Just me & Joe

So, Hubby kicked us out.

Well, not really, but kind of. My mom was going to drive down from the U.P. to pick Logan up for one more stay before school starts. She was planning to come get him Tuesday or Wednesday, and she was going to bring him home early next week. But on Sunday, at dinner, Hubby said "Why don't you and Jordan go up north, too, so I can paint the kitchen without you guys in the way?"

I told him we weren't invited, but I thought about it and suggested I take Logan up, drop him off at my parents' house so Mom didn't have to drive down and pick him up, then I'd take Jordan to visit my grandparents for a day and then come home. So, Hubby took Wednesday off, and on Tuesday morning, the boys and I set off for up north.

The six-hour car ride up was pretty typical. Some screaming, some yelling, some laughter, some messes, a hamburger-and-french-fry fight I don't even want to talk about, etc.





We stopped off in Indian River at the Cross in the Woods shrine so I could get a statue of St. Joseph in the gift shop to bury in the yard to help sell our house. Of course, we walked back to see the cross. It's pretty big, and Logan asked in a hushed voice, "Mom... Did Jesus die here?!"



Nope. But it's an interesting place to visit.

We headed up, over the Mackinac Bridge, which usually has spectacular views but that day it was so foggy you could barely even see the bridge towers when you were on the bridge.



Got to Mom and Dad's and visited for a while. Spent the night. The next morning, Jordan splashed in puddles in the driveway and Logan rode his bike, turned cartwheels and asked repeatedly when Jordan and I were leaving.







We took the hint and headed up to Grand Marais. (After a stop to buy diapers! I had good intentions of using my Flip disposable liner diapers, but Jordan pooped all over the 3 covers I had as soon as we got up there, so I ended up having to get some regular disposables.)

We drove over to the Lake Superior Campground on H-58, east of Grand Marais, and were lucky enough to nab a nice little camp site.



I set up our backpacking tent and put in our sleeping pads. We didn't need much. It was simple camping at its finest!



For lunch, we had some cheese and crackers. And made faces at each other. And laughed. And got eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies.









Then we headed down to the beach to play in Lake Superior, which was really warm! Usually, it's so cold it makes your feet numb. We played with rocks and got wet.







After a half hour or so, Jordan's lips were purple and he was getting crabby because he was cold, so we headed back to camp, changed into dry clothes and headed back into Grand Marais.

We got sidetracked when I cut down the road to the Blind Sucker campground and discovered that both sides of the road were lined with the thickest patches of blueberries I had ever seen! I was in awe! I pulled over and it took me maybe 3 minutes to fill Jordan's little sand pail with a sweet, sun-warmed, super-healthy treat! The taste of wild Michigan blueberries is sooooooo much better than those tasteless huge globes you get when you buy blueberries at the grocery store. These were so yummy!







After that, we went to Grandma and Papa's house in Grand Marais and visited with Papa George for a while. Grandma was at a day outing, but was expected back later.

Jordan had ice cream, sat with Papa, made some funny "George faces" for him and got very dirty. A good day for a little boy!









In the later afternoon, I took Jordan to go visit the Au Sable Point lighthouse. I don't know what's wrong with me. I thought you could drive all the way to it, but I couldn't for the life of me find a road to get there. I drove all the way to Hurricane River, and then turned around and headed back toward town, where I stopped at the ranger station. Turns out, you have to park at Hurricane River and then hike 1.5 miles to the light, then hike back to your car. Wish I'd known that ahead of time! Dummy! Instead of driving all the way back out to Hurricane River with a baby who had fallen asleep in the car and was kind of cranky, we decided to visit the Log Slide and Sable Falls instead.

The Log Slide is the location where there was once a log chute to slide logs down the S-T-E-E-P dune to Lake Superior. Every year, some idiots break their legs trying to run down the dune. I wouldn't dream of it. Trying to climb back up would be really rough, even if you didn't break your leg.





Jordan kept wanting to hug trees. Literally. He'd point out trees he wanted to hug and if I walked over to them, he'd hug them and say "Awww, nice." (Grin)



I've been going to Sable Falls since I was really little. You used to be able to actually get in the waterfall, but it's all fenced off due to massive erosion from people getting in there. It's still pretty though.







Hubby and I stood in that waterfall in September 2000. He had just given me my engagement ring out on the beach and I surprised him there in the waterfall with an engagement ring for him, too. I'd had a sneaking suspicion he was going to propose, and I was prepared!

After that, we went back to Grand Marais and had a quick shower and then had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Jordan was a good boy and really liked the cantaloupe!



After dinner, we went back to camp and got in the tent. Jordan was WOUND UP and would not go to sleep. Finally, a little after 9 p.m. I decided to take him for a drive to get him to settle down. It did the trick. I read for a little while and turned off my flashlight around 10. Woke up at 4 a.m. and it was so windy I thought for sure a storm was coming. Made my way through the dark to the outhouse (A scary thing, for me. I'm kind of a chicken in dark woods!) and then went back to sleep til 7:30 a.m. Slept pretty well to the rushing of the the wind and the lake. There's no lullaby like it!

We got up the next day and went to the beach for a few but it was too windy and the waves were big, so we decided not to play there very long. Jordan was cute in his jammies on the beach, lit by the rising sun.







Looking lovely after a night in the tent. Slept in my clothes and everything. Woo! Happy, though!



Right about here, I dropped my camera in the sand and it hasn't worked since. Grrr....

Went back to take the tent down and some crazy lady PARKED HER BUTT at our campsite because she and her husband planned to camp there. I'm not kidding. They parked their truck right by my car at the camp site and she sat at the picnic table and poked at Jordan and looked at the rocks in my trunk and waited for me to take the tent down and leave (her husband stayed in the truck). It was extremely rude.

She also informed me that I had missed the Northern Lights the night before, which made me really sad. I LOVE the Northern Lights and have only seen them a few times before.

So, we left camp around 8:30 and drove for a few hours and stopped at Lehtos on US-2 to get pasties to take home for dinner and then stopped at the St. Ignace Big Boy for breakfast and a diaper change and then stopped in Birch Run to get gas and have a taco at Taco Bell and another diaper change and then finally made it home at 4 p.m.!!! What a long day of driving! Jordan slept for 3 hours straight in the car, though, which was a blessing.

Anyway, it was a fun little adventure with my baby boy.