Pictures Rocks National Lakeshore

Knock knock, who’s there?

Covid

Covid -who???

Planned a last minute trip to Munising, Michigan in the UP, which in COVID world means we planned it a month in advance, but almost all the sites were sold out already. I don't think there were any sites left in the actual park, but I don't think I knew at the time that there was actually camping in there!

This trip was the last trip with the kids before school started. We we're lucky enough to have an A/B schedule where the kids didn't start until Tuesday, so we got to do a Saturday through Monday trip!

On Friday morning I got an email that our Sunset cruise along the shoreline was canceled due to weather conditions. Little did we know we would be arriving to set up a couple of tents and a camper in the middle of a Gale warning!  That's 40 mph winds for those of you not familiar with nautical phenomena. 

We arrived on Saturday evening during the windstorm. Mike and I are adventurers so we figured, What the Hey?  And proceeded to set up the tents anyway. No joke another couple in the site next to us was struggling so much that they left the campground entirely. 

It was pretty WILD!

Jubilee College State Park

Jubilee College State Park
Memorial Day Weekend
May 27-29, 2016

Last minute campground choices were limited when we decided to go on a spontaneous camping trip for Memorial Day.  We settled on a small state park in Illinois that was nearby (3 hour drive) that boasted a few hiking/biking trails and a "fishing" pond.

James accidentally reserved a handicapped site, but luckily State Park oversight in the state of IL has reached an all time low due to budget cuts!  We felt terribly guilty for the mistake, but the campground hosts were understanding.

Due to the handicapped status the two adjacent campsites had some unusual features.  The HC site was entirely on a concrete pad with no tree cover.  The site next door (ours) required a sharp turn to back up over a pretty sharp incline.  It was muddy and dark when we arrived, and generating the momentum and correct angulation to get the camper onto the (barely visible) gravel pad (totally overgrown) was really difficult (there was marital infighting involved, insults were hurled).  Leveling the camper was even more difficult, as the blocks kept sinking into the muddy ground, our battery was dead, our breaker kept blowing, and to reach the power at the next site over required an 80 ft (sadly, not an exaggeration) extension cord.  Did I mention that our battery was dead, so we needed power to put the jacks down, yeah.  That was a late night trip to the Peoria Wal-Mart.  Thanks, Mike.

Once set up, we went to bed (2 am).  The next morning, we let the good times roll (luckily not back down the hill and into the street - they rolled strictly in the metaphorical sense.









Then Pinnicks arrived

Brown County State Park

Brown County State Park
Nashville, IN
Dances with Dirt Gnaw Bone
May 12-15, 2016

Devil's Lake State Park

Devil's Lake State Park
Baraboo Hills Campground
Baraboo, WI
April 22-24, 2016

Drove down Friday - this is the trip we weren't sure I was going to go on, but my dad bailed on the Trolley Run.

Went for a hike on one of the trickier climbing/rocky loops on the East side of the lake on Saturday with all the girls and Grammy/Poppy.




Beach area obviously undergoing some construction in preparation for summer...watch out for those water bugs/leeches/whatever?


Beautiful views of the East side of Devil's Lake from the beach area




Practicing for the following day's technical climbing...








Sarah went for a long and technical, hilly run on Sunday and had to be extracted around mile 20.






Nearing Palfrey's Glen


Wild turkey out in a field


Very slippery boardwalk!  It had started drizzling a little at that point.


This is not a sight you want to see at mile 20 of your 13 mile run...

Mike had the camper all packed up and ready to go at that point.

Blackwell Forest Preserve

Blackwell Forest Preserve
September 4-6, 2015
Warrenville, IL

This was the weekend of the Auburn car show.  We decided at the last minute to camp locally and skip the show that year.


James was just so excited about the driving reprieve...


Corie looks like she has a secret.


Her secret is that she can pretty much convince Daddy to do any stupid thing she wants him to.  Why was I taking this photo and not screaming at my husband!?


Awesome gravel path for cycling... a good quad workout with some little hills


Her horn buds were itchy.  Just kidding, they were mosquito bites... or am I?

Versailles State Park, Indiana
June 11-14th, 2015

Big Rock Forest Preserve

Big Rock Forest Preserve
Season Opener 2015
May 23-24, 2015

When we arrived at the storage site we found some damage to the front of the camper that had clearly occurred over the winter.

The campground was close, but it was new.  There was very little tree cover and a lot of wind.  Big Rock, IL is about 30-40 minutes south of Batavia, near the Aurora airport.

As soon as we set up the campsite I got to work.

I spent some time browsing the latest news and important happenings on my phone when we arrived.  Just kidding I looked at cat photos on Facebook.

And made a nice fire

Because it was a bit boring, we got some new toys.

We also took a little walk down to the lake, but I think we decided not to take the camera because it was looking a little overcast and possibly rainy.