Welcome to the Rock

We backpacked on Rock Island.  We packed light and traveled fast.  We didn't need to do either.  We left early in the morning and headed to the tip of the Door to jump on the first of our two ferries that day to cross Death's Door.  Planning on eating on the largest island on our island hopping backpack trip, Washington Island, by noonish.  The meal was a little dissapointing, relatively dirty and run down. We were expecting more of the quantness or even touristy atomosphere as the rest of the door.  Island life is different.  We did make get to tour the lavendar farm on the big island and fill our post lunch gullets with lavendar ice cream.  The temperature was crazy hot and we were sweating like crazy but made it to the second ferry, Kardif, and left the car behind.  We were backpacking the other passengers had wagons, wheelbarrows, coolers and a shower tent.  It wasn't exactly what we expected but didn't detract from the beauty or wonderful history of the island.  We hiked the entire Thordarson trail that circumnavigates the island and is the namesake of the islands last private owner, an icelander, and inventor, with money and plans to create a viking kingdom on the island.  The island has a large viking hall that is open all the time with games to play inside, other smaller buildings contain bocce balls, frisbees, croquet and all manner of lawn games for people to use on the large open space.  It gives the island a strange feeling.  We hiked early to the light house for a tour and Sophia and Ella were sold on the idea of becoming docents in the future.  Planning on living in the lighthouse and giving tours to other visitors.  We made camp after a short hike (0.6 miles) from the ferry to the site near the beach.  Two wonderful afternoons playing in wonderful sand, unseasonably hot temperatures and crystal blue skies.  The lake is really shallow and warm in that area allowing us to walk out a great distant play in waves approaching 1-2 feet.  We had packed light so it was dehydrated meals and ramen noodles, but Amy carried in some smore supplies for the kids. The Sunsets were amazing and we walked to the open fields and watched the sun disappear into the lake.  There was a fly hatched and the fish were surfacing at the water and pinks and oranges darkened into the evening blues.  The kids played monopoly in the Viking Hall until is was too dark to see and we headed towards camp for a fire and games of memory/trivia about the trip as the racoons slowly circled our camp sniffing out scraps of nuttella. The hike was long enough (just barely) for everyone to add another hiking pin to thier packs and although we packed light we are fortunate that memories weigh nothing at all.

Potawatami State Park

 

The week found us at Bay Beach for our now obligatory summer trip on the Zippin Pippin, plenty of smiles and only the single back snapping abrupt stop at the end.  We also so found our second waterless waterfall of the season...making it really just a cliff.  Most importantly however we made it out camping!!  With a bit of luck, Amy found Potawatomi State Park had some openings so we dragged out the camper and flushed out the pink slurry of winterizer and headed north.  It is a great little campground with nice hiking trails and I think we did about a 6 mile loop from our site to a wonderfull pebble beach.  Ella caught one of the few Garder snakes we found basking in the sun. We skipped rocks until our parental fear figured enough time had passed without four kids careening a perfect skipper off another's noggin and then continued on the trail.  Kids were pretty wore out by the time we got back and a wrong turn didn't help the situation but there were plenty of smiles around the campfire.  We did try our hand at making fire from just a stick and board.  It was a sort of goal for the summer and although the summer is still not gone the task is a least making us appreciate the beauty of matches.  Campfires require smores, but Amy stepped it up a notch by creating Smoreos.  A new spin on an old campfire favorite now has oreo cookies in place of antiquated Grahm crackers.  We headed a little deeper into the Door to visit Ron and Jan at another campground and stopped at the iconic PC Junction.  The little train leaves the kitchen carrying our orders to the delight of the kids.  We also poked around a swam awhile at WhiteFish Dunes state park as Potawatami doesn't have a beach to swim at. The water was cold but the kids crashed in the waves and hardly noticed the dangerous rip tide sign.  On the way out we were sidetracked on a beautiful out of the way Cave Point.  This is a series of limestone cliffs overlooking the lake and some teenagers were jumping into what seemed to be dangerously high and turbulent water.  As we hiked the waters edge, scrambling over much lower shelves of dolomite we found an amazing area of beach where hundreds of cairns had been built on the beach.  It was breathtakingly beautiful with some of the spires taller than the kids.  We maneuvered through them and even added a few of our own to the impressionist version of the terra cota army.

A nearly three month recap

It was early May when I hit the publish button on the last post and it has been a whirl-wind since then.  We had a wedding, and a birthday, we packed and we unpacked, the kids have various team events and today gives enough pause for a little updating.  We are finding some time now to get back to doing what we love to do.  We have hiked to two waterfalls, that given the mid-summer lack of rain are really just cliffs, but still pretty.  We have not let the warning signs deter our hikes to get better views and have usually added a nice picnic to the tour as well.  There has been a plenty of ice cream trips and I think in at least each of the neighboring counties.  Spent some time back in EC to watch the Blue Angles and have a rendevous with the clans.  The kids camped in the front yard and spent plenty of time splashing about and running through the woods.  Grandprize even outfitted each of them with appropriately themed sunglasses, aviators.  There was a kite fest in town which is always fun to watch and Ella and Amy were able to try their hands at the trick kites with four line controls.  Sophia had her 12th birthday in the new house and her and Ella made a cake to celebrate the day.  Ella took fifth with her softball team and now only gymnastics and soccer are left, but those teams are about done too and we are changing our plans towards camping.  The kids are getting some reading done during the vacation and have a time sheet from the library with little goals along the way for various minutes markers.  One of the rewards is a trip to Texas Roadhouse complete with a mechanical bull...so that will be fun!