Day 26, part 2

The pictures from our adventure have been received!  Here is my first paddler in my boat!

And Grammie is not so sure about this adventure.

After about an hour paddle we were up on the rocks ready to search for the cave!

Found it!  We crawled just past our guide up there and were able to see the water.  If we were brave enough we could have jumped in and swam under to reach a wide-open, huge cave. 

Here's the view outside and why they call it "Keyhole Cave".

Here is my next paddler!

And after a crazy triple-switch on the water, here is my third paddler!

We had such a blast!  All three kids are still talking about this adventure and are anxious to figure out how to get kayaks now!

Day 30

With all of us being up so late I late the kids sleep as late as they wanted.  Other than going across the border today we really didn't have any plans.  After I sorted all the laundry and wrote for a little while, I started pancakes and that roused everyone from their sleep around 8.  We are stuggling a little bit having three kids back together again as someone's routinely left out, a family kid triangle of sorts.

Once we got all packed up we headed to the visitors center for a look at the exhibits.  We'd stopped by the night before with Grammie but they were closed pretty early.  We learned a lot from the displays about how dunes are created and the wildlife that is in the area.  The area was once completely made up of sand dunes much like our beaches at home.  Now it's mostly forest within 20 feet of the beach.

They have tons of bird feeders all around the visitors center so there was lots of wildlife
there this morning.  Besides all the birds and hummingbirds we saw a wild turkey and I finally got a picture of the black squirrel we've seen so much over the last month.

As we were leaving the town I recognized some landmarks I was supposed to be remembering for some reason but in my old age I couldn't remember why.  About 100 feet after I was supposed to turn I realized we were supposed to stop at a huge sand dune for the kids to climb and rundown.  After a quick u-turn which completely confuses the kids, we were there and they were scaling this sand mountain. Here are all the kids struggling to make it to the top.  I think Brayden actually laid down at one point.

Here they come down!

After their 5th time down, they convinced me to go up but I had to bring the camera to get the view down.  It was quite a workout to get all the way up there!  Here is the view down - that's Ryan way down there at the bottom!

I ran down just before the other two and completely felt like a kid again scrambling down that hill. I was trying so hard to stay on my feet since I was still holding the camera.  I just couldn't stop laughing it was so fun!  I even got a big high five from Ryan at the end.  I think Brayden just enjoyed falling a bunch of times on the way down.

We only had about 30 minutes to the border but it had been about 2 hours since breakfast and I had some Canadian money to spend, so we stopped at the Tim Horton's and I let the kids get whatever they wanted.  All three picked a chocolate-covered, creme-filled, oreo-covered, chocolate donut.  I almost went into sugar shock just looking at the thing.  The kids dropped the rest of our Canadian money into the donation box for an organization for kids and we were back in the car.  I turned the music up in hopes they would come down from their sugar high long before it was over.

For the past 10 days in Canada and many in Illinois we'd driven by so many farms with wind turbines.  I finally found a barn and field I liked to take a picture of one.  While listening to Canada's public radio I'd heard about some controversy over a town not wanting to have them, but I'm not sure why.  I don't think I would mind them in my backyard and would definitely choose them dotting the landscape over an ugly power plant.  There must be some other reason against them I'm not aware of?

Not too much later we were on this gigantic bridge into the states.  My phone starting dinging and binging catching up to being out of the country for so long and within a few minutes Grandpa was calling the kids.  They have missed him so much and they all really enjoyed talking to another adult other than me and Grammie.  The line wasn't too bad to get back into the states.  Here is the view from the top of the bridge.

I always feel like I sound like such a goofball when I'm talking to the border agents.  Much of my time when I'm waiting in line is talking to the kids or planning our route.  I really need to think about what I'm going to say before get up there.  He just laughed at me, searched my cooler, and let us go.  I guess we don't look too harmless.  We sent texts to Grammie and Dave to let them know we were officially allowed back in and went on our way.

About another hour into our drive we stopped to stretch and enjoy the view of the lake.  The kids welcomed the time to walk around especially once they saw the sign to the stairs down to the lake.  They were down there before I could even grab my camera out of the car! They found a little river on the beach and decided to try to make a dam like the beavers we'd seen. After moving several sticks and rocks, they were successful for about 5 minutes until the sand eroded away.

With the promise of ice cream in the town next to our park, we were off again with big discussions about the different flavors they would have.  After a little bit of a search, we found a small store with giant scoops!  The girls decided on Michigan pot hole which was very similar to all the ingredients in their doughnut earlier that morning.  Brayden decided against anything local and ordered key lime pie.  Who needs dinner when you've got these scoops at 5pm?

 

We were officially in the thumb of Michigan now at Port Crescent State Park.  After we set up we started the 4th game in our series of campball.  Laney and I were determined to beat them for sure tonight.  They took an early lead with an error by the old pitcher and were up 2-0. After a few walks and a hit by that old pitcher, we were up 4-3.  In the bottom of the 3rd however, Brayden hit a pop fly to the fence and scored their winning run.  I guess our series needs to be lengthened if we're ever going to win it!

After the kids gobbled up grilled cheese, soup, and pears we headed to the playground.  They found some friends to play "Sandman" with so Laney could learn too.  There was a girl about Brayden's age playing that was so good with the girls helping them get away from Brayden so they had a lot of fun with her.

Before too long the sun was getting low so we headed back to our site for the kids to take
showers and check out the sunset. Conveniently, there was a paddle boarder crusing by right about that time.

Ryan stacked up our family of rocks - the 5 of us and Grammie - and we sat and watched the sun dip down into the horizon.  After reading for a little while, we were all out to the gentle sounds of the waves. 

Day 29

After I woke from a 9 hour sleep (yes!) with only a little bit of rain, I grabbed my computer and wrote until the girls finally woke up.  Laney had asked me to wake her up at 6:30, but I opted to let them sleep until they just woke up.  Which turned out to be 11 hours after then fell asleep.  I guess there were pretty tired too!

We grabbed the leftover pizza and fruit and headed to the beach for a picnic.  The wind had died down considerably so it wasn't too terribly cold to sit by the water.  While we were there a little moth decided to take cover on Ryan's shoulder while we ate.

With motivation of heading to the larger park before we left, the girls quickly got dressed and packed our site up to go.  This park was quite a bit bigger and definitely more fun. The girls have invented some kind of chicken game for the see saw now that causes them to erupt in fits of giggles about every 30 seconds.

Yep I'm that parent that lets them stand on the see saw and climb up the slide. I've loosened my parenting style quite a bit since quitting teaching.  And just look at those smiles!  We met up with Grammie and Brayden a few minutes later and were on the road to our next park before we knew it.

This drive was much shorter at just under 3 hours.  I gave the girls their Yes & Know books (they need to make these for adults) and I'm not sure they ever looked up.  When I checked in there was still someone in our spot so we left to find Grammie's place and grab some lunch. Pinery Provencial Park looked packed with people and I was excited about the program that afternoon and evening as we all learn so much!

Walking into Grammie's cabin took me back to Brady Bunch 1970s.  This place had algae-green, burnt-yellow, and plaid couches all over the living room.  Kinda like my house when I was 7!  The appliances may have been even older! The kids thought this was the coolest place ever with a bunch of old board games and VHS tapes.  I just stood there and smiled thinking about Greg and Marsha living here.  At one point Laney tried to find the bathroom but all she found was closets.  Grammie looked in the building outside and found it!  Technically, isn't that an outhouse?

We had a great lunch at a local restaurant and got some very good information about getting across the border.  Seems our server and her husband were trying to cross a few days before and there was a 3 hour wait!  She told us about a ferry close by they took that ended up being much quicker. Grammie would be trying to fly out in the morning, so options like that are critical!

Once we made it back to the park, we set up and finished the last of our fudge from Canada.  I could feel the circuits in my brain in shock from all the sugar.  Laney was actually drooling in this picture because I wouldn't let her take the bite until I was finished!

The program today was called Ooze and Gooze and it was down on the rive cutting through the park.  After a brief history lesson how early settlers changed the river and it's biology today, the kids were let loose.  They were instructed to get on life vests and hop in the water to get a giant scoop of the bottom goop and dig through it to find all the tiny creatures.  Once my kids heard they would be likely to find leeches they were out.  They just stuck by the naturalists on the dock and helped them dig around.  Brayden wasn't even to keen on that.

The girls loved it though!  They mostly found snail shells to put in the bucket, but the naturalists found bloodworms, little fish, mites, leeches, and dragonfly larvae.  One naturalist showed the us the smallest flower in the world - the duckweed.  It was smaller than the head of a pin!  We had to wait quite awhile for the girls to be ready to go, especially Ryan!

After examining all the other buckets, they stopped to pet this guy and we headed to the visitor's center to hike the Cedar Trail.  This forest is a rare black and white oak savannah with an extension trail to the beach of Lake Huron.  There weren't any trail maps left so we couldn't learn what the trail stops were marked for so we just made up our own and enjoyed the walk.  There were some deer exclosures along the way we learned were for scientists to study the plants to see just how much deer eat and how it is affecting the native plant species.

After a bunch of stairs we were back on the shore of Lake Huron.  We've figured out that this lake has lots and lots or rocks like Lake Superior.  Rocks are just begging to be skipped and put in pockets!

Brayden even taught Grammie how to skip rocks.  I think she was fibbing a little when she told him she didn't know how.  On her third attempt she made 9 hops!

Once the kids heard there was an outdoor theater, they wanted to perform a show for us so we went to find that next.  They performed two short stories - one a Robber Mystery and the other called the Misbehaving Dog.  They both were practically improv shows which ended up being quite funny.

Grammie walked with us back to our site and gave everyone bunches of hugs.  I depise goodbyes more than I despise collard greens and politics.  Despite all our plans to talk Grammie into staying she was leaving us today.  We even offered to pile up all our little mattresses like Princess and the Pea if she'd stay but she wouldn't go for it.  The kids sighed and pouted as they watched her walk down the street to her car.  













After we got our laundry in the washer, the girls were anxious to perform a play at the campsite for Brayden and me.  It was another mystery about a missing priceless watch.  These detectives were hard at work on their phones!  It turns out it was just on the rear windshield wiper of my car - of course!




After a quick snack, we put the clothes in the dryer and headed up to the night program.  We were armed with a blanket so we wouldn't freeze and saw a packed program when we got there!  It is so nice to be at a park with great programs!  I didn't bring my camera since it was a late program starting after 9 and it would be dark, but I really wished I had!  This program was hilarious!  The younger naturalists were playing the parts of people important to different eras of the park and they made it funny for the kids and adults!


Near the end of the program I was getting quite sleepy as were the kids.  I figured we'd been there about an hour, but it turns out the program was almost 2 hours!  My kids were going to sleep so late in the morning! We hadn't been up much past the sunset the whole trip!


We walked back down to the site and they practically collapsed in bed.  I walked back to fold the laundry and was so happy to get back into my sleeping bag 15 minutes later.  It was chilly again and I fell asleep within seconds.