My daughter broke into tears today because our plans for camping on Labor Day (Labour Day for our Canadian readers) were cancelled due to rain.  I wanted to burst into tears myself (mostly because I'd already done most of the preparatory work), but I pulled myself together and helped my 10-year-old pull herself together.  What a bummer!

Spent a lovely weekend with the love of my life in Chicago.  Visited the Art Institute (where we had our first date about 21 years ago) ate Chicago style pizza at Giordanos (best in the world!) and sailed on the tall ship Windy with the Chicago skyline outlined against the sunset.  Heavenly...  But, what made it all spectacular was my best friend and life partner, holding my hand...  even after 18 years of marriage!!! Sigh.

Minnesota camping!

Had a great time camping in Minnesota with our extended family.  Despite two nights of heavy rains, we were mostly dry in our tents.  We swam and caught sunfish, played games, learned about bats, and rode bikes.  It was a great camping experience!

This was Ben's first fish and it was so fun for Uncle Bret to share his love of fishing with another young convert.  Below, all-important nap-time!

We enjoyed holding our baby cousin, and had to share and take turns...  :-)

 

 A peaceful moment considering what to write in the journal!

 Tents that kept us dry during the storms!  Yay!

The tents held out despite the thunderstorms.  Above, the loaded down Jetta, which still managed to get about 30 mpg.  We filled every nook and cranny with some kind of camping gear!  Here we are heading home after four days of camping.

A little stranger...

We found this little stranger in our yard this week.  It seems that he may have lost his mommy.  Schwarz has been very busy barking at the little raccoon, letting him know that he is not particularly welcome at our residence.  Hopefully he'll find his way home.

Backpacking Saga II

 The terrain was beautiful, hilly, rocky and lots of trees.  We enjoyed a lot of shady resting spots.  Our usual hiking process is that Bret is the leader and I am the caboose.  He keeps us from getting lost and I herd the slow ones and encourage the frustrated, etc..

 Below you see the dog resting while still carrying his pack.  He tried, I've got to give him credit for doing his best.  I wonder what he was thinking.  Everytime we took a rest, he seemed to hope we were stopping for the night and when we got up again our 8 year old puppy looked at us like we were nuts.  Several times he just refused to get up! 

Well we all survived, and Schwarzie is truly part of our pack.  At the beginning he was the "slowest gazelle" (our term for whoever's last--you know what happens to the slowest gazelle!) and I was always turning around and calling him.  After we took the pack off the dog, he went a little faster and when he got ahead a little ways, he stopped and looked back for me.  What a sweet memory of my faithful puppy!

 There were several places where massive stones stood close but not touching each other like this.  Some places the path went between.  I found it a little claustrophobic!

There was one shady spot where Bret found a rattlesnake, we steered clear of that.  We saw very little wildlife, deer and the snake, but the ticks were prolific and we found several on our clothes and skin.

Backpacking Saga I

I may have only one part to the saga, we'll see how it goes.  The trip was a resounding success in that we all departed and returned (having travelled to and through Shawnee National Forest) with sound minds and bodies (at least as sound as usual).  Other than that...all bets are off!

We left with the best of intentions.  To arrive at the Garden of the Gods, stay one night, and hike the approximately 10 miles to Pounds Hollow Lake and swimming.  Then after two days of rest, to return to the Garden of the Gods (and our car) for the drive home.  Well, you know what roads are paved with good intentions...

;-)  So what we did not anticipate includes the following (and possibly many other things):  Schwarz's pack continually falling off his body and dragging on the ground, the VERY hilly terrain which exhausted us and the dog, late departure and slow progress (due in part to the dog stopping to lay down every time his pack fell off!), and more than 10 miles between our departure point and destination.  After a while we realized that Schwarz was not going to make it with the pack, so at 2:30 when we stopped at the top of a long hill for lunch, Bret cleverly built a travois.   This was a great idea, however no one could explain to Schwarz in a language he could understand what a great idea it truly was.  He remained unconvinced and did not pull the travois.  Bret did, however for about .5 miles before he realized that a travois on rocky ground is really noisy.  Finally we just split Schwarz's supplies between Bret and myself.

At about 8:00 pm (still 2 to 3 hilly, winding miles from our destination) we stopped at a street and waited for God to send us an angel.

Thank you Lord!  The angel arrived in the form of an older couple who stopped their pickup to see our pathetic and tired little troop.  They provided Bret a ride to our car and he then came to pick us up and drive us to our campground.  After setting up the tent we managed a quick swim (which helped the blisters) and then at about 9:30 I found myself heating soup for supper on our campstove.

We stayed the rest of the weekend at the lake, swimming daily and hiking short distances to points of interest.  We enjoyed each others company, grew in faith and knowledge of God's grace, and experienced a family adventure together.  It's definitely a story for future generations, plus, we came home with a new appreciation for the comforts of home!

Lessons learned:  Know the topography because it REALLY MATTERS when you're walking with a 45 pound pack on your back!  Talk to somebody who actually hiked there before, such as park rangers.  10 miles a day is a bit of a stretch for beginner backpackers.  Don't count on your dog to carry his pack!

Teens these days...

 We've been trying to keep in touch with our Canadian Roots.

Crazy Canadian Trivia is definitely worth a laugh, EH?