillar here in Olivia. They like to fall on your head. Want to see me freak? Plop a caterpillar on my head.

Forest Tent Caterpillars are a natural part of the ecosystem (according to the MN DNR) and we love getting close to nature, just not that close. Later on in the trip, we all independently discovered that they have an alarming tendency to pop with a gag inducing snap when you smash 'em. They did bring in lots of woodpeckers and we enjoyed watching big guy D get the Heebie Jeebies.

The Vosika family Port-a-Pottie dynasty was somewhere around Olivia. We'll save that for another trip, but if you're the owner of said dynasty, I am a long lost cousin, leave your email address and phone number in the comment section and we'll have to get together.

We had a great time camping! First trip of the season! We always go North when we camp, so we decided to see part of Southern Minnesota on Memorial Day weekend. There were a number of places we've been wanting to visit and figured it's always chilly on Memorial Day weekend, it would be perfect to go South.

Ahh Minnesota. Temps were in the 90s Friday and Saturday. Dry heat my butt. Hot is hot. Thankfully, we arrived Friday night with just enough time to set up camp and explore the park. The sun soon set. Too hot for a campfire, so we headed into the camper to read, sleep, and avoid more plopping caterpillars. The temps dropped quickly into blissful sleep zone and we enjoyed sleeping in and waking to the birds singing.

It was a nice place to stay, surprisingly quiet, although it was full. They have a small zoo, gorgeous trout stream, and lots of places to explore. I think we're more State Park people, but the site we had was very private (#25) and we survived the bath and shower rooms which were, um, really gross. I'll never travel without our Stinky Pete (shower tent) again. (Last minute, I tossed it out of the camper, "there are showers there." Yes, there were.)

More tomorrow.