The Accidental Boilermaker

 I found an owl in the grass just off the road this morning on my run. I was not far from home when I saw her. I called Nate because I didn’t know what do. We agreed I should try to contact animal care and control. On weekends, you call the city nonemergency number and the operator takes the information and passes it along to the animal control officer on duty.  The officer was a very nice lady who happened to just be starting her work day and was at Meijer just up the road from us, so she was able to respond quickly. Nate and the kids walked over to check on me and the owl just as she arrived.  She wrapped up the owl in a blanket and we got a good look at her face. The officer told us she would pass the owl off to the raptor rescue and rehab organization in Fort Wayne. She said she hasn’t rescued very many owls in the 22 years she’s worked for animal control, but they do get a lot of calls for hawk rescues. I hope she’ll be okay (I’ve decided the owl is a girl).  

 Third and Fifth grade here they come! They both had good days. I had to keep reminding myself to not forget to go pick them up. 

 Our last full day of camping. The day before had been a long day; my watch said we walked 9 miles. So we were all tired. But Thursday was the day we planned to hike from the lower fall to the upper falls which the map said was 4 miles. We would then take the shuttle back.   The hike started off well. It was a little buggy but the hike was challenging which usually holds Evelyn and Jameson’s attention. But then Jameson got impatient, pushed ahead of Evelyn, stepped in some mud and lost his shoe. He didn’t really shake his bad mood until we made it to the upper falls. And 4 miles is long time to hike if you’re grumpy.  But we made it! I think I like the lower falls better. Instead of one big waterfall, there’s several and you can play in the water. But the upper falls are pretty amazing.  We shuttled back to our campground. Since we were the only people in the van, the driver dropped us off right at our tent. We made lunch and relaxed. We forced Jameson to take a show...

 This was my favorite day. We woke up early and had a quick breakfast of donuts and pop tarts. Then we started the drive to Pictured Rocks. When I realized we were only an 90 minutes away from the east end of the park I asked Nate if we could go. Fourth graders and their families get into all national park for free and by their rules, Evelyn is still a 4th grader till August 31st. I really wanted to visit a national park.  We first hiked to the Sable falls and then followed the river down to where it emptied into Lake Superior.  On the way back, we detoured to a look out over the Grand Sable dunes.  We hiked back to the visitor center and drive to the log slide. We ate lunch and walked up the dune where they used to send logs down the dunes into the lake. Evelyn and Jameson really wanted to climb the dune and maybe if it hadn’t been so warm and sunny but we explained this dune was much bigger and steeper than the ones at Warren. Plus we had more hiking to do. But the...

 On Tuesday we went to Whitefish Point and the Shipwreck museum. It was a cooler morning with fog especially near the lake. We heard a few fog horns from boats too. An employee at the lighthouse said with advanced GPS, the boats don’t really need the fog horns but they are neat to hear. Everyone enjoyed the museum and different buildings that were open to tour. The remoteness of the point was fascinating.  Nate asked a guide if the lighthouse keepers ever went to town and she said not really.  Everything they needed arrived by boat.  We made sandwiches in parking lot again and then walked on a little nature trail that brought you to the beach again. We tried to spot piping plovers but didn’t see any. Back at the campground Evelyn and Jameson really wanted to swim in the falls. So changed into swim suits and hiked back to the island. It was a lot of fun. We even went behind one of the waterfalls so we were between the rock and the water. It was so loud. I didn’t take ...

 Monday morning we packed up and left St Ignace for Paradise and Tahquamenon Falls. Jameson busied himself by whittling Nate’s poker stick.  After about an hour drive we arrived at Lake Superior. We stopped to get out and put our feet in the water.  A little while later we arrived at the falls. It was too early to check into our campsite, so we made sandwiches in the parking lot and then hiked to see the lower falls.  There’s a bridge that connects the path to an island in the river. The island has spots where you can walk into the river and play in the falls.  We still had time before we could officially check into the campground, but we went to our site and set up our chairs. We passed the time reading and Jameson caught a toad.  The lower falls campground had a few spots along the river where you could fish. Unfortunately we didn’t have much luck and didn’t catch anything here. 

 We started the day early with a drive back over the bridge to visit Fort Michilimackinac. I took so many pictures of the bridge. This one is from Lake Michigan. After crossing the bridge several times we wondered what made Lake Michigan and Lake Huron two different lakes.  Turns out they are actually two lobes of one big lake, bigger than Lake Superior if counted as one single lake. But generally they are considered two.  We all enjoyed visiting all the buildings inside the fort although Jameson tired of the outing first. We had great weather for the entirety of our trip, but it was also warm. For lunch we agreed on a fish place in Mackinaw City. Jameson wanted to try perch because Grandpa Paul had said perch was good to eat. Everyone enjoyed what they ordered; we tried the whitefish, walleye and perch but everyone agreed the perch was the best. After lunch we visited Historic Mill Creek to watch the saw pit and saw mill demonstrations There were also some hiking trails ...

Saturday we left for vacation. First stop was Straits State Park in St Ignace. We originally planned to stay in a hotel in Mackinaw City but after looking around, we found the state park and decided to camp instead. It was a very nice campground so it was a good decision.  We went on a hike with some great views of the bridge.  And we found Lake Huron. Jameson got right to skipping rocks.  After dinner we went into St Ignace to hear some live music and walk along the lake. We ended with ice cream before heading back to camp.