Day 16

Shortly before we went to bed I checked the radar.  It's so nice to have a campground with wifi!  Weak and tempermental wifi, but still a connection!  There was a 0% chance of rain with clouds all night.  What a nice relief!  I checked the radar just to make sure and there was a massive storm heading directly our way from Minnesota.  I didn't know which one to believe as I'd seen a lot of information about how Lake Superior can really mess with the weather.  I prepared for the worst and got right to sleep as I knew I'd be up if there were a storm.

I woke up about every 2 hours to the quiet clanging of the bouy bells and a little wind in the trees.  I checked the radar each time and it looked like it would be hitting us about 3:30 or 4am and our rain percentage had risen to 90%.  I woke up at exactly 3:30am to chech the radar again and amazingly the lake had completely broken apart the storm and there was nothing left. Zero percent chance of rain indeed. Thank you, Lake Superior!  I fell back asleep huddled in my sleeping bag (my feet were still cold!) and didn't wake again the sun had risen.

The kids were all still asleep so I headed to warm up in the showers.  They were still snoring so I headed down some short trails to see what the mountains looked like for any photos.  As I peeked out the trail directly in front of us, I saw some lovely fog tucked in between the mountains so I headed to another trail to see if I could get a better view.

By the time I reached the end of the trail by the fort, the fog had all burned off.  The view is still pretty amazing though.  I stopped along the way at the parts on the outside of the fort we'd missed including their livestock, garden, and cemetery.

There still weren't any kids up when I got back so I decided to wake them up with a warm cup of hot chocolate.  Once they were warm I took them to their last shower for a few days as we were heading to a primitive site next.  They enjoyed that warm (and free!) water as much as I did.  I whipped up some oatmeal as they were packing their sleeping bags and we were all packed up within about 20 minutes.

All along I keep our stops secret as I don't want to get the kids' hopes up in case the place is closed, gone, or too far out of the way.  Today I told them as we were leaving that we were headed to a playground about an hour away.  They all said, "Mmm-hmm, okay." as if we were heading to the same old playground at home.  Little did they know it would be the biggest playground they'd ever been to!  We stopped at the Chutes and Ladders Playground in Houghton, MI for a very long break from the road.

Ryan and I played for the first 15 minutes by ourselves as the other 2 had made one unfortunate bad choices the last 2 days.  They walked up on the playground knowing they were not going to get to play on it at all as well as sit there are watch us have all the fun.  After about 5 or 6 times down the slides, I walked up and gave the last chance speech that this would not happen again and let them go.  I'm not sure I even heard what they said as they raced away with their shoes flying off behind them.

See those tiny people waving up there?

Here is the view from the top.

And of the adorable little town across the river.

After everyone eventually getting injured, we ended up back on the road to our next spot.  We were headed today to the Pictured Rocks National Seashore for 2 days to camp in the Hiawatha National Forest.  The drive was spectacular mostly along Lake Superior the whole way and through small little towns.

We first stopped at the Visitor Center to get some maps and get the kids' park passports stamped.  The ranger told us where to go to book a boat tour of the rocks so we headed there next.  Brayden opted for the 7:30 sunset rock cruise so we will definitely be headed in search of sweatshirts for everyone tomorrow!

We went set up our spot and start dinner as it was getting close to dinner time.  Everything takes at least double the amount of time when you are camping so planning ahead is definitely the key. Brayden grabbed us a wheelbarrow full of firewood from the camp host and we stayed put for the night.  We had such a nice fire it was definitely time for s'mores!

The kids worked on journals and we read all but the last chapter of our book as we'd be meeting up with Grammie (and losing a kid a day).

The air was already bitter cold for us Floridians and wet with fog.  We all slid down in our sleeping bags with socks and hats on tonight!  I have no connection or signal at all at our site tonight, so I put everything away in case of rain. There were lots of campers all around us, but I didn't hear a sound.

Quote of the Day: "I'm just saying, you're never going to get us to leave here." by Ryan at the Chutes & Ladders playground.

Day 15

Well, of course it rained but not especially hard and all and by the time I went to bed it had basically stopped.  I forgot to tell my brain to wake up for the sunrise so we all ended up sleeping in until well past 7.  How nice!!  We tried to call Dave as I had a very tiny signal, but he couldn't talk and by the time he could our signal was gone.  The kids were ready to move on to the next park, so we packed up quickly and were on our way.  

Our first stop was a copper mine as this area was a major source for copper in the early 19th century. We ended up having a private tour as we timed it just right to be the only ones ready.  The kids thought the tour guide reminded them of Dad because he had a beard and a baseball hat on.  And when he introduced himself - his name was Dave!

 Our first stop on the tour was downstairs in the building to learn what copper looks like.  We felt the difference between the basalt and basalt with copper.  It was SO heavy!

Next we put on our hard hats and were ready to head to the mine shaft.  The kids were so excited when they saw we get to ride in this!  It's definitely not related to the mining, but still fun!

 
Inside we learned about how copper was mined, the life of a miner, and so much history.  Our guide was awesome!  As in all of our cave & mine tours before, there was a point were the guide lit the candle just like they would have had back when they were first mining.  He blew it out to show us how it would look if their candle went out.  Laney just refused to let it be dark!  She was so scared and since she had control with her light on her helmet she just kept turning it on.  Finally I had her come be next to me wrapped in my arms and she allowed it.  She still had to have her hand on the light button though!

At the end of the shaft we ended up at this beautiful overlook.  It was actually to show us below where the plain basalt would be dumped, but the view was great too!

The kids learned a bunch and enjoyed the tour so much, they each tipped our guide a little bit and we got on our way.  And just look what we found?!  Fresh strawberries and local maple syrup?! Yes please!

Just as the gps said we were about 30 minutes away, we entered what seemed like a forest with dense, tree-lined roads full of curves.  My favorite!  All the kids were reminding Laney to keep her head up as she was playing her ds.  I just turned up the music and drove.  I kept smiling thinking I was going to get to drive it tomorrow back out too! We drove into Fort Wilkins State Park which is tucked on a little peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior.  Our campsite was nice with a view and walkway down to the water.  It was sprinkling (of course) while we were setting up, so we headed to the camp store for quarters for laundry.  Three minutes later when we walked out it was sunny so we turned around and headed to the fort next door.

There was so much for the kids to do and learn about here!  This fort was built as a result of the copper mining boom to keep the peace between the miners and the Chippewa nation who had sold the land to the U.S.  They learned about life as a married enlisted family, how the officers and their families lived, how the troops were all fed, what practicing medicine was like, as well as what people did without electricity, running water, email, etc.

We heard some small rapids nearby so the kids enjoyed a few minutes of "pooh sticks" with pinecones and sticks.

What is it that attracts kids to canons so much?

Next up? We had to go find some Michigan ice cream.  The flavors were tasty, but nothing to scream about so we're going to try again.  My kids are not only playground, campground bathroom, and science museum snobs, now their ice cream snobs too?!

On our way back from the small town nearby, we stopped at the lighthouse overlook for a view.  The pictures today have been taken with my phone so I'm sure it looks like nothing spectacular, but it was very pretty.  This lighthouse you can only get to by boat for a tour.

The kids would rather throw rocks today than go see a lighthouse anyway.

Once we got back to the campsite, I started on the wonderful task of laundry.  We settled in by the fire for potato soup for dinner and one of our neighbors graciously brought us a dutch oven with the rest of their peach cobbler inside - delicious!  Brayden says it's not as good as Mrs. Darcy's though! 

Once I got a load of laundry finished, we read a couple chapters by the fire and one more snuggled in bed.  The kids need their rest tonight as apparently they have been working on a big show to be performed at the playground in the morning.  Laney said it's a little bit dangerous so I'm not sure how much I'm going to like this one!