We happened to be driving through Manitowish Waters so figured this was finally my chance to go to Little Bohemia Lodge . Brooke's wanted to go here forever. So why not? Even if you arrive when the restaurant opens, expect to wait. Better yet, make a reservation if you plan on going. Rookie mistake on our part. But I guess it could be worse than hanging at their old school bar with some brewskis and Shirley Temples. There seemed to be a lot of open tables. Sounded like they were understaffed.  Most had went back to school for the season. I did not expect the famed bullet holes to be right next to the tables. There were holes everywhere.

The  kickoff to our Boundary Waters trip started with a cookout in Duluth.   Right along the rocky shores of east Duluth. Burgers and playing in Lake Superior, what could be better for this little bub. We camped at Jay Cooke state park for the night, then drove back to Duluth for some Duluth Grill breakfast. Had we known that we were meeting with Blake and Daniel on the far side of Duluth, we'd have stayed in Two Harbors. But I guess it worked out. Duluth Grill is still delicious. Meadow is now in her, "Why are you taking photos of me" phase. We had some time before getting to Voyageur Canoe Outfitters so stopped in Grand Marais. 

On my visit to Wisconsin last week I accidentally left behind my rain coat. I wasn't going to see my parents until Labor Day. With this rainy summer and a Boundary Waters trip coming up I was going to need it back. They happened to be in Duluth this weekend so we agreed to meet halfway. To make the drive a little easier I booked a campsite at Banning State Park. This is our first camping trip with our new car. No box needed. I was in Cincinnati, so couldn't tag along. Mac and cheese for dinner. I was worried with all the rain this summer the bugs would be terrible, but it wasn't bad at all. We played a few rounds of catch-em stick-em. Then popcorn before it got dark. Meadow helped me with breakfast.

  On our drive to the cottage we stopped at our favorite ice cream shop: Klemish Creamery .  One of the farm cats wasn't looking so good and kept coming over by us so we finished our ice cream in the car.  He reeked.  That cat's gotta be put down.  Not a great endorsement, but ate our ice cream in the car and enjoyed it.  Meadow and Theo went straight to coloring outside when we got to the cottage. While waiting for breakfast we played a round of Cards Against Humanity family version.  Even baby Viola joined in. At least for a little while. Blake is always playing some sort of game with the kids. 

Scott had a job in Moorhead. You know what that means, road trip!  I had to get a photo of Theo being sweet holding his Baby.  We stayed the night at a Best Western. I've been photographing a lot of these and they're all pretty dang nice. We spent the night swimming in their small waterpark.  I looked up the best playground in Fargo and found Maplewood Park.  Meanwhile I shot the Minnesota State - Moorhead campus. What was even better was that it had a ninja warrior course too. Mexico City has adult "playgrounds" next to all the kids playgrounds and I wish we had more of that here.  We had small ones all along the Oak Leaf Trail in Milwaukee County. Not sure what Minneapolis' deal is. This was harder to do than it looked. The kids were much better at it than me. I've really gotten out of shape over the years.  She says this, but she still looks great.

Thank goodness Meadow had her last day of school and Scott had some work up north. We got out of the boring house and tagged along with him. On Tuesday night I had worked in New York Mills for my annual Lund boat shoot. I stayed at Menahga's Spirit Lake Motel and Resort as a change of pace. When I returned I finally confirmed that I'd be shooting on Friday in Park Rapids just up the road from Menahga. After debating whether to camp we decided to just stay at the Sprit Lake Motel since we'd be arriving late at night. In the morning Theo was ready to take pictures with one of our old cameras. We had first breakfast at the local bakery. Chocker's Bakery . Comes highly recommended from, well, all of us. Meadow approves. We all approve. Scott had to work so us kids explored Park Rapids. Who knew Park Rapids was the Wild West? In all seriousness, I came up to photograph the Jeweler of the North . They'd recently moved from their old location up on the North Shore. After h...

  Theo and I have been getting in Lake Harriet adventures since we won't be as close after the move. Theo loves his secret hideout. He even manages to pronounce the h these days. Theo still brings his blankie everywhere he can. At least when I don't catch him before we get out of the house.  

Scott has been wanting to go canoe camping on the St. Croix for a few weeks.  More like a few years. Brooke decided on the windier Namekagon River branch of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. We thought about going last weekend, but I was thinking it might be busy because of the 4th.  We convinced Blake and Daniel to join us so we would have one car for drop off and one car for pickup. We met Blake at at the Riverside Landing, picked him up and met Daniel at our starting point at the County Road K Landing in Trego.  Since we started in the evening we only went 5 miles before picking our campsite for the night. We chose campsite 29.7. Campsites are free and first come first served.  It was a nicely wooded site but had lots of poison ivy. We would find out that would always be the case. Basically don't venture into the woods.