Camping Trip

We just got back from three nights up at Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth. Our new tent worked fine and easily accommodated three sleeping bags, one crib, and three large duffels, while keeping us dry in the rain and mostly warm in the cold.

It rained all day on Monday, our first day there. We dumped our day's camping/hiking plans and hunkered down in Duluth's Depot Museum for the day. We let Amelie crawl all over while the rest of us explored the Children's Musuem and the Railroad Museum.

My favorite part was when Amelie took her nap on my chest!

We set up camp in the late afternoon. It was wet, cold, and misty - but at least it wasn't raining any more! Nothing tastes as good as a hot dinner over the campfire when it's cold out.

The best part about our campsite was that we were right next to a huge rock cliff that was perfect for climbing. Isaac and Elizabeth scampered up it that first cold, damp night, but it took me until the next day to give it a chance! It was about 25 feet high. It was a pretty easy climb up a crevasse except for a few feet that you had to leave the crevasse and climb up the face. That's them at the top in the next picture.

It got down to about 35 degrees that night. We huddled in our sleeping bags as soon as we finished dinner and managed to stay warm.

Tuesday was cool and cloudy, but we made it into a great day for hiking. In the morning, we crossed the swinging suspension bridge over the St. Louis River (very cool and gorgeous!) and climbed rocks to our little monkey's heart's content.

After lunch and a rest, we headed out for an 2.7 mile hike. We even saw the sun for parts of that! The hiking was rated as "moderate difficulty," which made it really fun for all of us!

We spent the evening eating and relaxing. Each night, Isaac and I cleaned up and went into the tent with the girls at bedtime. It was so cold that I didn't want to leave it! So we put them to bed and read until we got tired. Amelie slept horribly each night, crying loudly in her sleep and sobbing even when she slept in our sleeping bags with us. Isaac and I were lucky to get about 4 hours of sleep each night, so we tended to stop reading and conk out pretty early!

The next day we headed up to Duluth. We browsed in the Maritime Museum and watched a big ship go through the lift bridge. We rode the trolley and played at the bayfront playground. Amelie thought that the rocky beaches of Lake Superior were made for her very own eating pleasure.

Elizabeth turned into a roaster extraordinaire. Her favorite (no surprise) is s'mores, but she calls them "traps" because she insists they should be called what they look like. She's also good at roasted grapes.

Once the ground finally dried out a bit, Amelie proved her crawling skills all over our campsite.

This is the only family picture we took this week! (If it can only be good of one person, I guess I'm selfishly glad it's me!)

We are now home. Piles of campy-smelling laundry have taken over our basement. A ground tarp is drying on our front lawn. The food boxes and camping supplies have yet to be unpacked, and the house is partly a mess.

But you know what? We're all clean (finally) and we're doing it again in three weeks! Woo-hoo!