Monday, September 10, 2012

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!!!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

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