Burntside and Madeline

We took two family vacations this summer. One was a trip with Ben's parents to Burntside Lodge, which is near Ely, Minnesota. The second vacation was a family camping trip on Madeline Island (which is one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior and part of Wisconsin).

The trip to Burntside felt like a commercial for what a summer vacation should be like. A beautiful lake, warm weather, lots of kids around for our kids to play with, games, a canoe trip, wild blueberry picking, ice cream eating, visiting the Bear and Wolf centers in Ely, and just all-around quality family time. Ben's dad has some health problems, so we are not sure how many more trips like this we will be able to take. We are so grateful to Ben's parents for renting the cabin for us, because we couldn't have afforded this wonderful trip on our own.

We stopped at Soudan Mine on our way to Burntside. The kids loved it and keep begging to go back.

Hiking at a waterfall near Ely.

They love climbing on (and throwing) rocks.

Very dirty boy after time in the woods. As it should be.

We canoed to the 2,000-year-old pictographs in the Boundary Waters. You can barely make them out above my head.

Not everything was perfect on this trip: Clare spent the entire canoe trip crying and whining about the bugs. In her defense, the biting flies were nasty.

I didn't even notice what my dear husband was doing while I took this picture.

Ice cream in Ely!

There was a fancy restaurant at the Lodge. We enjoyed eating there one night.

Night swimming.

Night swimming, part 2. Clare made several friends.

This picture cracks me up. If Ben's mom was in it, I would be tempted to use it as our Christmas card.

Luxury. 

Ben teaching Christopher to canoe.

The four of us spent a long weekend camping on Madeline Island. To get to the island, you take a ferry across a stretch of Lake Superior from Bayfield, Wisconsin. Cars are allowed on the island, so we were able to drive to our campsite in Big Bay State Park. It is a lovely place, but if we were to return I think we would try to stay in a cottage on the water, rather than camp. There was a nice, sandy beach we could walk to, though, and we spent time swimming in Lake Superior. I have a special place in my heart for Lake Superior, and I enjoyed swimming, despite the cold water.  We also took a boat cruise around the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and saw sea caves, light houses, and lots of trees. Madeline is an interesting place - there are million dollar homes dotting the island, along with many more rough and tumble places. The kids made friends with a girl who lives there year round, and she seemed to just be on her own in town while her parents worked. It is definitely a different life style than we have here.