Porcupine mountains

October 10, 2012

The main attraction of my trip home was the camping trip in the Porcupine Mountains. My dad and I met up with my aunt, my uncle (his brother and sister), and my brother. We spent one day in a drive up cabin getting our things together and enjoying the wilderness before setting off on a 9 1/2 mile hike to a much more remote cabin to stay for 3 days.

We spent our days cooking, exploring on the beach (rocky), relaxing, napping, foraging (in my case), carving wood, drawing on rocks, sitting by the fire, and basically enjoying nature and each other.

The days were pretty sunny and wonderful but the nights got cool and I found myself stoking the wood stove more often than I would have liked. Isn’t anyone else cold? I would wonder to myself as I angrily stuffed the stove with wood. My temper would mellow though as warmth and sleep overtook me once again.

Despite having to get up every 3 hours to keep the stove going and having to keep earplugs in the fall asleep due to the snorers of the family I had such a great time. I think we all did. It’s nice to be away from the phone, computers, and to do lists to just relax and enjoy having nothing to do. I’m already looking forward to the next time we go.

A tour of the midwest

October 9, 2012

My trip home also included a little tour of the Midwest. Of course on our way to go camping we had to drive through the upper peninsula like we usually we do. We spend a night at a place called the degrand house. Since it was our second time there we were calling it our home away from home. I love staying there. This time I found some old dance cards tucked away in a drawer.

My dad had some business to do after the family camping trip (I’ll be sharing more tomorrow) in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. I was super excited since I had never visited either state. I figured the best way to get to know a place is to have a beer there and isn’t it all the better if it’s brewed there too? I thought so.

Annual fall trip home/favorite thing about fall

October 8, 2012

Recently I took a trip home for a camping trip with my family. It seemed kind of funny since I just spent the summer there and had only been in Seattle for 2 and half weeks but it’s kind of a fall tradition now.

One of my favorite things about being home in the fall is eating my first apple cider doughnut of the season followed by my second, hehehe. On our journey to the upper peninsula to meet up with the family my dad and I stopped by apple orchard (at my request) to get the doughnuts of course, some apples and a bit of apple cider. It was the perfect way to begin the vacation.