Day 2
Meadow had a few days off from school and I have a few days of PTO to use so we took a fall trip to the cottage. We arrived on Tuesday evening. Wednesday happened to be our 9th Anniversary. It's tradition to have crepes for breakfast but we didn't have any milk. Waffle mix it is.
Though we've only been married nine years we've actually been together for almost 15 years. I think that number matters a lot more than a legal document celebrating a party we had six years after meeting.
We went from summer weather the week before to winter this week. Today called for on and off rain. Eventually we made it outside. My dad had apparently already brought in the docks and boat for the winter.
With the weather we had this weekend, it was probably for the best.
Only a little bit of fall color was left in the cottage woods.

Where's the adult swings?

We had heard that the the Mississippi River was being drawn down in Downtown Minneapolis. So we picked up some pizza and headed down to the river.
The other side of the river was packed so we stayed on the west side. I don't know why they don't take advantage of cleaning up all the garbage.
Perhaps everyone could just take a piece of garbage to the trash. It could've been cleaned up in no time flat.

Scott had to take some sunset photos in Stillwater. 
A fall color aerial 360.
I hadn't been there in awhile so we tagged along. We left as soon as Meadow was done for school and headed for the St Croix Boom Site. I had heard there was a hidden waterfall and wanted to check it out. There's not a specific trail to it. From what I read you go down the stairs and take a left following the river. 
I think it's an old state trail that isn't maintained and has way too much graffiti. 
You basically just take the staircase down and then follow the bluff north along the St. Croix.
Some parts were a little tricky. The kids have way more fun on hikes like this. Meadow usually becomes disinterested in trails that are flat with little scenery change. 
The fall colors were popping just north of Stillwater proper.

When I get in that travel mode I can't stop. This weekend brought us to my family's hunting land. We had plans to meet my parents around dinnertime. When in Wisconsin we have to get a fish fry. We picked up food from Silvercryst in nearby Wautoma.
We're still not dining in even nearly six months into Covid. Call ahead, get your fish fry and take it to your destination. Especially that the greater Fox Valley area is now the the nation's worst hotspot.
After dinner the kiddos tried some fishing. Great-grandpa did a good job of stocking this partially man-made pond.
Check out our private oasis.

Scott had more shoots this weekend. This time it took us way up north. With Meadow back in school we left Friday afternoon. Luckily Meadow's teacher canceled their afternoon meeting and we were able to leave earlier than we planned.To break up the long drive we camped for the night at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. We booked the last site, I can't believe people are still camping. When we were setting up our tent Meadow said, "Why are other people so close to us?" We don't go to normal campgrounds very often I guess. We set up early and went on a hike before dinner. We should have brought our canoe along, but a hike would do.

I had taken the kids to the farmers market yesterday and Meadow wanted apples. I was like, hey it's apple picking season why don't we get our own? Scott had more shoots south of the Cities so we tagged along again.
The jobs are small, shooting a big chain of paint stores, so we're able to get them out of the way and have some fun.
I chose Whistling Well Farm as they had apple picking only. We aren't big fans of the carnival parts of apple farms. It wasn't too busy and everyone was wearing masks. They also had hand washing stations set up around the farm.
Luckily the trees were small and perfect height for the kids to pick themselves.
For $25 we got to pick one peck of Honeycrisp apples. Quite a deal!
Theo got the hang of twisting the apples off the trees after a little practice.

I always think we're done, but they always add more apples to our bag until it nearly explodes.
We filled our bag up quick. I forget how much faster it goes compared to berry picking. 
We also …