4th Birthday Party

I completely spaced on adding Evie's birthday party pictures up here. We celebrated a week early so I could have the chance to surprise Evie with the decorations and presents.

Lower Wisconsin Dells Boat Tour

Evie's paternal grandparents were in town for a week at the end of September, and during their visit we drove out to Wisconsin Dells.

While there, we took a boat tour of the lower Wisconsin Dells.

It was a nice day for a tour, with warm weather and few tourists around.

The tour lasted an hour.

As we made our way down the river, a guide pointed out interesting features along the river's edge.

On the way back to the dock, we were able to simply enjoy the scenery.

Evie did pretty well on the boat, especially since there were more strict directions to follow while we rode on the upper (and open) deck.

The ride ended at the right time. At the end of the hour, Evie had had enough.

It's a pretty area. The tourist section of town (with a Ripley's museum and a haunted house and various shopping and restaurants) reminded me of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

P.S. Can you spot the milk bottle with the face of a cow on it?

4 Year Portraits

Finding a Toad

Evie and I went for a walk a couple of weeks ago nearby the Harriet Alexander Nature Center.

It was a short walk through some woods and alongside a marsh.

We came across a memorial wildflower garden. It hadn't been taken care of in some years and the benches in the garden were quite deteriorated. It was a little sad to see.

On our way back, we encountered a little toad hopping down the trail in front of us. He wasn't too shy, and I easily caught him for Evie to get a closer look.

The toad sat on Evie's hand for a minute, long enough for me to snap a few photos, then he hopped off and back onto the trail. I encouraged him to hop off into the some leaves at the side of the trail, where he was less likely to be seen by a hawk or squashed by a shoe.

Along the North Shore

On our way home from Thunder Bay, we took our time driving along the North Shore. We made a stop at Grand Portage National Monument, knocking another National Park unit off of our list.

The park sits only a few miles from the U.S. and Canadian border on Lake Superior.

The site was one of the fur trading posts for the Northwest Company, similar to Fort William, but smaller.

The views of the lake from this spot were beautiful.

After Grand Portage, we continued on to Cascade River State Park. 

A short walk through the woods takes visitors to spots along the river where they can view the cascading waterfalls.

Our last stop on the way home was at Gooseberry Falls State Park. That was probably the most fun spot to stop because of all of the places to play in water.

You can also easily wade over to the rocks right next to the falls. Evie loved getting close to the running water.

And, of course, Evie soaked her clothes playing in the water. Thankfully, I had my fleece jacket with me, so we changed her out of her wet clothes and into my jacket for the walk back to the car.

Before leaving the park, we walked over to a rocky and beachy area by Lake Superior.

 

Lastly, we took a more scenic route through Duluth. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to stay a few nights in Duluth and explore it more sometime soon. It looks like a beautiful city.