A weekend at "home"

We planned a little Staycation this weekend but still spent some time of the road. Saturday we rebuffed two more distant beaches for a man-made gravel bottomed swimming hole that is only across the river from the house. As it happens this was also the last day the swimming hole was open as it was to close for the winter. It was by far the warmest waters we have swam in all year, having got quite used to the great lakes and the summer norms of mid sixties, the bathwater like water was a nice change. On Sunday we headed down to Appleton and took in a mid day baseball game in which the Timberrattlers hosted a Cedar Rapids team. Not the the kids nor the adults paid much attention to the game except when the benches cleared. Bench clearings are different in baseball than in hockey, it appears in baseball everyone just runs out (including the bull pens with both teams jogging together) to be seen, rather than in hockey where you tend to grab the closest person and hit them. A beautiful day and the kids played in a monster sized sandbox and a large swing set taking a break only to eat some cotton candy and hamburgers. Monday found us on the road again as the kids came to work with me to get some things prepared. We found time on the way home to stop at a park as well as fly the kites that I keep in the truck. It was our first good kite flying of the year and Merrick just kept telling me that "I got the hang of it dad" and then giving Sophia unsolicted albeit good advice. Merrick was master of the spiderman kite, and was even double fisting the line as he pulled in and gave slack to keep the kite aloft. This is such an improvement over the last time he double fisted anything.

Sharks and Ships

A theme week that appears is going to continue. Amidst a flurry of activity around the home front Shark week sneaked its way in like a remora to our busy lives. Not to go unnoticed we donned our appropriate attire and watched some of the new footage to come out this year. We again loaded up the family truckster, which is getting accustomed to racking up the miles this summer, with luggage and technology and headed out early on Friday morning with a bearing set for Ohio. Piled the kids into the truck at about 3 am and we were off. Pretty smooth sailing all the way to Tom and Jane's place and with an ipad, gps, dvd player and two cell phones with internet capability (and likely gps as well) we had more technology than the first space shuttle, so finding Defiance, Ohio should pose no problem. The kids traveled well and we all got a little gitty in the final hours on the road as we spun tails of the elusive "snagglefart." At first Sophia was intrigued by the snagglefart, having never seen one. Merrick immediately hated the snagglefart, in true Grouchy-smurf fashion, "I hate snagglefarts" He warmed up to them later and even thought that he would eat a snagglefart burger if we could find one on a menu. Sophia thought that snagglefart might be a figment of my imagination, particularly when I mentioned that there were only adult snagglefarts and no babies. Saturday found us on Tom and Jane's Sailboat on Lake Erie (Sandusky Bay) there was a little wind but enough to go out and give the kids a taste of sailing. That night we stayed at Castaway Bay, a big indoor water park near the harbor and after waterslides and sailing ships the kids themselves castaway the day for dreams of night. Sunday we were back on the docks and Merrick was right at home, hollering to Tom before boarding "Ahoy Captain!" Sunday was much better for sailing and enough wind to heel the boat with just the head sail, the kids were a little less interested in the boat leaning on it side but Lisa Captained the boat around the bay. Sophia also gave one of her arcade trinket winnings, a pirate flag, to Tom for his boat. Sophia got a little 'fuzzy in the head" from the boat but a little swimming in the pool at he yacht club seemed to be the perfect cure for sea sickness. We got up early again on Monday morning and hit Chicago traffic and our own travel wall--I think we are staying home for a while and give the rubber tramping a rest--although next week is a Tall Ships festival so we will see what happens...

Flash Floods and Fires

The forecast was terrible, and included flash flooding, torrential rains and even a tornado warning. We were driven by the need to use a graciously loaned pop up camper and we wouldn't be deterred. With camper in tow we headed south on Thursday night to Harrington Beach State park. A park that Lisa and I spent a lot of time in while living in the area more than a decade ago. The clouds and rain made it as dark as night as we drove down even though it was only about 5 in the evening. There were only a few sites that were allowed on first-come first serve basis and we wanted one of them. As it turned out we were able to get site 231, a very desirable site and before the weekend was over we had about 5 different groups stop by and ask when we where leaving because they wanted our site. All the a side when we pulled in on Thursday evening there was an stream running through the middle of the site that was at least mid calf deep (on me not Merrick). The camper went up like a dream and it was because of the camper that we even went with such a forecast, figuring we could always just hang out inside drink coffee and play games. The kids loved it and I don't think Lisa will ever camp any other way. We headed into town to a restaurant we used to visit often, Nieslet's Country Inn. By the time we returned the 'stream' was gone. The rest of the weekend weather was pretty nice, sunny during the day and only raining at night--still it was no place for a tent and we were happy to wake up high ad dry. We fished a bit at the quarry in the state park, Lisa being the only one to catch any fish. We were using slip bobbers and Merrick's cast resulted in all of his line unspooling into the depths of the quarry. Apparently his spiderman bait caster didn't have the line tied to the arbor and the sinker/slip bobber combination just lead to a complete unspooling. Sophia quickly lost interest in fishing and really just wanted to hang out at the table in the camper and color and draw. Standard evenings of campfires and smores made a little nicer by being freshly showered. I did have to talk to the ranger, or rather the ranger had to talk to me, because Merrick was peeing on a tree next to the road. Apparently this is not an acceptable practice in a state park. The ranger suggested I walk him up to the bathrooms. I suggested that I would have him pee near the back of our campground because I wasn't going to walk a three year old up to the bathrooms every 15 minutes. Although we agreed to disagree, no citations were given. Had some nice hikes and the kids even got to ride a trolley around the park on last day there. Harrington is very good for geocacheing and we had a couple of good treasure hunts and one that we never did find anything. Sunday was beautiful and we headed to the beach before going home, found a nice strip of sand that nobody else was using and headed over. The algae had washed into that area and the smell was not at all pleasant, Merrick and his weak stomach start gaging and then into full vomiting of cheetos and chocolate all over the beach and he kept puking until we got him up wind. Obviously we swam up wind the rest of the day. All in all a very nice weekend in the camper, the dogs were fine in the campsite (albeit completely exhausted from the hikes) meaning no kennel fees. No kennel fees, borrowed camper all added up to a pretty cheap weekend in the woods. So long as we don't figure in our new "need" for a tent camper.