Camping Trip Day 4

Camping Trip:  Day 4 Journal Entry

Shadow Pic #4 The boardwalk near Miners Falls

Today we had to spend more time taking down the tent and clearing our campsite because of the rain yesterday.  Thankfully the sun was out and Josh rigged up his car straps from a tree to the trunk so it would be wide enough to dry off the tent and the tarps. We had a quick breakfast and enjoyed the last stop at the bathroom with hot water for the trip (we were able to take a couple hot showers while we stayed at this site for two days:)

We headed up to Pictured Rocks for our last two days.  Our first stop of the day was at the Miner's Castle overlook on Lake Superior (part of Pictured Rocks).  The colors of Lake Superior were phenomenal blues and greens.  It was a beautiful day and we got some beautiful pictures at Miner's Castle.

I enjoyed seeing a chocolate lab jump up next to his owner to look out on the beautiful view as well:) Next we took a quick stop at Miner's Falls.  Then we drove a few miles down the road to the Munising Falls.  We had to take a short hike into the woods to see these falls.  The hike had hills both ways and was nice to be under the shade of the trees.

After stopping at the overlook and the falls we drove into Munising to get our tickets for the sunset boat cruise that evening and to check out a good spot to eat dinner after we set up camp.  We got our tickets and headed out of town to our campsite at A         .  We stopped at the boat launch to Grand Island to eat lunch at the picnic tables and see Lake Superior up close.

We also made a stop at the beach on Lake Superior really quick to feel the water. It was a bit brisk.

We made it to our campsite and set up camp pretty quickly (now that we were pros at setting up our new tent:) Now it was time to head back into Munising for dinner and the boat cruise.We ate dinner at a local restaurant and ate on the deck outside.  We had live music that was playing at the marina where a farmers market was also taking place.  We both ordered the baked lasagna and it was delicious. We were planning on being to the boat dock early to get good seat, however, it was 30 minutes before boarding time and we could see the line growing very fast from our dinner table. So we quickly headed to the dock and you can see from the picture that we had a lot of people in front of us...and we had just as many people lined up behind us. Thankfully they had two boats running for the tour and we were able to get seats on the top of a boat in the back. We had great seats.

The tour lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes and was worth every minute!!! I don't think our pictures do justice for Pictured Rocks.  The colors showing up in the rocks were gorgeous.  My favorites were the mint green, burgundy and purple colors. The rock formations were incredible as well. When we passed Miner's Castle Josh said, "Wow it is even more cool from this side!" You could really tell why it had the word castle in it when viewing it from the water side. There were caves all in the bottom and the middle like window and doorways on a castle. There were many rock formations that we viewed (see below).  The best part was when the boat pulled into Chapel Cove and we were only a few feet away from the sides of the cave. This is where we had our picture taken together! On the way back we were able to watch the sunset.  Right after the sun went down the sky was beautiful shades of pink and made for a wonderful ending to a great day.

Lovers Leap

Miners Castle

Indian Head

Grand Portal

Battleship Rocks

Flower Vase

(This one looks like pirates head)

Chapel Cove (this is where the boat took us inside!)

Chapel Rock

Camping Trip: Day 5

Camping Trip:  Day 5 Journal Entry

Last night we took a late night trip to the park at the campgrounds to see if we could view the northern lights.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any northern lights but the amount of stars we could see was incredible!!! We could even see the milky way. We laid on the back of the car for awhile and enjoyed the quiet and the stars. Then we headed to bed for a cool nights sleep for our last night.

In the morning we at breakfast of our lasting granola and muffins plus we made some toast over the fire and add some peanut butter YUM. After eating we went for a hike on a trail coming off our campsite.  It was a beautiful walk through the woods along the river.  We were prepared for how long the trail lasted and after walking for quite some time we decided to turn around worried that the trail was going to continue much longer than we had the time for or might come out too far from the campsite.

I found this little moss hill that looked like a house for a hobbit:)

When we returned we packed up for the last time of the trip. Thankfully everything was dry and the clean up was easy.  We were ready to head back home and have a restful night before going back to the normal routine.

This trip was a really great time for us to enjoy each other's company and celebrate our 5 year anniversary in the beauty of God's creation. If you get a chance to visit Pictured Rocks, don't forget to take the boat tour, it's worth the money and time!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HUN!!!

Pickard Family Disney Vacation 2012

 We took our traditional Disney trip with the Pickard side of the family in mid March. We enjoyed another stay at the Shades of Green resort on Disney property and had a very full week of fun at a variety of the parks. It was great to see the family and so much fun time with them. It was also great to be away from work and school. Even though we were tired every day from being out in the sun and doing a lot of walking and riding rides, it was worth it. Wish those trips didn't come to an end and I already miss my family so much. This was the first year that all the kids were tall enough to go on some of the bigger rides, so Space Mountain was our first ride with all family members riding together (although Braden wasn't so sure he liked it afterward) it was nice that we could all go on together.

Other than spending time with my family, my favorite things were riding the two dragon roller coasters at Universal Studios Island's of Adventure (4 rides total!) and also the early morning safari at Animal Kingdom. Josh enjoyed Fear Fall of Doom that I dragged him on and I ended up hating and screaming like a baby and he always has fun with the Toy Story Mania attraction:)

Copy and past the URL below to see a slide show that captures a part of our adventure. Definitely magical!

https://picasaweb.google.com/118167360605468315936/PickardFamilyDisneyVacation2012?locked=true#slideshow/5757602121776494962

Good Friends, Good Times

We were able to enjoy a visit to our good friends house Ben and Sarah last month. On our way out of town for Spring Break we enjoyed spending time with them and their boys. It is always nice to see them when traveling through the area. Wish we lived closer, but we cherish the moments we have together. So thankful for their friendship no matter how many miles are in between!

And never a dull moment:)

Happy Birthday!!

Friday was my birthday in addition to my twin brother Mike and he was nice enough to drive up to visit me. We didn't have plans in mind except to hang out so after some time we decided to go play billards. Since I knew Concordia has some tables we headed out to the school and played for a while in addition to playing some air hockey. As we were leaving Mike noticed a photo booth that was set up for what I think was a party they were having yesterday and since no one was around we decided to take advantage of the booth and took some 29th b-day photos!

Dartboard Cabinet

I didn't realize that I was going to have a goal for this month (or even this year) until Jenean placed on the blog that it was my goal to make a dart board cabinet. So here I am writing on the blog for really the first time. I have come to realize that this is important especially for my parents since they seem to frequent our blog!

The entire dartboard cabinet idea started when Jenean bought me a dart board for Christmas and it was a plastic tip board. I really wanted a steel tip board but she was concerned about our walls in the apartment. Therefore, the idea was born to make a dart board cabinet. The only problem left was how to get a steel tip dart board at a reasonable price. This problem was solved by our Goodwill store where I found a dartboard with 4 sets of darts in a cabinet for $10. I was able to reuse the hinges, darts, board, and chalk boards which saved a lot of money.

With the dartboard in hand I started by buying some new tools to make the process a little easier. (Oh and I will always take an opportunity to buy tools) The FLUKE meter wasn't on my list but is by far my favorite tool (I was able to get it for $5 at Goodwill and fix it into working condition. I considered selling it since it retails for $150 but realize I will never purchase one and therefore am keeping it) Jenean for some off reason likes the dovetail saw.

After making the purchases it was off to cutting the wood. I cut most of it outside on the porch when it was 55 degrees in early January but forgot to rip the doors so when it was 10 degrees outside I went into the bathroom and made the last cuts. I was rather ambitious at the beginning and attempted to make the box out of dovetails yet failed miserably. I have been told is a hard skill to learn and I wasn't happy with how mine turned out so I cut the tails off and drove screws into the sides covering them with wood dowel pins.

This is the first step of staining with only the frame. In all it took 3 coats as I used two different stains followed by two coats of polyurithane.

Lastly, the outside. This took a while as I had to cut out a template for the Steelers emblem.

The final product!!

Who knows what my next goal will be...maybe survive my last big semester!!!