I in no way sound like an owl.

It is dark, the boys are playing a kids version of would you rather, and Jason and I are listening to an owl hoot away in a nearby tree while we relax around a fire. 

Today we washed just enough underwear and shorts for the boys to make it home on Wednesday. We are on a tiny island and there are 5 working coin operatered washers available. A random nice lady offered to hold our place in line behind her three loads while we went shopping in the island "store". The store was like a well stocked gas station where a half gallon of milk was $4.59. For lunch, I ate a sandwich that Jason whipped up from our groceries, while watching the laundry dry. Pretty nice little Saturday morning. 

Then it was time to swim! My favorite part of every day. The water was freezing but we swam anyway. Then, while Jason snorkeled (he's trying to find a lost treasure), the boys and I fortified a sand castle with one heck of a rock sea wall. The wind picked up and the waves started coming up over our sea wall. Lucas begged for us to leave because he didn't want to see his castle destroyed. We obliged. 

Back at camp we started our second fire of the day and warmed up. We ate and read around the fire before the boys went for a walk. Once back, they talked me into going down to the beach and going swimming again. The sun was setting in the bay and it was reflecting off a thunderhead in the east. The top was peach and swirled down into pinks and purples and the water turned a bright lilac as it mirrored the clouds. Perfection. 

We warmed up with our third fire and as I write this I'm dressed head to toe including a cardigan and my favorite blanket. The weather is amazing. 

The owl continues to hooty-hoot-hoot in the background as I try to hoot back. Unfortunately for the rest of the campground, I sound nothing like a hooty  owl. 

Until tomorrow,

Goodnight from the Munsch bunch. 

Groovy art car near the laundry mat. 

It was really cool. 

He really likes milk. 

The fortress. 

An arm load of wood. 

The deer (or perhaps this one deer) are incredibly tame and walk quite near us. 

I was unable to capture all the beauty of the sunset because I was in the water marveling at it colors when it all went down. This was before hand. 

Choose one.

You can have incredible beauty or Cell service. Not both. At least that's what it feels like. 

The endless tree lined roads, streams, and lakes make me want to relocate, but the lack of cell services make me hesitate just enough. 

Two days ago we visited Mackinac Island. It is an emerald in a breathtaking sea of crystal clear turquoise. I will admit that when we first arrived we were overwhelmed with the distinct smell of chocolate fudge and horse poop, not to mention the throngs of people, but then we ate and felt better. Food for us is almost as necessary as air. Without sufficient quantities we will implode. Not a single one of us could ever compete in any reality show that requires you to eat seven beans and a slug for the day. We would go mad after the first three hours without a snack. Maybe Jason would keep it together a little longer. He's stubborn that way. The rest of us (even Marcus), we are rare delicate orchids... Not sturdy dandelions.

I digress. The island was spectacular. We rode bike around the perimeter, waded in the water, hiked, shopped, and the boys consumed too much fudge. Marcus lamented, "I want to live here. There's no school, you can do whatever you want, and nobody bugs you." (We're still not sure where this came from.) Less than a minute later we stopped at the school playground for a break. However disappointed he still  had me persuaded. 

I have two unbelievable drives in me (well more than two but for this we'll say two).  One is the desire to be near water. Big clear water with soft sandy beaches and slight waves. I just want to hear the water, the waves, and put my feet in the liquid elixir. I want to submerse myself in cold cerulean water. I want to watch the water change day to day, hour to hour. I am meant to be by the water. I am calm and I am happy near water. 

My other drive is to travel. I want to see and experience everything. I have a classic case of wanderlust. This is difficult because each new place we visit invites me to stay forever. I want to drink it all in. Stay for weeks and months and experience each season through this new lense. And yet I love my little town on the prairie, with its own quiet beauty. 

Long hours in the car make me wistful. 

So. Mackinac is great. Go visit. 

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Yesterday we thought we were going to get nailed with some nasty storms in the morning. It lightly rained. After the sprinkles passed, we headed out to see the Taquemenon Falls (rhymes with phenomenon). What should have been an hour trip quickly turned to three when I needed to eat and we had to find someplace that knew what ingredients they were using. Easier said than done. We ended up eating lupper in a brewery (lupper is of course lunch and supper). It was delicious. I know I say that we are eating a lot of good food, but we are. It's not just because we're starving. Or maybe it's just a little because we're starving. Whatever. 

After we ate we walked through the woods to see some waterfall. Once we were sufficiently sweaty and hot we headed for Lake Superior. The first beach we stopped at was not good. It had a shoreline that was lined with sharp slippery rocks and the water was full of tree lignin from a nearby river. We set out further down the road and got to the tip of the peninsula we were on. There we found the soft sandy beach we were looking for. We got in and it was COLD. Like really really cold. But it still felt amazing on our sore bodies. We swam around for as long as we could stand it meaning while we were in the water we saw half a dozen groups come and then leave after realizing that the reason we were in the water was because we were nuts. 

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Today was a drive day. A very long drive day to the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, off of Wisconsin. The drive was again very lovely but when we finally arrived at the ferry station to be taken to our island campground we were thrilled. 

Of course we were total dorks on the ferry ride, taking pictures of the car on the ferry and even videoing ourselves. 

It was about this time that my head started to ache. Not a traditional headache but a very specific and targeted headache. Like someone had flung a metal rod directly at my forehead. That happened this morning as we were packing up. It was an accident, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. 

Right now Jason is setting up the camper in ninety degree heat with no breeze. NO BREEZE. This is literally the stillest weather I have ever been in. The only thing moving is the mosquitos. To top things off, we do not have electricity tonight so no respite from the heat with air conditioning. But we are first on the waiting list for an electric spot for tomorrow. Cross your fingers for us because if there's one thing we deal with almost as poorly as being hungry it's being hot. I'm telling you: Delicate orchids. 

I'm going to go slather myself in deet.

Until tomorrow, the Munsch bunch. 

Mackinac bridge. 

Arch rock. 

Jason said, "you think I could walk there?" Three steps later. "It's deeper than I thought."

Gorgeous beach on Mackinac island. 

Don't you eat nachos with a faux raccoon hat on?

Sour fried pickle spear. 

Swimming in Superior. 

What can I say? I like pretty rocks. 

We're on a freaking ferry with the camper!

Mrs. Munsch visits Michigan.

Today's drive was long. We drove forever through Ontario and then some more through the upper peninsula. Both were endlessly beautiful. 

Along the way we ate lunch at a McDonald's in a Walmart in Canada. The hamburger was delicious!! 

Jason and I finished our Craig Ferguson book (I am writing this entire post in a Scottish accent) which was quite good, and the boys watched four hours of Pokemon. 

We finally arrived at our campground and got all set up. Right next to the playground. Which I thought would be great for the kids but turned out to be a nightmare. It seemed as though all of the tweenagers present suffered from voice immodulation (look it up). We pulled in a little before 8 and the noise was constant while I patiently waited until 10 pm to walk over, in my flannel owl pajamas, and tell them in my official Mrs. Munsch voice that they were being obnoxious and rude and it was time to be quiet. With shocked faces they quietly complied. 

The rest of the evening has been delightful. The sun didn't fully set until after 10 and we sat by the fire as a family and chatted until one by one the boys headed to bed. 

The air is cool and dry and I am snuggled in my Jammies and sleeping bag next to the fire while Jason reads his third book by flashlight. 

Life is good. 

Goodnight from the Munsch bunch. 

Apparently in Canada, garbage trucks careen recklessly into traffic and you must watch for the them. School buses also do this. 

Right by our campsite. 

Ahh. 

It's a vacation. Just not from ourselves.

I just realized that we don't change when we go on vacation. We change our location, but we stay exactly the same. Duh, right? Lucas didn't suddenly stop worrying about all the things, Marcus didn't aburptly stop pouting, and I certainly didn't stop being grouchy when I'm hungry, tired, or can't eat something. Thankfully Jason didn't stop cooking delicious meals, or wanting to go on hikes, or reminding me that everything is fine. And now that I've come to grips with what vacation is and isn't, I'm having a lot more fun. Not that I didn't have fun before, but now I'm not worrying about everyone else's happiness. I can only control my own happiness. You would think, at my age, after discovering this truth many times, that this would be no surprise. But it is every time. 

Enough of that. 

Overall, Canada has been lovely. 

Lucas seems to be happy throwing himself into books. He's on his sixth. 

Samus enjoys Canada because it's cool and he's being allowed to chop fire wood like a fiend. 

Jason is fiercely protecting his beef jerky stash and only allows others to eat it during hikes. He feels a piece of jerky is a sufficient bribe to get us to go on a hike and that we'd be crazy to pass up such a delicious morsel of cured meat. 

Marcus, of course, found friends when we pulled in and is keeping himself occupied by jumping around on rocks. 

Speaking of pulling in. What a debacle. Our site is on the inside of a tight little circle and would have been extremely difficult to back into. The neighbor (Marc's friend's grandpa) suggested we come in backwards. That seemed easy enough. Except we had to find a place to turn around. Apparently our camper is quite large by Canadian standards particularly as most people simply tent. We drove around the campground and came back into our circle the wrong way. Immediately we were met with a car. Jason backed the camper up and pulled out of the car's way. We then drove down and got right to where we needed to start backing and met another car. I'm telling you this circle is small. I don't know where all of these cars were coming from. I ran up to them and explained that we would just be a minute, that it was easier to get into our site this way. Everyone was very friendly, but I imagine quiet grumbling about idiot Americans once they were around us. I feel like that most of the places we go, though many of the Canadians sound just like us so I don't know how they would know we're Americans. Just in case though, I'm doing my best to assimilate my voice. Jason does not find this amusing. I think I might be leaning a bit Scottish as Jason and I have been listening to Craig Ferguson's autobiography. 

The bugs here are really not a problem. Particularly as we were prepared to dip ourselves in deet every hour. The wildlife is supposed to be rich and diverse including beaver, rattlesnakes, turtles, deer, and bear. Per the usual we have not seen any bears or wildlife of any kind except for a deer (exciting) and a bunch of greedy little chipmunks. 

Yesterday we went to a beach with jumping rocks. Samus stayed on the beach while Jason, Marcus, Lucas and I went rock jumping. Everyone already up there kept saying they'd jumped dozens of times and had never touched bottom. Nobody had ever touched bottom. Jason jumped twice and touched the granite bottom both times. Marcus and I jumped off a small rock and then went to a medium rock. He started to jump then got cold feet. Luckily I grabbed him by his life jacket before he tumbled down the side of the granite into the water below. Even though he didn't jump, I went for it anyway. For some ridiculous reason I kept my arms out to the side like the letter t. Essentially my arms belly flopped on the water. They instantly turned red and stung the rest of the day. Despite my injury, I steeled myself to jump off the largest jumping rock. It took me a while of watching others jump before I finally summoned the courage to go for it. This time I was sure to keep my arms crossed when I jumped. But managed to land mostly on my right leg jamming my swim bottoms right up my butt. Needless to say I was done jumping and leisurely swam back to the beach. Once we got back home, Jason made potato soup and we ate by the fire. As we were finishing up it started raining and we retreated to the camper for the night. 

Today we went on a hike and were rewarded with a piece of beef jerky and then stopped by the nature store for souvenirs. Then we headed into town to a fantastic used book store called "Bearly Used Books." It was the most spectacular book store I've ever been in. There were tightly packed aisles and niches crammed ceiling to floor with every kind of book imaginable. It was a teachers dream! You could have built your entire library in one stop. Had I not been near starvation, I could have spent hours in that little shop. If you ever find yourself in Parry Sound, Ontario, I highly recommend you stop. Thanks to the aforementioned starvation, we stumbled upon a lovely water front Cafe that was totally scrumptious! 

Since Samus didn't jump yesterday, we again stopped at the jumping rocks on our way home. I declared my spectator status and we headed up. Unfortunately when we reached the top, the waves were slamming into the rock faces and we deemed it too dangerous to jump. At the bottom we noticed two girls about Sam and Luke's ages getting ready to jump. The mother in me freaked out. I watched for several tense minutes as they each jumped and struggled to swim and climb in the waves. Once they made it to safety Jason made me leave. 

Although it was too wavy to jump, back in our little cove, it was calm. The water is so clear and so cold. Jason and Marcus went snorkeling and found a tire. I bobbed around in my life vest and Samus and Lucas shivered on the shore. Swimming here is not for the faint of heart. It was just 70 degrees and the water couldn't have been quite that warm. 

One more thing before I sign off. It seems as though tarping at your campsite is a sport of sorts in Canada. People have their entire campsites under blue tarp canopies. And the rigging involved is spectacular. Some of these tarps are bigger than I could have imagined and definitely than I've seen. I would love to get pictures but feel weird snapping photos of other people's sites. Perhaps on the way out tomorrow. 

I will surely be sad to leave this spot tomorrow but am excited to see where we land next. Back to the States in the morning. 

Goodnight from the Munsch bunch. 

Marcus sitting around the fire with swim googles on. 

Samus chopping wood with unrated safety googles. 

Hiking. 

Ring pop. Also note that NY hat. Jason dickered like he was at a rummage for it  in Niagara Falls with a street vendor. 

Me and Sam man with the hooligans in the background. 

Lookout point. 

The boys. 

A ferocious bear pawing at the ground. 

Reading in his swimming gear. 

Jason scratching his poison ivy. Talk about a hot mess. 

Samus sharpening his axe. 

Reading by the fire. 

 

Niagara Falls.

Today we visited the Niagara Falls. We started with a ride on the Maid of the Mist. We all received blue ponchos which blew all over in the intense winds. The wind also whipped in my hair and my glasses became useless with water droplets. I was pleasantly surprised that the falls didn't smell as bad as the Sioux Falls, especially since we were right up in them. There was one point During the ride I had to just close my eyes and wait until the water stopped stinging my face. It was exhilarating! When we were done Lucas said, "I thought they'd be bigger." I had to agree with him. I thought they'd be really tall. But what they lacked in height, they made up for in ferocity. I am not sure how anyone, in any circumstances, went over those falls and lived. I know it's been done, but it's incomprehensible.

Next we trucked it over to the Cave of the Wind tour. We had seen the tour on the boat ride and it looked insane. First they suited us up in super stylish sandals, presumably for their superior traction on the wet decks, and another round of rain ponchos. This time yellow. Next we walked along the red boardwalks and stairs and were continuously pummeled by stray water. It was amazing to be so close to so much power and beauty. 

We all laughed and laughed as we got wetter and wetter. The grand finale was the huricane deck. It was brutal! We didn't stand a chance in the driving wind and water. But we tried anyway. 

Like a sucker, I bought the souvenir photo and then we headed for some ice cream. Per my new normal, I did not get to have ice cream and instead drank an apple juice. I rage drunk that damn apple juice, throwing myself a pity party for the ice cream I missed out on. Thankfully the sugar in the juice had much the same effect as the ice cream and I perked up. 

We got home in time for Jason to make yummy chicken scampi for supper. In fact, we ate chicken for lunch today too because we are afraid that Canada won't allow our afordable yet delicious Costco chicken. 

Resting by the fire tonight in full fledged flannel Jammies, socks, and my favorite blanket. Tomorrow we take the circus international as we cross into Canada. Wish us luck!

Goodnight from the Munsch bunch. 

Jason and the two bigs have been reading up a storm. 

The horseshoe falls. 

Me and my Lukey. Can you see Canada, eh?

Pure awesomeness. 

Hurricane deck. 

Good night Lake Ontario. 

Lake Ontanrio

Today was easy breezy. And beautiful. We woke late as we didn't get done with laundry last night until about 10. The laundromat was approximately 300 million degrees and it cost us at least one billion dollars to do all of our laundry. 

We've decided that we could easily have never left Minnesota based on the scenery. Lots of lakes and trees and a pretty flat terrain. 

I've also noticed that people are pretty much just people no matter you go. We've been cordial and have received nothing but the same in return. I realize that this is not everybody and everywhere, but is the rule and not the exception. 

Today we went to Walmart for groceries and supplies, to a local mall for some window shopping, swimming in Lake Ontario at a local beach, had noodles and sauce for supper, and are chilling around the fire as the sun sets. I may be forcing my desire to wear a cardigan by the fire a little bit, but overall it felt like a day at home. 

Now my reflections on Lake Ontario: like the two lakes before it, it is gorgeous. But were you aware that all of the other lakes dump into Lake Ontario? I probably was too, but didn't take the time to think about until we went to get in the water. It was at that moment when I had the overwhelming feeling that this had to be the dirtiest of the Great Lakes. All the other lakes crap dumps into this little bugger at the end. Yuck. My irrationality was further fueled by the smell wafting in with the waves and all the icky green algae floating on the surface. At any rate, I did not want to get in. To make matters just a little bit less appealing the shores of Lake Ontario are not lined with sand but with large flatish stones. They are beautiful to look at but a nightmare to walk on. In the end, I tripped and grumbled my way into the water, which was FREEZING!! Ugh. Worst Great Lake ever. 

Overall, today was pretty relaxing and fun. Tomorrow we're going to see the falls, which I imagine will be breathtaking.

For tonight, sleep tight. The Munsch bunch. 

Morning coffee. 

The shore near our campsite. 

I liked the veins in this rock. 

Marcus is the first in, and Lucas is a little nervous. That about sums them up. 

Lucas and Jason in Lake Ontario. 

The stones were SO PRETTY!

Marcus really wanted a picture with this rock. 

Jason just said, "that beach was disappointing today. But kind of fun." This is why I love him!

The only shade we had was from the camper next to us. 

The sky was purple and pink. 

Fire. 

 

Lake Ontanrio

Today was easy breezy. And beautiful. We woke late as we didn't get done with laundry last night until about 10. The laundromat was approximately 300 million degrees and it cost us at least one billion dollars to do all of our laundry. 

We've decided that we could easily have never left Minnesota based on the scenery. Lots of lakes and trees and a pretty flat terrain. 

I've also noticed that people are pretty much just people no matter you go. We've been cordial and have received nothing but the same in return. I realize that this is not everybody and everywhere, but is the rule and not the exception. 

Today we went to Walmart for groceries and supplies, to a local mall for some window shopping, swimming in Lake Ontario at a local beach, had noodles and sauce for supper, and are chilling around the fire as the sun sets. I may be forcing my desire to wear a cardigan by the fire a little bit, but overall it felt like a day at home. 

Now my reflections on Lake Ontario: like the two lakes before it, it is gorgeous. But were you aware that all of the other lakes dump into Lake Ontario? I probably was too, but didn't take the time to think about until we went to get in the water. It was at that moment when I had the overwhelming feeling that this had to be the dirtiest of the Great Lakes. All the other lakes crap dumps into this little bugger at the end. Yuck. My irrationality was further fueled by the smell wafting in with the waves and all the icky green algae floating on the surface. At any rate, I did not want to get in. To make matters just a little bit less appealing the shores of Lake Ontario are not lined with sand but with large flatish stones. They are beautiful to look at but a nightmare to walk on. In the end, I tripped and grumbled my way into the water, which was FREEZING!! Ugh. Worst Great Lake ever. 

Overall, today was pretty relaxing and fun. Tomorrow we're going to see the falls, which I imagine will be breathtaking.

For tonight, sleep tight. The Munsch bunch. 

Morning coffee. 

The shore near our campsite. 

I liked the veins in this rock. 

Marcus is the first in, and Lucas is a little nervous. That about sums them up. 

Lucas and Jason in Lake Ontario. 

The stones were SO PRETTY!

Marcus really wanted a picture with this rock. 

Jason just said, "that beach was disappointing today. But kind of fun." This is why I love him!

The only shade we had was from the camper next to us. 

The sky was purple and pink. 

Fire.