Back from the Wilderness

We're back! It was a beautiful place to visit -- and the only way to see it is to either kayak or backpack. We were in the "backcountry" for four days, hiking or backpacking on three of them. As you know, I had never backpacked before so it was quite an experience. The good news: I was able to use pit toilets and spare myself the whole pooping-in-the-woods thing. (There, I got that out of the way. I know you were all wondering.)

After a 10 1/2 hour drive, we spent the night in Copper Harbor -- the northenmost part of Michigan. Then we took the 3 hour ferry to Isle Royale. M was excited that it looked just like it used to look when he was a teenager, only smaller (as most things do as we grow up!) We got our packs on and headed over to the water taxi, which took us to Daisy Farm. Daisy Farm would be our home for two nights. The water taxi dropped us off at the dock and the boys and M checked out the map to see where we'd sleep for the night.

We basically had to walk around the campsite to find an open site. If no one was there, we could have it. We were lucky to not only find a site, but to find a shelter! I was so excited -- in addition, it was just a stone's throw from the lake (Lake Superior, that is.) We set up our two 2-man tents in the shelter just in case it rained (you can see the tent through the screen of the shelter in the picture.)

This is taken from the picnic table in our site looking towards the lake. M and R were filtering water when I took this picture. We filtered water twice a day so that we would each have 2-3 liters of water a day to drink, plus enough to cook and wash dishes with.

Now, about our backpacks. T carried about 14 pounds when we added his water for the day. We each carried our own sleeping bag, clothes, extra pair of shoes, and our own water -- plus food. (M and I carried the tents and cooking gear. The picture below shows what T carried: two ziplock bags with his clothes (one for shirts, undies, socks, and one for pants/shorts.) He also carried two dinners (dehydrated minestrone soup and beef strongenoff) and the hot drink bag (instant coffee, tea bags, cocoa bags, creamers, and splenda) and his fishing pole and reel.

R carried similar things to T, but a bit more. His food included some heavier things -- granola bars and oatmeal for each day. He also carried my air mattress, which I'm forever grateful.

After we got our camp squared away, we hit the lake. Both boys went swimming in their skivvies as did all of the other backpackers out on the dock. R stayed in the water for almost an hour and loved running and jumping off the pier. T was in the water too, but got out often to warm up on the dock.


After dinner ("Daisy Farm Tuna Mac" named by M) the boys and I played a mean game of Crazy Eights.

M and the boys tried their hand at fishing a few times, but with no luck. Later in the trip, we heard that it was a really bad year for trout.

The next day was our day hike up to Mount Ojibiway. It was a little more than six miles round trip. With the incline to get to the top, we were glad that we didn't have our packs with us. M carried T's pack as a daypack for our lunch (PB&J on tortillas) and water. R carried a hip pack with our first aid kit in it.

Some times we hiked through swamps, so the forest rangers built these boardwalks, which I loved.





The view from the top was stunning. We could see Canada, which was what the boys were hoping would be the case.

The next day we headed out for our second camp, Three Mile. It was a four mile hike with full packs. The last mile was a BEAR, and the first three miles weren't that easy either. The trail was clearly marked, but there were tons of tree roots and rocks just waiting to twist an ankle. The last mile was up and down over boulders. We were thrilled to arrive at the campsite and even more thrilled to get a shelter right on the water again.

Setting out on the trip at 9 AM, we were all in good spirits. R and T stop for a water break using our hydration bladders in our packs.
A few hours later they weren't so happy and fresh. They hung in there, but were glad to have a break. T rarely got tired, he was always raring to go. R got pretty tired and not so happy at times. Funny how that turned out...
With a little more hiking to do, we made it to our great camping spot for the night.

We woke up to see the sunrise and get an early start the next day. We had showers and comfy beds on our minds, and wanted to get to them as soon as we could. T took this picture of the sunrise at our campsite. Beautiful.

It's amazing how a swim, good dinner, and good night sleep can be so refreshing. The boys donned their bandannas and we took off for the Lodge -- 4 miles away.

Here's a view of the Lodge from the water - it's very quaint. It looks nicer than it is -- the rooms are like a Motel 6 room. It didn't have a TV, but it had a bath and a shower and two comfy beds. That's all we needed!


Here we are all cleaned up and ready say good bye to the island and take the ferry back to the mainland.

Renassaince Faire and Trip Prep

Last year we went to the Renaissance Faire for the first time and the boys loved it. R had a blast fencing with the "champs" of the faire. This year he convinced his brother to have a dual with him. Both boys donned fencing gear and had two balloons taped to their masks. The person who popped both balloons of his opponent first won.


R was very excited about this opportunity to "fight" his brother -- usually he's told not to fight with his brother. On this day, we encourage him, even paid for him to fight with his brother. You can almost see his big smile through his mask.

On the other hand, I don't think T was too excited for the match. Maybe he knew that he didn't have a chance since his brother is taller, has longer arms, and won last year two times...

Nevertheless, they went at it....and R won after a good match.
M challenged me to a duo and I crazily accepted. Talk about a height/arm length advantage! He beat me mercilessly -- even when I did take a slice at his balloons, those darn things wouldn't pop!

The boys also participated in a Peter Pan sword fighting class (never mind that Peter Pan used a bow and arrow....he taught sword fighting that day.)

Both boys really enjoyed the class and really got into it. (T had a bit more fun doing this than fencing with his brother.) The man who was Peter Pan did a really good job at engaging the kids in the class.



After they completed their training, the boys fought the bad guy, Sheriff John. It was a good show/class.







During a magician show, R volunteered and was up on stage for about 15 minutes. He even cracked a joke or too -- what a shy boy! NOT!





Isle Royale Trip
For the next week, starting tomorrow, we will be heading to Isle Royale National Park for a backpacking trip. Yep, you read that correctly, I am going backpacking. I don't really see the need for carrying everything that you need on your back, but M does and I love him, so we're doing it. Isle Royale is a place that he talked about on our first date. He went there for a few years in a row with his youth group and he loved it. He used to always talk about how he wanted to go back and take is kids there when he had kids.

Originally, he was just going to go with the boys because I had no interest in going. After all, we're talking about backpacking here. Carry all you need on your back; sleep in a tent; poop in the woods. That's not for me. I'm not a priss by any means, but come on...poop in the woods! But, as they talked about it and I looked at pictures of the beautiful place, I began to get jealous. So, I'm going. We're not really hiking far at all -- only about 4 miles a day (with loaded packs). Now, I'm really excited about it. (By the way, I think that two of the camp grounds we're going to have pit toilets. I never knew I'd be so excited about outhouses in my life!)

• I'm looking forward simply to making family memories..oh, and seeing moose.
• T's looking forward to eating gorp and seeing the cool wild flowers and picking thimble berries and fishing.
• R's looking forward to doing the day hike to Mt Ojibiwa because we'll be able to see Canada, and picking thimble berries.
• M's looking forward to sharing his fond memories with his family.

By the way, R's birthday is tomorrow and he'll be 9. How many 9 year olds have been backpacking? Probably not too many...and even fewer have been to Isle Royale.

And They're Off!

(Note: I posted two blogs today. Don't miss the one below this one.)

Yes, it's that time of year again. Time for the Chicago to Mackinac Island race. I heard on the radio that it's the most prestigious fresh water sailing race in the world. Wow!

For the first time, the boys and I saw M off in Chicago. Usually we drive up to "the island" as folks around the race call Mackinac Island and driving to Chicago too makes for a lot of driving.

We had a great time. We dropped M off at the harbor at 10:00 this morning for his 10:30 boat call (he wanted to do some adjustments on the boat before everybody got there.) It was pouring rain when we dropped him off. Not a good sign for a comfy race. He said that it was going to be a wet three days.

Then we went to Navy Pier in Chicago. The boys and I played around at the Children's Museum there for a couple of hours and then headed to the end of the pier to see M's boat parade by. We met M's folks, brother and sister-in-law at the end of the pier. It was fun because there were hundreds of boats out there already racing. M's fleet is the biggest and starts last (since they're so fast.) He told me that they'd be by at about 12:30 or so. At ten to one there they were! I yelled to him and he heard me and waved! What fun! We saw his uncle and cousin on the boat too.

I took this picture of them going by the Chicago Light House. He's gonna love the photo 'cause he sure loves the Chicago Light House.




Here's a closer up one of the crew as they sailed by. M's waving to us.

May the winds be swift. Good luck sailors!

Best In Show

I'm officially the coolest mom ever. It's true. If you don't believe me, just ask R.

You see, a couple of weeks ago I read that there was going to be a Guitar Hero competition for kids going into 3rd through 6th grades and I signed him up. You should have seen his almost-nine-year-old version of his happy dance! What he also loved is that instead of his usual 30-minute maximum of video games per day, I told him that since he was "in training" for the competition, he should practice an hour twice a day for the week before the competition.



And did he practice! His dad was kind enough to practice with him often. Notice the faces concentrating so hard during this riff.


After a week of intense training, the day came. I fed him a good lunch with protein and carbs to keep him going, then we were off.

As excited for R that I was, I didn't realize that I'd have to watch (and listen!) to FIVE HOURS of rock and roll! OHMYGoodness, did I ever have a headache when it was over. (I know, I'm old.)

Anyway, this is what we watched for five hours. We saw the backs of two boys for five minutes, then we saw the backs of two different boys for five more minutes. And so on and so on and so on and so on.... for FIVE HOURS.

Each pair of boys played two songs -- each boy got to pick one song that they challenged the other boy to play. You get points for the number of notes you get correct. Some kids were hitting about 70% of the notes correctly, then there were some in the 90%. R is better at some songs than others. He gets from 84%-97% right at home. I crossed my fingers.

When it was R's turn, R picked "The Metal" to play and he hit 96% of the notes correctly (rock on!) His competitor hit about 75% correct.

Then, it was his competitor's turn to pick a song. I held my breath, praying "oh, please be a song that R knows and is good at." The boy picked "Helicopter." I had never heard of it before. I quickly looked at M and he had a big smile on his face. "R rocks this song out!", he said to me. I breathed a sigh of relief. R got 98% of the notes right on that one!! I was a proud mama bear. (R told me afterwards that when he saw that the boy was going to pick "Helicopter," he thought to himself, "Okaa-aayyy, if you really want me to play this song, I'll be glaaad to play it since I LOVE it!")

As they began the competition, they announced that there would be a Best in Show award given to the kid who "rocked out" and had good showmanship during their performance. About an hour into it, we realized that no one was rocking out, so M and I encouraged R to have a blast and do his thing while he performed.

R did some awesome rock-and-roll-kicks when he hit the key chords when transitioning to the bridge of the song (don't I sound oh-so-rock-and-roll-ish with my jargon?)

You can tell by his stance that he was groovin' and rockin' with the rhythm. I was so proud, man! I was cracking up and crying with pride the whole time!

After the first song, I put my camera away so I could watch. That means that you won't be able to see his turning-around-backwards-and playing-without-looking at the screen stunt. It also means that you won't be able to see his "atomic knee drop" that he ended the show with. Let me tell you, I almost peed my pants! It was awesome.



And he was awarded for his awesomeness. He was given the award for Best in Show! Too cool, huh!

Only two boys from each level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert) made it to the finals. Believe it or not, but there were two boys who got 100% on one of their songs and they moved on. (I think that they were ringers and should have been competing on Hard, but R's cool with the results.)


T was there the whole time too, playing his Nintendo DS. Once during the competition, they had a competitor who was going to play Easy (R plays Medium) and they needed someone to play him, so T volunteered. He had a great time too and played better than he's ever played at home.

As a matter of fact, his competitor picked a song, Welcome to the Jungle, that he's never played before and he did pretty well on it.

Cub Scout Overnight

M was in charge of a wonderful Cub Scout overnight. It was all day on Saturday and then they spent the night. He did a good job of delegating (tough for him to do) so that he had four sets of parents in charge of four different one-hour activities during the day. The theme was native Americans and each boy was assigned to one of three tribes. When they arrived, they were given a blank neckerchief and told to think of their Indian name and decorate their neckerchief with that name. They also decorated slides to hold their neckerchief on -- and they got beads throughout the day to add to their slide.


As with all Cub Scout meetings, the flag ceremony is a very important part. There were 19 kids in all during the day. Not a bad turn out in the summer for a pack that has 25 kids in total.




R poses with a group of Cub Scouts who are excited to start their day of fun (R is in grey with a green neckerchief.) Each tribe has a different color neckerchief -- two tribes' colors are represented here.




I did a lot of the research for M for this outing. Here is T (with yellow neckerchief) playing one of the games I discovered. The kids would throw a feather, run, pick it up and throw it again until they made it to the finish line. You can see T's yellow feather in the air in front of him.


One of the activities was to make a fishing pole out of sticks. M cut down all of the branches for the project and another dad led the activity during the day. R is picking out his lucky fishing pole. It was so lucky that he caught a fish without any bait!





Nothing like a group of boys praying before dinner to warm your heart. (R is in the back in grey and T is in the back center in yellow.)




The kids made "candy apples" in the fire by coring an apple and shoving brown sugar and raisins in it and wrapping in foil. Cook for 15 minutes and voila! Tasty goodness!

Not the best picture, but I wanted you to see the beads that they were able to get throughout the day. T is putting his last bead for the day (given to him for performing in a skit).

After the campfire, there was a quick thunderstorm and then a beautiful rainbow to end the day. I went home to the luxury of my comfy bed (and allergy-free house) while the boys stayed in the tent. A good ending to a great day.

Week at the Club on the Lake

Two weeks ago we had our second annual week at the cottage. Just like last year, we stayed with another family. Just like last year we had a really nice time. Oh, there were lots of reasons not to have a good time: four days of 60-degree weather and thunderstorms; I was sick for three of the days with severe allergies. (Long story on the allergy front, but I had an ear infection, sinus infection, and a throat infection from allergies. AND I "grew into" allergy-induced-athsma! Total bummer! But, we won't focus on that.)

As my friend says, any day on the lake is a good day.

Since our weather in June is unpredictable, I packed lots of indoor activities to play. The boys and I also loaded up on library books before leaving. I also got little toys to hide in the sand so that even if it was too cold to go in the water, they'd have fun in the sand. Of course, any weather (except thunderstorms) is good sailing weather. And, almost any weather is good fishing weather. So, all in all, it was a good vacation. Here it is in pictures.

T had a blast using his new snorkel and goggles. I threw three dollars worth of coins into the shallow part of the lake and he spent HOURS looking for the coins. I think that he collected about $1.60 worth. Not bad for hours of fun.

M had a blast with the newest addition to our fleet -- a little Sunfish. While he was zipping around the lake with high winds, I could hear him yell "yahooo" from across the lake.

The boys are trying to get the baby dinosaur out of the "dinosaur eggs." This kept them busy for awhile and then they made houses in the sand for their dinosaurs.

M took T for a ride on the Sunfish. This is a sailboat that T actually likes to go on. He likes to capsize on purpose and then right it (with his dad's help.)

T also loved taking the kayak out for a spin. He said it was lonely sometimes when nobody went with him, but he'd go anyway if he couldn't talk someone else into going also.

The whole family fits on "Sabotage," the boat that M and R race on Sundays. Can you tell that I'm driving? (But, I'm obviously not paying too much attention to driving since I'm waving to someone!)

Fishing was an everyday activity on this vacation. We got a lot of pan fish that we caught and released. One keeper, a huge Rock Bass, was one that we ate because T loves to eat fish and couldn't believe that we weren't eating all of the 24 fish that he caught. He was quite pleased with the Bass nuggets that I prepared as a shore lunch one day. Here is R fishing off the stern of our friends speed boat (anchored for this occasion.)

I love this one of T checking his hook. I don't know if you can tell, but he has his life vest under his sweatshirt -- he looked like the Incredible Hulk.

The boys really wanted to catch Walleye - a tasty fish in this region -- but they only bite at night. They woke up really early(5 am) and went out to give it a try. They even used live minnows as bait. They didn't catch any walleye, but this was the trip that they got the keeper bass that we ate. They used our fishing canoe to get to the deep hole (50 feet deep) in the lake.


Here's the keeper in the live well. Hard to see it, I know.


The proud fishermen, facing the sun with closed eyes. But, very proud of their early morning outing.

I tried to go back to sleep after I saw the boys off, but I couldn't. So I crept back downstairs in my pjs and took these lovely sunrise pictures. Then I made a cup of tea and sat outside watching the sunrise, waiting for my men to bring home breakfast.

At the end of the week, we packed up and went home. It was a fun week at the lake....and it was nice to return home.

Specs

In October, we got both boys' eyes checked. R needed a new prescription for his glasses and T's eyes checked out okay. It was T's first appointment ever and we wanted to make sure that he didn't have the same problem that R did. T has a slight astigmatism, but nothing to worry about. Fast forward to April....within two weeks, T complained about a headache twice, and then finally said that things were blurry when he reads.

Three days later, we had him back at the eye doctor and it turns out that he also needs glasses for "up close work." It's not his astigmatism that's the problem, it's that his eyes have grown and changed and now needs glasses. So, he and M picked up some very snazzy glasses. M came home and told me that they were "trendy." Not sure what trendy means for kids glasses, but they are a cool shape and very blue. The pictures don't really show the color well (I'll have to take another picture in daylight.) Here they are as he was reading "If you give a Moose A Muffin" to me:

I asked R to put on his glasses so you can see both of them in their glasses glory. (I really do need to take a picture in the daylight; that flash isn't good. But you get the idea, right?)

After dinner, R asked if he could go outside and read. A bit later, T joined him with his box of pastels and pastel paper. What a great sight for a mom to peak out at! It's not too often that these boys are both quiet at the same time :>

Haiku revisited

The boys are bringing home a lot of things from school since it's the last week before summer vacation. R brought home something that he "published" (it was a poem he wrote that his teacher selected for R to type up on the computer. She put the finished poem on the wall at school.) Here it goes:

Forest

by R. Smith

Shady, oh so nice

Soft moss is under my feet

I feel a fresh breeze.

Nice, huh?!