Finally by 8am, all the kids were rolling around mostly ready to start the day. On our trek to the nicer bathroom sans spiders, we discussed the options for the day and the kids chose packing up and eating breakfast in the car to be able to get on the road. We had a busy drive ahead of us so I made sure to pack a bunch of snacks and get the current audio book, The Grimm Legacy, ready to play. So far this book has been a big favorite as the kids draw or stare out the window hanging on to the reader's every word. They think Dave should listen to it while we're gone!
Once we were packed up we said goodbye to the beautiful, towering trees of Johnson Sauk Trail State Park and headed toward Chicago. We made one quick stop on the way out of the park at the round barn on the property. When the kids heard "barn" they thought animals too, but of course this is a historic site of an old farm. The barn was beautiful and much bigger up close than the pictures I'd seen.
In all our travels we'd skirted about many big cities and gone right down the middle of others. I always forget about the toll roads though! Thank goodness I had quarters for laundry or Dave was going to be getting some bills at home! Our drive was pretty slow as there is some serious construction happening on the interstate, but we eventually made it to lunch with Katie at Burnt Toast in Algonquin. Once I told the kids where we were meeting, we all talked and laughed about the kinds of food a place called Burnt Toast would serve. Of course the food was much, much better than our version! Even though I'd just seen Katie down in Florida for a lunch event, it was nice to be able to sit and talk and definitely to meet each other's kids! She was wonderful in giving us some ideas on things to do while we were in the area too. The time flew by way to fast and before we knew it, it was time to get on the road to make it to our next stop. Ryan snapped a picture of us before we got back on the road!I set the GPS to avoid toll roads and it ended up being only an extra 15 minutes and I'm sure the drive would be quite a few more back roads as well - definitely more entertaining for the driver! We called Dave as we do on many drive days and he just happened to be on the phone with Brayden as we crossed the border!
We made it to Devil's Lake with plenty of sunshine and the kids spotted the lake as we drove up. I chuckled as I knew there was no way they would actually swim in the frigid waters, but agreed to take them down after we'd set up. The campground is nestled into a ridge overlooking the road to the lake and is surrounded by gorgeous trees. We bought a bundle of firewood at check in as I knew we'd be able to enjoy a fire with the cooler weather. After set up, the kids hopped into their bathing suits and we headed down to the lake for a "swim". They noticed other kids way out swimming around so they thought it couldn't be that bad. Until they stepped in.
They all immediately folded their arms and stood there shifting their feet back and forth. They refused to get out though and eventually ended up finding some rocks and splashing a little bit. Once the sun hid behind the rocks, it was definitely time to get back and eat. Brayden requested one of his boy scout favorites - pizzadillas - only wish I'd had some fresh veggies to put in there too! We enjoyed our first fire of the trip and headed off to bed quite a bit later than normal.
