There were Monkeys in the park!

And cows painted on houses!

Spring flowers, of course!

We also explored a cave – but then that’s for the next entry!

Weekend before last we went camping at Lake Louise State Park, MN. The weather was variable the terrain muddy and wet.  Bug report – no problem…no ticks or other pest-ies really bothered us. The wood was wet so it was tough to get in a campfire but we tried. Biking, hiking and sight-seeing were all part of the fun.

Following are random photos from our trip.

If you have been a regular on this blog over the years you will recognize this stance, it is the ‘Navigator’ stance often done at several points throughout our hike. Most usually done when Geo-caching. “Ummm – where are we?”  “What does your phone say, mine says …”

Little Guy and Ruby finally decided this navigation stuff was for sissies and just decided to lead the way.

A live demonstration of what will happen if you fall into the swirling waters of the dam.

Yup…the dam. Right there (point point).

Mandy was all… uh close enough folks!!

But some people just *have* to get a closer look!

Gotta’ go right now – but this will do for Part 1 of Camping at Lake Louise! More to come!

Tug boat

It was windy so I only listened with my right ear and kept the left ear (toward the wind) close to my head! I am a ‘right ear’ kind of gal anyway.

Sunrise, sunrise….gotta’ open up your eyes!

We also went to a lighthouse and I will try and get that into the next post.

Fidget sleeping on the job.

Have a safe Memorial Day.

We left our campground at Two Harbors and did some hiking at Gooseberry Falls, taking in a lot of very rapidly moving water along with several falls 1…2…3..4..& 5.  Yep they were all there!

Doing some Geocaching along the way of course, cuz that’s just what we do.

Course getting the box used to hold the cache open is a whole ‘nuther story!

And a one and a two and a three….pull….

Yep – ended up calling in the Calvary – thanks Dad for getting that box open so we can see what is inside!  That is the whole idea behind hunting it down!

Bampa, Mandy and Ruby are ‘helping’ of course!

More falls…. and water coming up!

I’m standing on a bridge….

They are not!  Which one of us is more brave?

We have had a lot of moisture and all the falls and rivers were flowing rapidly.

Another Falls – I think this was Falls #5??  Maybe…

Standing under a bridge ‘on’ a bridge….interesting shot.

Mandy says, “We are DONE with all these falls…where is the car, I am laying down and being chauffeured back to the campground!! It is lunch time!”

And THAT was just the morning of the second day…more to come on Memorial Day Weekend up at the North Shore.

This weekend, Memorial Day weekend, we went camping up by the North Shore. We were in Two Harbors, MN. It is fun to go camping up there because we camp on the shore of Lake Superior and can hear the waves rushing in lulling you to sleep. Makes for some nice napping!  You can walk along the sand and look for sea glass, among other things. When it is warm you can swim in the lake and build campfires in the sand. Actually we build the campfires in the sand even when it is cooler and there is no swimming.

This year we have been having some trouble with getting summer started up here in Minnesota so needless to say there was no swimming this trip.

We camped at the Burlington Bay Camp Grounds and were just over looking the beach, there was a path down to the beach just between the trees slight off to the right of center.  This was taken as the sun was setting and if you look toward the upper left you will see a big barge going by.

We liked this spot and will likely camp there again sometime.

A lot of these barges go through this area.

The beauty of the sunset with a full moon on the right – just gorgeous over the lake.

Trying to wear out LIttle Guy so they could go to bed, my daughter suggested he go run around a tree for a while.

Sorry Mom, not really working! Still goofy as ever!

Just one more photo of that sunset including the lake. Can’t get enough of it.

The sun is down…still beautiful.

Geese or Ducks….not sure which, still flying in the light of the full moon.

The scene from inside the camper.  Wish it wouldn’t have been so cold so we could have sat outside by the fire longer and enjoyed all the beauty.

Of course this was just the first night we were there. Lots more to come on the trip…trains, tugboats, hiking and then some. Never did it really warm up, but at least it didn’t rain or snow a lot.

Shhhhh – Mandy’s sleeping.

As I mentioned more to come!

We had a lot of rain and thunderstorms going through today. At one point it was raining so hard (looks like mist on these photos perhaps, but is indeed rain) we could barely see across the street.

Though Mandy is not usually afraid of Thunderstorms, she has been more restless and a bit more nervous because she is not real fond of loud noises and sometimes the thunder has been pretty intense.  Still have a lot more of them to go, as they are supposed to keep moving through during the evening. She seems pretty calm now because we are in a lull, but as the next ones get closer hopefully there won’t be any really loud ‘thunder booms’ to stir her up again!

“Gulp!”

On the road.

Though it was a cold, very windy and rainy weekend we were off to do some Geo-caching any way.

Per usual we had a lot of navigators along to make sure we didn’t get lost.

We found this one stuck under an old wooden bridge.

Sigh, aww shucks, there are never any dog treats in those Geo-cache stashes!

Yep, they are still ‘navigating’!

We came across a big tree that had fallen down in a big windstorm. We are standing in front of the roots that had come up out of the ground.

This is the big tree that had fallen from the other side.

See all the white dots….?? We were outside and it started to rain, so we went inside the camper and started playing a game when we looked outside. We noticed it was snowing like crazy!  Not real normal weather for the second weekend in May.

Sometimes it is better to just hangout inside!

We did find a little Spring color showing up here and there, though not much!

Pretty dreary all weekend.

Sitting around the fire is nice, until the rain starts to come down again.

Pretty tiring!

Then it is time to start back home again.

It is a long drive, might as well get comfortable.

Have a great day, kick back and enjoy!

Ok, before you get the wrong idea…  We were out camping at St. Croix State Park, MN.  We do some Geocaching and normally the ‘treasures’ are found in an Ammo Box, but this time the treasures were stashed in a different container…..  A little odd, we thought – being that a lot of kids do Geocaching, But, we just roll with it all.