Our last stop on the 10 day trip was to the Chippewa Falls/Eau Claire area where we camped at Lake Wissota State Park. Making our way back down south and 4 hours closer to home also meant we left the rain behind us and started to travel back to the warm temperatures and sunny days.
Because the mosquitos were so bad and the rain and burn bans in northern Minnesota we didn't really get a chance to do all the normal camping things like hiking, campfires, s'mores etc until we got to Lake Wissota so we really crammed it in during the 3 days we were there. Abby hosted lunch one day by making Tonka pizzas for the entire group (she was very proud of this). We spent two days in the lake though, I think if we had it to do over again we might have tried to rent a boat on this lake too. It was a big lake and the swimming beach area was a little mucky and shallow to really enjoy fully but it didn't stop the kids!
Mom and Dad hosted an outdoor movie night complete with Papa popcorn. We watched the new Super Mario Brothers movie which was packed with nostalgia for me (and had me busting out the Nintendo switch the next day at the beach to play a little Mario - which, I should do more often! It brings me lots of joy!)
One of my favorite memories from this part of the trip was the small hike we did one morning because there were SO MANY geocaches for the kids to find and they were so easy for the kids to be successful with. Some family hid a series of minions around the trail and it was so enjoyable for the kids to be successful finding them. They were hidden for kids, not impossible to spot, easily identifiable (they were old canned good cans that were cleaned out and painted like little minions). Ryan and I have been talking about hiding a geocache for a few years and after finding these I think we'll take some inspiration from the family that hid these and do something similar.
You know what we did on our last morning together at the campsite? We started planning a trip to Acadia for next summer, 2024! Yep, even after nearly 10 days of rain we're already starting to think about how we'll spend our vacation next year - hauling our camper across the country, collecting state stickers and stopping at national parks along the way.
Now this guy - we've got some work to do with him. He's the best dog - as long as we aren't forcing him to go camping. There's something about being in the camper solo that he just hates. We knew it was an issue last summer but we've spent all spring working with a dog trainer to figure out how to get him more comfortable being in the camper. We haven't quite figured out a solution just yet, but after 10 days together, we've got a new plan and we're going to see how it goes at the family reunion in the Dells in a few weeks.
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