The Mindful Homeschool

We spent the earlier part of this week camping and vacationing on the beautiful shore of Lake Superior.  We tent camped at a site that had a good view of Split Rock Lighthouse and a path leading down to the rocky shoreline.   We hiked and ate wild raspberries along the paths bordering the trails.  We found beautiful Lake Superior agates (a few), Thomsonite stone (we think), and broken pieces of vintage glass that had been “polished” by the rocks and waves on this great lake.   We roasted marshmallows, studied the stars, and saw some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  We also heard (and maybe saw?) a loon from afar.  We saw a marsh hawk aka northern harrier up close at Hawks Ridge in Duluth and came pretty close to an immature bald eagle.  (Did you know that bald eagles don’t have their white heads until they are about 5 years of age?)

We spent our third night relaxing at an inn on Lake Superior.  Dd and I were able to do some sketching while relaxing on the big rocks on the shoreline and the boys walked all the way to the lighthouses.  We went over the aerial lift bridge a few times, which is always a treat, and spent some glorious moments hanging out on the beach at Park Point before we headed back home. 

The kids and I are still recovering from all the big adventures.  Everyone is a bit exhausted from the early mornings and numerous adventures.  Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip: 

The trip to SD was an experience our kids will remember for a long time.  Well, maybe not our youngest, our 3 1/2 yo, but our other children will remember touring a cave for the first time, the Beautiful Rushmore Cave; and seeing the beautiful Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, among other things.

I am very proud of our children adapting to all the new situations and trying new things, esp. in the area of food.  C did have her moments where she was unwilling to do things that the rest of us wanted to do, things like watching the 20 minute video at Crazy Horse but these were balanced out somewhat with the times she was willing to try new things and go with the flow.  As a matter of fact, it seemed to be a “go with the flow” kind of vacation.   And hopefully the lesson she and the rest of us learned about going with the flow will be remembered for a long time.

Our camping at the Sylvan Lake campgrounds in Custer State Park was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  We hadn’t planned on camping in this particular spot but when a park employee told us that the campsites were “rustic”, our curiosity was piqued.  The campground was everything you would want, full of gorgeous ponderosa pine trees and plenty of privacy.  There was an open area behind our campground where we were able to gather wood for the campfire and do some exploring. 

The park employee that we met on our first night there, Tara, was a wonderful addition to the place.  She was the one who recommended our camp site and we started to rely on her for other recommendations for restaurants in the area and other activities.  And it turned out she knew her food too.  She recommended a place in Custer called the Sage Creek and esp. recommended their carrot cake.  We got it “to go” and it was one of the best carrot cakes I have ever eaten.  I am truly grateful for her presence there.  She helped make the stay so much better. 

The weather was sunny and warm but not too warm during the daylight hours.  At night it did get cold, really cold and that became one of the downsides.  The campground was up in the mountains so it was chilly at night and hence, mommy had no sleep that first night.  This was partly due to needing to share sleeping space with my very active 3 yo and partly due to the fact that our tent was on a sloping hill.  The next day, we were forced to leave this particular campsite because someone had reserved it online.  (The reservation process left something to be desired).  The kids were bummed that we had to leave this wonderful site until … we discovered perhaps an even more beautiful campsite higher up in the campgrounds.  It was gorgeous with lots of ponderosas and even more space and “hills” to explore.  Thus, the beginning of C’s “go with the flow” attitude. 

All the kids were awesome in their fearless touring of the old cave near Mt. Rushmore.  I think they did better than I.  The tour guides gave all of us the experience of total and absolute darkness for a few minutes during the tour.  My kids did really well and it seems touring the cave may have been the highlight of their trip. 

C and the other children became quite good at adapting to new places and food.  One particular incident stands out:  Eating Mexican food at a restaurant in Hill City.  They ate food that they never would have tried in our hometown.  Of course, maybe the fact that we ate our meal at 8:00 had something to do with it.  They were hungry!!!

We took some 500 photos and I will try to post some of them later.  We are already thinking about our next camping trip, somewhere much closer to home.  The summer may be particularly short this year so we gotta make the most of it.  I am going to be doing a lot of list making over the weekend.  Making a list and checking it twice… gonna make this summer especially nice…. 

Well, we are back from our trip to South Dakota where we camped, hiked and even toured a cave for the first time!  We saw Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Custer State Park (absolutely beautiful!), ate bison burgers and too much restaurant food, and met many wonderful South Dakotans.  I especially enjoyed camping at the Sylvan Lake campgrounds in Custer State Park.  The campsites that we stayed at were gorgeous with plenty of room for us and the kids to explore. 

The drive to SD was long, made even longer on the way home by a very sick and uncomfortable 7 year old.  Poor W … he was so miserable and the drive home was much too long for him.  But now he is fully recovered, albeit a bit tired yet and we are slowly moving back into our routines.  It was a wonderful family vacation but it is really nice to be home again.  I hope to be able to blog more about it later.  South Dakota’s advertising slogan is Great Faces. Great Places.  I like that and it certainly lived up to it.  More later…

In honor of my birthday, we took a mini-vacation last weekend.  We stayed one night at a lovely cottage “treehouse” in Wisconsin.  It was awesome.  Everything we wanted it to be and more.  But no real easy way to describe it.  The treehouse cottage was built into a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and it took 86 steps from the parking lot to our cottage.  And it was one of the closer cottages to the parking lot!  The other cottages would have required even more climbing. 

The cottages overlooked the Mississippi river and the views were gorgeous.  We didn’t see any bald eagles from the windows of our little home away from home but outside we did see wild turkeys and my dear husband saw bald eagles flying high above the bluff.  It was magical.

I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there.   The only downside was that the accomodations were a tad expensive and so it was hard to justify staying there more than one night.  That was one of the main reasons we have never gone there even though we have known about these cottages for about three years.  It just seemed so extravagant, especially for our family.  But vacations are so important for the health of a family, I do believe.  It is what the children remember when they are grown up.  W had a hard time leaving, I think.  He and the other children really wanted to stay longer.  That was the only bummer on the trip.  Leaving.  But I told the children that we would come back.  I just need to figure out when and how.  Celia has requested that we go back for her birthday which I am considering.  She said that she would want to stay two nights because she will be turning double digits this year!  I guess we better start serving more peanut butter sandwiches. 

Of course, I want my dear children to have a much longer vacation too and I plan to work on finding a way to travel more with our kids.  But this was a great start.  It helped whet the appetite for some more family adventures and made me even more cognizant of how much everyone enjoys them.

Now we are thinking about taking the kids to see Mount Rushmore.  I have never been there but I have heard good things.  That would make for an awesome family adventure, I do believe.  In preparation for the trip I plan to do a lot of reading about the great presidents and the history of our country.  Educational and fun, now that’s a good thing!