Perfect Camping Weekend

Brandon, Polar and I spent the last 3 days at Jay Cooke State Park camping. The weather was absolutely perfect! We had a cold front come in which to me is happy news... I despise heat. I think the highs were around 70-75 and at night we were comfy with the windows shut and our blankets. Perfect.

This was our 2nd camping trip this summer. In June we went to Pattison State Park just south of Superior. This had been our 1st time to this park... gorgeous!


This is Brandon, Polar and I at Pattison sitting in front of our little camper.









These are the new gadgets we bought for camping this season. I love the tripod thingy! It makes cooking over the campfire so much simpler. We cooked steaks along with pepper and onion foil packets for this meal. Dessert was Banana Cream Pies in the Pie Irons. Yum-O.








































B and I went on a 2-hour hike at Jay Cooke. A lot of the path for the hike looked like this

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Yes, very weedy and in need of a good mow. But it still was a really good hike. There were no mosquitoes and just a couple of horseflys. The weather was cool and the sun was shining.... can't ask for much more than that!

We saw a Leopard Frog (the below photo is not mine, but learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_frog) and an extremely large, very scary spider inside a huge hole in a tree.








We've stopped taking Polar on our hikes because she just can't keep up anymore. Her legs just don't have the strength. It's tough getting old... and she's old for a dog -- she turned 17 on June 1st! She loves to camp though... she likes to wander around the campsite, lounge on the outdoor rug, or sleep in the doorway of the camper. She is an excellent traveling dog!








Below are some miscellaneous photos of our latest camping trip at Jay Cooke. The swinging bridge is always popular... I've been visiting this park since I was in grade school. My parents have many pictures of me on the bridge just like the one below of Brandon. Jay Cooke is one of my most favorite parks... I love all the rocks along the river. There is a huge rock wall in the campground that I used to climb as a kid. I tried to climb it last summer, but freaked out about a 1/3 of the way up. Tough to get old! I love the River Inn at Jay Cooke.... as soon as I walk in, the smell of the old logs brings me right back to my childhood. I attended many naturalist programs in this building and sang many camp songs!