The Biggest Maple Tree in Minnesota

On the night before St Patricks Day, Meadow made a leprechaun trap.

Maybe next year Meadow.

Meadow was having a rough morning and needed a hug.

She wanted to play Zelda all day long. The rest of us wanted to go on a hike.

We spend so much time getting these kids to get outside and once they are outside they don't want to come back in.

Scott chose this weeks hike based off his current love of old growth forests.

Wolsfeld Woods SNA just west of the cities in Medina. It's home to the tallest sugar maple in the state.

I bet this place is beautiful in the fall.

Theo once again was a great hiking mate.

Besides the one map near the entrance you were basically left to go wherever you wanted.

We followed the trails, but the understory is wide open and you could just walk anywhere.

I think we need to come back here in the summer to let the kids play in the creek.

Suddenly hiking was fun.

I love hiking with my favorite goofs.

Here was the homestead the park is named after. I tried to find evidence of where the home was.

Just an old light post?

And an old tractor.

Meadow wanted to see the manmade eagles nest in the distance.

This park also has ski trails and judging by how unknown and not busy the park was we'll also have to come back in winter too.

I love some good moss and I guess Meadow does too.

Some of the unmarked trails would lead us to someone's house.

The lakes around the metro are still somewhat frozen, but I wouldn't go out on them.

Scott was not thrilled about having to cross the natural bridge.

I made Brooke carry my camera and lenses over the bridge. It wasn't bad once I got halfway across.

I love big old-growth trees anytime of the year.

Theo wanted to show me how he could climb over this downed tree.

After reading Our Living Ancestors, I'm really into all the signs of a healthy old growth forests. Tip-ups are a must as well as debris and duff (decaying leaves).

These guys love to play on the downed trees.

We ended up spending 2 hours here and didn't even touch one side of the park.

See you again Wolsfeld Woods.

Teaching them young.

Our car was in desperate need for a bath. We still had mud on our tire from when Scott drove in a ditch back in November.

Since we were in the area we stopped at Minnetonka Drive In for lunch.

I went here years ago with my dad. I didn't remember it being great, but I guess it's gotten better or my memory didn't serve me right.

We were going to stop at the neighboring Back Channel Brewing but it was packed. We also tried Steel Toe Brewing and they were also packed. Instead we went home and played video games while I worked on more photo books.

Comments

Sisters, a Brother and Walking Chicago

Summer always seems to mean one thing: weddings. Whether I'm shooting or attending, we're bound to end up at a few every year. This time around we were heading down to Chicago from my big sister Katrina's nuptials. I feel like all our vacations are centered around a wedding or something wedding related. I wish we could go on a vacation without having to worry about being somewhere. It also means a few repetitive trips down I-94. There aren't nearly enough unique stops off the interstate. One outlier is Foster Cheese Haus , the only organic Wisconsin cheese shop I know of. Run by the folks behind Castle Rock Organic Farms , we always try to stop by. Unfortunately for us they were closed on Wednesdays, but at least we got to spy on their darling garden out front. Brooke and I arrived in Necedah. We decided to stop at Brooke's sister Brittany's home along the way to cut the ride in half and get her dressed hemmed. ...

Dakotas Road Trip: Badlands and Black Hills

I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going. Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream. We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy. I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

Search This Blog