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We did a few things related to water this past summer. I normally post a vacation recap after our vacation, but I neglected to do so for 2024.
So instead, you’ll get some photos of water-y things we did, both on vacation and not. With things warming up it’s time to think about water rather than snow again.

We did some waterfall and river exploring. This was in Big Falls County Park on the outskirts of Eau Claire, WI. Note that if you’re wondering how to get to Big Falls County Park to visit the falls and go wading, you want the south side – come across on 9 Mile Creek Rd then up N. 130th Ave to the park entrance. Nothing wrong with the north side, but if you want the normal experience use the south side.

Here is what it looks like when you come to the end of the trail and first see the falls.

And then if you go down a level here’s what it looks like.

And this was what I saw looking back up at the falls – the boys testing out the waters.

They worked their way down the falls and were wading through the river. There was a lot of it you could wade through, but there were some spots that required swimming.

That was our stop in Wisconsin. Then we went over to Minnesota, where there are a lot of lakes so we did lake things.

Mainly tubing

and wake surfing. Here’s how one starts wake surfing.

And here’s how it should look just after starting. The wave does settle down and become smoother and then you can stay ahead of the break, if all goes well.

As far as I can tell, the main difference between tubing and wake surfing is that in wake surfing the boat driver is working with you to help you but in tubing the driver is working against you.

Then from Minnesota we went back into Wisconsin but only to pass through to the UP of Michigan. There we got to do some cliff jumping into Lake Superior.

I jumped, although it was not pleasant. It wasn’t that bad, but I don’t need to do it again. I may have needed a few minutes to work myself up to it. My youngest was in the same boat, but once he jumped he liked it and kept jumping.

Then he got the idea in his head that he wanted to swim across the channel, which was basically the open seas of Lake Superior. Here is what it looks like from the POV of the jumping spot.

In fact, that picture is of him and his cousin-in-law reaching the other side.

And here is their swim back. The water is about 8-10 feet deep right next to the cliff, so in the open water like that it’s probably 15-20 feet. The weather was good though so not much of a current for them to fight.

Then from Lake Superior on the north side of the UP we moved to Lake Huron on the south side of the UP. That was a very shallow section so our activites there were more relaxed, like hiking, kayaking, and rowboating.

We did some other water stuff throughout the summer. Here is a trip to Lake Michigan, which was mostly sitting on the sand and wading in the cold water.

And rounding out the travelogue here is our river tubing trip.

This is the end of the whitewater rapids in Ann Arbor, MI. They have a feature there called the Cascades, which is a manmade series of small falls so that kayakers and canoers can bypass the dam on the Huron River.

Those falls are also fun for tubers, as it’s basically a class 0 rapids, or level 1- or whatever is the easiest thing you could do. And if things go bad, all you gotta do is stand up and walk, as it’s about waist deep.