Sunday 7/24 - Copper Peak

Sunday morning we packed a picnic, met the neighbors and headed northwest to the Hurley/Ironwood area with Black River Harbor as our final destination.

On the way we stopped at Copper Peak ski flying hill. We went there last year and Alex and I went all the way up to the top. He loved it. I thought it was worth it...once...but didn't know that I wanted to deal with the anxiety again. So this time he went up with my dad and our friends and I stayed down with Maya and my mom. Maya desperately wanted to go but there was no way I was going to send her up on a regular chair lift then up all these rickety open staircases. So we distracted her by picking flowers and having a "photo shoot" which she thought was hilarious.

Alex loved it again, he was afraid to take pictures from the top because he might drop his camera.

Saturday July 23rd

Our day started slowly. I got a run in right away. We talked about going a few different places that day so I actually took a real shower while Dad and the kids took Obie for a walk. Shortly before lunch a storm blew in and really dropped the temperature and brought quite a bit of wind and rain. Alex and I curled up with Harry Potter (we are almost done with book 2) and did some reading, Maya played with some toys. Lunch and siesta.

Another lake neighbor stopped over and we played some Scrabble and Bananagram while we waited for it to clear up.

And clear up it did! Into a really nice afternoon and evening. Plenty of swimming and floating and playing with friends.

We had been noticing a frog that seemed to live under the log by the shore end of the dock. There were two actually - a bigger one and a smaller one. The kids named them Fred (bigger) and Jump (smaller). Jump was pretty shy and hid when we got close. Fred on the other hand was quite the ham for the camera.

Friday 7/22

In the morning Mom took the kids to Paul Bunyan. I decided to pass and instead ran a couple errands (I was on a mission to find some dairy free chocolate, you know important stuff) and hit a coffee shop to take care of a quick internet dependent task before going back and picking them up.

When we got home Alex and I went down to the lake to go kayaking. It was his first time out by himself in one of the full size kayaks. He did a great job. We paddled down to the neighbors, beached the kayaks and visited for a bit then paddled back home.

I felt like we hit the cabin groove this day. Both kids got really into swimming, we kept up our lunch then rest routine. More swimming after rest. We did come up to the house a little earlier than we usually do so that we could get dinner and be ready to go into town for the Min Aqua Bats ski show.

There was state competition the next day so it was a shorter than normal show. But that meant we made it back to our dock for the sunset!

July 21st

The morning this day was cooler with a bit of a north wind. I went for a run and a swim right away but didn't linger down by the water much because once you were wet and out of the water the wind made it feel cool.

We all quickly realized that the bugs had been much worse than we realized the night before. Both kids looked like they had some sort of pox and the adults were not in much better shape. It also quickly became evident that these were not your run of the mill mosquito bites. Several of us reacted badly to them and had swelling and intense itching. Some of us got blisters and for all of us the bites lasted a long time.

We went into town and hit Whoops and the library. Then Maya had a giant meltdown and we high tailed it back to the cabin for lunch and that mandatory rest time.

Tried swimming again after resting but it was very wavy and the kids weren't into it. Mom and I parked them on the dock and swam anyway for a little while before heading back up and breaking out the legos.

Put the kids to bed early and went down to enjoy a pretty sunset in peace (with lots and lots of bug spray).

The next day (July 20th)

First day on the lake! Beautiful first day. Plenty of time for swimming, catching up with the lake neighbors and more swimming.

The kids weren't totally into the lake groove yet and were tired from the late night the night before so we went up and down a lot between the cabin and the lake and instituted a mandatory rest time after lunch. We made it sort of a mantra for the trip - "we have to siesta so later we can fiesta!" The kids kind of bought it and at least one of them slept every day, some days both.

the journey continues

We drove across the UP, the kids keeping themselves busy mainly with simulated body noises. It was a pretty loud and rowdy few hours but they were having quite a good time.

We stopped off in Escanaba for a little break and some ice cream. We stopped at a Culvers and I was very impressed with their food allergy and sensitivity pamphlets they had right on the counter where you order. It was very easy for me to see if there was anything gluten and dairy free.

After that the kids settled down as it got darker. We pulled off the road briefly between Escanaba and Norway to snap a few pictures of the sunset before we drove into storm clouds. Both kids fell asleep shortly after that. I drove through rain, mist, lots of fog and a strange onslaught of frogs and large insects.

But we made it and it was a relatively uneventful trip.

Way back when on July 19th....

the kids and I set off around 3 in the afternoon with a picnic dinner and our eye on the cabin at Blue Lake as our final destination. We drove until we crossed the big bridge and then stopped at the Lake Michigan Recreation Area off US 2 about 20 min north of the bridge. There is a campground there too and I've always wanted to stop there. It was a perfect dinner stop for us! The kids ran up and down the beach several times to get out some energy, we found beach glass, there was decent bathrooms and clean picnic tables.