We stopped back by the nature center this morning to be able to see all the exhibits inside and since it was drizzling, so did everyone else! It was packed but the exhibits were all very interesting and informative. There were animals in tanks, animal skins, learning activites, animal bones and feathers, a whole exhibit on the formation of the Dells and the Wisconsin River, and a ton of historical photographs of the area.
Ryan pulled me into a room to check out the mystery boxes. She loves these things, but only after someone does them first so she can be assured her hand will still be intact afterward. All the kids were grossed out when they realized what they were touching was called "poop on a stick". It wasn't actually poop. Just the name for a fungus.
Our path out of the park was through the other campground and I was so glad we camped in the Northern Lights section of the park. This campground reminded me so much of home with the sparse trees and flat ground. I'd much rather be tucked in the woods - here was out site - absolutely beautiful!!
Today was to be one of our longer drives so I'd prepared a bunch of snacks, movies and activites to hand back. The kids were actually completely quiet for the first 2 hours reading magazines I'd brought for each of them. Brayden's of course was Kids Sports Illustrated so he rattled off random facts for the first hour. Ryan's was an animal magazine which she traded with Brayden after she'd pulled out the poster and read everything. Laney's was a pre-teen girl magazine that neither of the others wanted to get near so she had it all to herself.
We were going to be meeting up with a cousin of mine today I'd met once when I was 4 or 5. I'd been to Woodhull, where the reunion was a few days ago, to visit all that family and see snow. She was a little older than me but I can still hear my Great Aunt Joyce say her name. Just before we stopped we just had to turn around to get a picture here since I'd missed the geographic marker 3 years ago in Indiana I believe. This isn't the actual official spot but close enough. And of course I missed the real one anyway just up the road.
Fortunately for us, she was camping on our route to our next stop so we met up in a town nearby for ice cream. It was great to learn a little more about my family as this other side has also been traced back to royalty, this time in Wales wow!
As we were chatting she mentioned we might want to go down the street and see the last log stacker in the world left over from lumberjack logging days. We enjoyed the walk down there and learned quite a bit at the visitors center. The kids enjoyed running an obstacle course across some tires even more and I appreciated the stretch with 3 more hours to go.
We settled in with a movie for the kids and music for me and were off. The gps said we would be at the ferry in just under 3 hours. I quickly checked ferry schedule as I remembered they were every half hour during the day and became more spread out through the night. According to the schedule we would get there with 1 minute to spare. Now you all know I'm a pretty competitive person. I have been known to throw games for fun for my kids to win, but also to practically run them over for a touchdown.
So I now have about 3 hours to make up some time to ensure our spot on the ferry as the next one would leave 90 minutes later. Little did I know I'd be driving curvy Wisconsin back roads. And do people in Wisconsin always drive the speed limit? It seems every time I passed someone I'd be behind someone else within a few minutes that was going 5 miles under the speed limit. Didn't they know I was racing against the clock here?
The drive was beautiful the entire way and the kids enjoyed more new books and listening to another cd of The Grimm Legacy. We made it to the ferry with 6 minutes to spare after a slow construction zone and being stuck behind a really long camper for awhile. The kids were shocked how cold it was after being closed up in a car all day! It was a quick but beautiful ferry ride and the kids enjoyed petting all the dogs along for the ride.
The town of LaPointe was adorable and we couldn't wait to get back the next day. We made it to our park, found our spot, and quickly set up. Our site had a nice little elevated spot in the grass that was just perfectly about the size of our tent. As I was putting on the rainfly I noticed about 41 slugs had already decided to make our tent walls there home for awhile so we unstaked and moved the tent back down to the gravel. I'm not a slug-hater, I just don't want to have to deal with popping them all off in 2 days when we take the tent down. If there is 41 now after about 10 minutes, no telling how many there would be by the time we leave?
We were all getting cold and hungry so we walked down to the camphost and picked up a pile of firewood. Tonight would be macaroni and cheese in the fire! It's definitely not the quickest method, but it sure was delicious. The kids played a cooking game over the fire while I cleaned up and after we read a couple chapters we went to bed. Tonight I we would have the tent windows zipped up as I already had socks on it was so chilly!
