Last of the Boundary Waters

I know you all can't believe I'm still talking about canoeing, but it's one of my favorite trips. I've been there five time now and plan on going back again if I get the chance. I love it there!

The whole group back safe and sound at the outfitters! Everyone had great stories to share. I declare this trip a success! See you again in two years Boundary Waters!

Mile Count: 5 (before lunch) Portage Count: 3 Rapids Count: 1

Boundary Waters Part 6

Last night campsite.

Here is the my group one last time. This was our last night camping. The next day we did several portages and our windiest lake yet before getting to the bus and most importantly, SHOWERS!

At lunch Jason somehow poked his eye. (Don't ask me how) and later that night he complained of blurry vision. So we convinced him that his eye needed time to rest and heal. It was decided, he NEEDED an eye patch. Above it Lauren's first attempt at making Jason and eye patch. But you all know I'm an art teacher so I thought it needed a little improvement.

This is what I can up with. I think Jason approves!

Our last full day we decided to change it up. Not only were we not on big lakes anymore but we were basically going up river. Instead of taking the portages we decided to take the rapids instead! Sometime we could paddle through, like above, but most of the time we had to get out and walk our canoes through the rapids. At one point Grace lost her footing and was clinging to our canoe so she didn't get swept down river. We got very wet, a little cut up, and had a great time!

Mile Count: 5 Portage Count: 0 Rapids Count: 6

Boundary Waters Part 5

Guttle Jumping!

Day 4

Six years when I lead a group with Kate Mac and MacGyver (AKA Cliff) he told us all about guttle jumping. Cliff used to do guttle jumping races. This is when you stand on the edges of the canoe and jump up and down and then the canoe will move forward through the water. So here we are practicing. Grace and I later tried teter totter guttle jumping where we were standing on the same canoe and alternated who was jumping up and down.

Then we played a little Canoe Frisbee. What, you've never heard of it? Well, that's because we just came us with it. We were out in the canoes and tried passing the Frisbee around. This was really the only way to play Frisbee because of Chloe, the dog, who is a little obsessed with fetch. You can see this enthusiasm below as Grace throws the stick for Chloe.

After we finished playing it prompting poured, but this time we were prepared and already had camp set up.

Portage Count: 0! Mile Count: 6

Boundary Waters Part 4

Day 3 Proved to me a much dryer day! Thank goodness! Actually, all around day 3 proved to be a better day. We didn't have any portages! It didn't rain! We saw one of the other groups and stopped to say hello! We didn't have any wind on the biggest lake we would canoe on all week!

So besides Stacy and I getting a little burnt we are a much happier group!

Dinner time! Fresh carrots, soup and rice...let's mix it all together!

We even had time to nap, read our books, and do a little swimming for fun!

How pretty!

(actually this might be a preview of night 4)

Boundary Waters Part 3

On our second day on the water was another long one. After doing three small portages we had another portage, but this one had a waterfall. So after carrying all of our stuff we went to play in the water! So much fun! All of us climbed to the top of the waterfall. (Even Chloe, the dog)

Here's the whole group!

Stacy found this awesome part of the waterfall where you could sit in the water and it was like sitting in a cold whirlpool. We all took a turn. And below you can see Lauren showing off her cool plaid sunglasses!

After the waterfall we could have camped pretty soon. But our group wanted to be superstars. So we did! We kept going through three more LONG portages! As we got through the second one it started raining. It wasn't raining very hard and I was due for a new set of clothes so I didn't bother putting on my rain jacket. Half way through the last long portage I started to regret this decision because it started to POUR!! We had one small little portage yet before there was a campsite and it was raining so hard that the water was getting in my eyes and moving my contacts around. It was raining so hard that it looked like I jumped into the lake in all of my clothes! We were soaked! Luckily the campsite we wanted was available. The unlucky part was there was no shelter at our campsite because we haven't set it up yet. So we huddled under the rain tarp killing mosquitoes and watching the steam from our wet bodies rise. Luckily Matt had a plan. Some of us held the tarp while others set up a tent. Then the rain started to let up. Some of our group was a little crabby and who can blame them because we are REAL wet!

Thanks Lauren for always making dinner for us! And way to be super stars! That night, night two, we camped at our previous night four campsite! Awesome!

Mile count: 12 miles! Portage count: 8!

Boundary Waters Part 2

On the Water Day 1

Here is our campsite on our first night. It may not have been my favorite, but I was so happy to see it. We got dropped off by the outfitters in our least favorite Seagull lake. It's not our favorite because Matt and I got us REAL lost on this lake two years ago. This year we had a plan and made is successfully across this lake without incident. (The lack of wind may have helped) We did out first portage successfully. From there we ate lunch at our previous night 1 campsite and continued paddling and portaging three more times. Then we started looking for a campsite, but we start out picky. "Oh, it's too small", "Oh, the bugs will be bad here" but then every campsite we wanted was taken! AHH...if this last one isn't open we have to do two more portages until we get to the next campsite and it's already 6:00PM! So you can say we were very happy to stop for the day and set up camp.

And here I am with fellow group members in our awesome sunglasses. On the drive up Matt needed sunglasses and we found these amazing neon, plaid glasses! So Stacy and I convinced most of our group to buy them. I think we look pretty amazing. (We are also pretty sure these glasses have powers!)

Millage Estimate: 11 miles! Portage Count: 4!

Boundary Waters Part 1

Here's the whole gang! We are ready to depart into our three separate groups into the great outdoors! You can see the bus I drove behind us. More to come! Stay tuned!

The Great Outdoors

Tomorrow I'm off to Northern Minnesota to canoe for 5 days in the Boundary Waters. It's one of my favorite trips. There's no bathing, no cell phone service, possibly bears and bird like mosquitoes! What could be better?

I'll be off the grid for a few days enjoying the beauty of several of Minnesota's lakes. Wish me safe bus driving, good weather, and few bug bites. See you all when I get back.

Starved Rock

After our visit to Chicago we headed an hour outside of the city to Starved Rock a beautiful state park just of I80. It is reported to have about thirteen canyons and waterfalls but we only visited two. The one above has the best water and I climbed just behind the waterfall for a photo.

This one had a little less water but was beautiful regardless.

It's a beautiful park and well visited and FREE! So if you happen to be driving along I80 schedule a little time nature.

I'm on a Boat!

Most of you know by now that I love a good boat tour. I convinced my parents to drive into the city while visiting the Chicago area for a boat tour. This was a very informational boat tour. While floating up and down the river of Chicago our guide told us all sorts of information about the buildings that I couldn't even begin to repeat. Here I am on the top of the boat while we wait to go through the lock of the Chicago river.

Did you know they reversed the flow of the river and boats have to go through a lock to get into Lake Michigan?

Did you know that after the great Chicago fire they pushed all the debris into Lake Michigan actually expanding the size of the city?

This was my favorite building. It was designed by a woman, and all those little ripples are balconies.

IKEA

My mom and I originally decided to go on our road trip to look for a bookshelf at IKEA, but as you all know I already found a gem of a bookshelf at Good Ju Ju. This didn't stop up from doing IKEA up right. We found quite a few fun treasures. And they had us just where they wanted was because we stopped for lunch in the little cafe.

Many people suggested we had to try the meatballs. So try them we did. And they were pretty good. If you have an opportunity I believe IKEA is worth all the hype.