Day 14

I'm not sure why my dreams when I'm camping are so vivid and I remember them so easily.  Might be because I kinda sleep with one eye open like a mama bear.  Might be because sometimes they're especially creepy.  Last night's was up there for creepy for sure.

Ever since we'd been in Wisconsin, the ticks have been seeking us out and trying to come along on our trip.  Each child has encountered at least 2 stuck to them and they've been crawling all over the tent looking for a way in it seems.  Each night just like my mom did when I was a kid, I check all three of the kids for ticks. So of course I dream of ticks.  And not just one or two.  In my dream I had 8 lovingly attached to my back.

So then I have to start figuring out how in the world to get them off.  I have tweezers but do I trust my kids to get over their eww factor and get them?  Or do I go to the campground office young lady and embarassingly ask her if she'd get them?  Or do some kind of pretzel move and attempt myself? Rub my whole back against a brick wall and hope for the best?  Turns out in my dreams the campground has a magical spray that makes them detach and all is better.  If that already doesn't exist I'm totally inventing it.

With the clouds and the rain earlier in the day, it was especially cold last night so we slept with the windows up.  Being in the woods with the windows up makes the inside of the tent a lot darker than normal so we all were able to sleep in a bit.  I finally got up around 6 to go to the office for wifi to be able to send pictures to be printed for the kids to work on their journals.

Once I got back, Brayden was up and the girls weren't too far behind him so we went ahead and packed up to catch the 9am ferry.  If we'd have hurried just a little bit we would have been able to catch the 8am ferry, but we just got there a little early and ate breakfast in the car while we waited.

Once we were loaded up I handed Ryan the camera and she began shooting anything and everything. She even got a picture including me which barely ever happens!

Here is the little town of Bayfield.  I just love all the boats!  I don't imagine you could live here without one.

Next stop was the Apostle Island National Seashore Visitors Center so the kids could stamp the park passports.  We also stayed for a movie about the history of the islands.  I wished we had been early enough a few days before to stop by here before our stay, but I was nervous about the ferry situation.  We also stopped at the Northwoods Visitors Center for a little while to check out all the exhibits.

We learned a lot about the history of the area as well as the changes logging and modern life has caused.  There was a great display on how the Ojibwe life has changed over the generations.  I read a quote that I really liked about how people should think not just about their children's or grandchildren's generations but the seventh generation when it comes to environmental issues.  The kids loved the interactive displays and I loved the education and message!

Laney checks out a picture of girl scouts camping almost 100 years ago.

Next we picked up the photos and stopped for a big stock up on breads and fresh fruits.  We were running very low!  Tonight we will feast!  Once we got back on the road it wasn't very long until we made it to our next state!

We stopped in at the welcome center to check out local events and must sees then got back on the road to our next stop - Porcupine Mountains State Park.  We were still to be camping on Lake Superior just a couple hours to the east and directly on the water.  The kids were itching to play on the rocks the second they saw them!

Since the day was still clear we decided to head to a couple of must-see lookout spots to check out the views.  We were all pretty tired, but I was nervous about the clouds rolling into the area in the morning so we left the rocks for these gorgeous views.  These are from the Escarpment Lookout over the Lake in the Clouds.

And these are from the lookout tower at the mountain summit.

By the time we got back to the campsite we were all starving so I cooked while the kids played on the rocks, promising not to get wet.  That didn't work out to well.

Then they started a camp ball homerun derby.  Poor Laney didn't fair to well so she just joined me on the rocks for these pictures.  As you can see it looks like there might be rain in our future so I brought everything in for the night and we headed to the tent in an attempt to stay dry.