Skip to main content

Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling's Pike Island Hikes

 

We had a random warm day, Scott got new hiking boots and I love waterfalls. So a trip to Minnehaha Falls we went.
 
Will she ever get bored with waterfalls? Probably not.

Getting down any trail sure takes longer than before we had kids.
 
 
The kids just wanted to play in the creek.

We haven't walked the trail to the river since Meadow was Theo's age.

It's still one of my favorite hikes in Minnesota even if it's right in the city.

"What?! The sand is yellow!" 

All the fisherman and woman were out where Minnehaha meets with the Mississippi.
 

The kids would've played in the sand cave all day, but we had to get back before sunset. It was a school night, after all.


I wonder when we'll be back here next. I think the kids hope sooner rather than later.

After some literal tree hugging, we called it a night. They do this everywhere.
 

On Saturday the kids and I picked up a box of doughnuts for breakfast from Bogart's.
 
 
Another hiking weekend at Fort Snelling. While it's our least favorite, we decided to stay close by this time. The kids really wanted to go back to Minnehaha Falls. 
 
It's not my least favorite, but this time of year, after a lot of hikes, I'm kind of ready for leaf canopies to be in full bloom. It's just so gray out right now.

Little tree huggers.
 
At it again. Goof balls love nature just like their parents.

Hey, deer.

The kids wanted to play in the water again.

At least this was more interesting than the main trail that we've hiked so many times already. Honestly would've been fun to hike one of the other trails in the park, but we're on a hiking club mission.

We found a tree that had been ravaged by bugs. It was pretty groovy.


It's about the journey and not the destination. I suppose.

We made it to the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.
 
And the hiking club password. 

Hi, Theo.

Theo wanted to be carried but only if he could be carried from the front. 
 
Brooke doesn't think Theo looks like her because he has blonde hair. With a hat on you really see it.
 
I still don't see it. 


Pretending to be a butterfly.

I guess we really didn't do much the rest of the day. We don't normally head out of the house so early. We all admitted we like starting things later and coming home late. We didn't really know what to do the rest of the day. 

Finally, Brooke admits that taking your time is better than rushing out in the morning.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

A Smoky Weekend at the Cottage and a Stop at Ladysmith's Northland Mardi Gras

This summer we decided to go to the cottage any weekend we had nothing else going on. This week, due to fires in the Boundary Waters and Canada, the air quality was pretty terrible. We debated if we should still go, but it looked like it would clear up by Saturday. So we took the chance. And by terrible, we mean the worst air quality we'd ever seen. Along the way we decided to stop at John and Heidi's Happy Daze . We've passed this place probably 100 times. It was about time to stop by. I ordered the prime rib sandwich special.  Yummy. The sandwich that is. Everybody's food was really good, but Brooke's was the star of the show.  I want to get back here asap. Now if only this pesky smoke would go away.

To Chippewa Falls for the Northern Wisconsin State Fair

I saw that the Northern Wisconsin State Fair was happening and we didn't have anything else planned. We booked a campsite at Lake Wissota State Park and we were on our way.  We hadn't been to a county fair yet and this seemed like it might be even better. We set up camp first in case we would be back late. This was a good excuse for a quick camping trip. Plus we'd never been to Lake Wissota State Park before or Chippewa Falls, really. Since 1897 Chippewa Falls has been hosting the Northern Wisconsin State Fair. More of a super-regional county fair, Wisconsin’s other state fair started as a way for folks up north to avoid the grueling, long haul down to Milwaukee County. Our first stop was to fill up our big jug of lemonade. I think this is the 4th year of this big jug. Brooke brings a couple of our old lemonade jugs with just in case. Then you get the refill price.