Trip Up North

Friday we headed up to pick Fox up from Lake State. The boys loved going over the bridge and it was a gorgeous day.

They did a nice job talking about all the things the boys did during the week. They all had a great time with one relatively minor incident involving one camper (not Fox). They actually got to play around and program huge robotic arms, they made transitor radios, and also learned about GPS and did a hunt, they visited the Soo Locks one evening and got to watch a boat being passed through. Fox passed on the rapelling though. For his final project he made a robotic mouse that will follow a dark line on the floor. Fun times.

On the way out we stopped by Castle Rock, a Michigan tourist icon, to say hi to Paul and Blue. I though my thighs weren't going to make it up alllll those steps but I did. Ben enjoyed being king of the world when we were at the top. Then on to the cabin.

Saturday, after a morning of the boys playing war games in the woods and me enjoying some reading time, Rob got us all out on the trail and out to the oak ridge. Normally we've hiked farther but it was hot, I didn't have a lot of energy but I forged ahead and Fox was a pretty big lump himself. Ethan and Ben however thought it was awesome.

After we got back the little guys and Rob went into the river for some floating fun. Here is a video of Ben riding the tide. Remember the days of your youth? (See video at the end.)

Sunday we headed over the Hartwick Pines State Park. Of all the years we had been going up to the cabin neither Rob nor I had ever been there. We had no major plan, only that we hoped it didn't rain on us since the sky was starting to look a bit ominous. To our delight there was some good things happening in the park that day, one was a vintage baseball game but instead of staying to watch it all we opted to hit the old growth trail. Along the way we stopped at the chapel, I don't know what it is about a church or alter but many are compelled to kneel when they come across one, Ethan and Fox did just that when we walked in. As Ethan took a prayer position Rob read the Nature's Prayer in his old time evangelist preacher voice which gave us all a good chuckle.

We had a lot of fun exploring the old logging camp replicas they have and got a bonus of some craftmen doing iron and woodwork projects plus some cute sales booths. Ethan and Ben tried out some shanty boy bunks. Ethan and I got into checking out the logging stamps and seeing what they stood for, some were pretty funny. He remembered learning about them at the Sloan Museum field trip and also recalled a lot of things Mrs. Coppo had taught them during their Michigan history lessons as we walked around the displays. (See I am actually there, that's me on the trail in the orange.)

It started to rain on us but before we headed out of the park I wanted to stop by the visitor center and I was glad we did. As luck would have it they were have a Michigan Raptors program so we caught the second 'show' with a very friendly, part Native American handler from See North, a non-profit based out of Harbor Springs, Michigan. He had with him a red-tailed hawk, a barred owl, and a red shouldered hawk. The owl was so tame because she was imprinted on humans that he let the kids come up and get pictures with her at the end of the presentation. Ethan was the only taker for that out of my crew.

Now that's what I call summer!