Summer camping. How wonderful. One of our favorite things to do together as a family. Once Dan returned from China we were all set on going but it was just getting hotter and hotter outside. We were thinking we might not get a chance for camping during his remaining 3 weeks of break. However, on the last day of June there was a slight turn of the weather -night temperatures were forecast to be in the low 50s- so we packed up our little car and headed out for a night. Decided to head to Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park (which is about 45 miles south of Rochester). We found a nice little, secluded campsite and set up camp, then headed out to experience the Mystery Cave catching the last tour of the evening. The cave was, well, a cave. Interesting things to see, but not super impressively huge like other caves I've been to. Formation after formation and very educational. Seemed like something in a quaint, little town.. Which it was. We only saw a portion of the cave- it supposedly is one of the bigger ones out there but seen mostly through spelunking I suppose. Our little one hour tour was nice with only about 6 others in our group and a paved walkway for the stroller. Great for us and our little 2 year old. Dan took a million pictures so if you want to virtually walk through the tour (I think he got every inch covered) let me know and I'll hook you up with all the pictures. Otherwise a few of the highlights of the cave are featured in the slideshow below.
That evening we had a few raccoons visits our campsite. At least we think they were raccoons. It wasn't the baby moving that kept me up, or the uncomfortable air mattress, it was these really strange grunting and wrestling noises coming from outside. Like all night long. Weird. Nothing of ours was ruined so I guess it's fine. Michael didn't hear them or see them but we told him about how they visited our campsite that night. A few nights later Dan told him a bedtime story about the raccoons. Now every night before he goes to bed he asks for Daddy to tell him the "raccoon story." Dan recounts the events of the camp out and makes the raccoon family very adventurous. Mikey loves it. When we went to the Minnesota Zoo a few weeks ago, I think his favorite exhibit was the raccoons. Ironic. Post more about the zoo adventure later. For now, enjoy the pictures below from our little camp out.
(Click on pictures to enlarge. For a full screen slideshow, after clicking on the picture, select the "Slideshow" text to the right of the picture -in Picasa under the "Download Photo"text).
