This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap 2019, Part 2
Sep
25
2019
Continued from last week
Day 3
Our hosts offered us the use of their jetski. But not just any jetski – it was a stand-up jetski.
For those of you who have ridden a jetski: it’s not like a normal jetski. The difference is like between driving a car and driving a motorcycle. It requires a lot more balance and a lot of concentration. With a normal jetski you can slow down or stop and not have to do anything. With a stand-up jetski you must balance all the time. Imagine riding a bike or motorcycle and not being able to put your feet down, or a kickstand either. Because there’s not ground under you.
And the handlebar moves up and down when you don’t want it to. That was the hardest part for me – I wasn’t keeping the handlebar down all the way when I was starting and I couldn’t steer very well. Anyway, here’s some guy on a stand-up jetski:
After I and then Alpha had tried the stand-up jetski, they got out the wake boat and everyone took turns tubing. If you’re not familiar with tubing in Minnesota, go look up Tim Hawkins’ bit on that, then come back and finish reading here.
Well, almost everyone…Some Wife never made it on the tube. We’ve gone tubing before, but on a flat tube that has you lying prone. This time they had a tube that’s like a comfortable chair – it has a back so you’re sitting up
A bunch of passes of the lake were made by various combinations of me, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and a couple other relatives.
Last time, on the flat tube, we had some spills and flips. This Big Mable thing was very stable and no one flew off.
After the tubing, we towed the giant raft out to the middle of the lake and went swimming. I told the kids “Notice there are no ‘No Diving’ signs posted? This is your chance to get in all those head-first dives that you’ve been storing up.” They didn’t take too many dives, but there was all manner of jumping in the lake and playing king of the hill on the raft – so king of the raft – and swimming and splashing about.
Then we had dinner and spent the evening relaxing some more. Then it was evening, then morning the next day.
Day 4
This day was kind of like the day before. Breakfast, relax, on the lake just before lunch, then again later in the afternoon.
Down time was spent working on some puzzles.
The raft stayed at the dock this time.
The boys tried wake surfing. They were making progress but got too cold. But just before dinner they got to watch their great-uncle slalom ski.
Then a break for dinner.
And then a peaceful non-motorized trip across the lake.
Then it was evening, then morning the next day.
Day 5
Day 5 was a full day of driving. We had breakfast with family, loaded up the van, took some pictures of everyone together, and headed out to Duluth.
Duluth wasn’t really the destination, but it was on the way and I wanted our kids to be able to say they’ve been in Duluth. Come to think of it, that might have been my first time in Duluth too.
Anyway, we stopped for lunch there. That was our first break. There was a lakeside park – Sister Cities Park or Lakewalk Park depending on whom you ask – that was a study in contrasts. First off we had to pass by a number of open parking spots because they were reserved for electric cars, and when we parked and walked to a picnic table we had a view of several horse-drawn carriages going by. Then there was the scenic Lake Superior on one side and industrial buildings on the other. Then people out exercising, passing by the table of smokers. I suppose there’s something for everyone there in Duluth.
Back on the road after lunch, we drove through Wisconsin again, this time for about 2 hours before we made it into Michigan. I think we stopped for gas shortly after entering Michigan, then we kept on driving. After about 2 hours we started to think about where to stop for dinner. There is not much along the route between Duluth and Marquette, so our choices were limited. We eventually settled on a Chinese restaurant. We ordered 3 dinners, but their portions were so large we had enough for leftovers for everyone. Good thing our rental house had a fridge.
But first, we stopped by the grocery store to get supplies for the next couple days. Quick trip through there, with detours to the bathrooms for half the kids, and then over to the rental house. That was nice, because they emailed me the keypad code for the front door so we were able to just go right in and setup.
We unpacked and settled in and got ready for bed. Then it was evening, then morning the next day.
To Be Continued…
They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.
Mark 6:32
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:49 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
