Summer Adventure Days 1-5 of 21

Let the trip begin!!!

Papa Echo flew in Thursday night, and we left the next day on our three week vacation. Well, it was three weeks for the kids and I... Papa Echo had to work during the week, but the weekends were with us.
Driving through North Dakota reminded me of Montana.

This was a fun sculpture in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota.

We stayed the night in Fargo, ND, and then traveled on. Bemidji, MN held a fun little surprise and was a good place to stop for lunch.

Paul Bunyan and Babe.

Putting our toes in Lake Bemidji.

There was a waterskiing show at the lake, so we watched that and then continued on. By that evening, we finally made it to Canada.

Crossing the border. My question is, "why didn't they stamp our passports". I asked Papa Echo to go back through the crossing, but he said no.

We drove through a HUGE thunderstorm and then had difficulty finding a place to stay for the night. We finally found a little town with a gas station and a hotel. We bought banana bread and chocolate milk for dinner at the gas station and then got a room at the little hotel.

After a good night sleep we continued on our drive. Day three brought us to Canada's largest Amethyst Mine. We took a tour of the working mine, and then "mined" for amethysts on our own.

Good thing we have a Mine Engineer with us.

We all came home with many amethyst treasures.

On Monday, we continued our drive. At this point we had to get around Lake Superior and get to Sudbury so Papa Echo could work the next day.

Of course we had to make a stop to put our toes in Lake Superior. The water was "veeeeeerrrrry cold".

Tuesday morning, Papa Echo went to work, and I was on my own with the kids. I have to admit I was a little nervous being somewhere new, but the kids are great and very fun. Jessica was my copilot along with my new GPS, known as "Sally". We decided to go play miniature golf and then found our way to Lake Ramsey which is a lake in the very middle of Sudbury.

Go after the ball Alyssa Kay!!

Sudbury is a town with a STRONG nickel mining heritage. This is a HUGE monument to honor that heritage.

Lake Ramsey was beautiful and I watched the kids play while reading my book.

While in Sudbury we were able to stay in an apartment that Papa Echo's company is leasing. So after work, he would come "home" and we'd tell him about our escapades and then go to dinner. It's been awhile since I've been able to ask him about his day face to face. It was nice and felt so normal.

With over 400 pictures taken in three weeks, this vacation will take a few blog posts. (Just think of the scrapbooking I'll have to do...) More to come tomorrow.