camping ii

We went camping! And also cabining!

We went up to the straits of Mackinac for a high quality outdoortime campventure. We found fossils, saw a cannon demonstration, visited a island and walked further than little legs go, and had a great time.

Since our end destination was quite a distance, we broke up our driving into two ~4 hour days. That's about the maximum we can get without major breakdowns--and is honestly pushing it sometimes with Snapdragon. We've learned we need one of the back seats of the van ready for one of us to land in because around that 2-3 hour mark she no longer believes we exist without being able to see us. She'll still be salty, but while she's rearfacing this at least gives her some semblance of comfort. Our first stop was a KOA campground. We've never stayed at one before and were curious--at $45 a night they're roughly an extra $20 compared to most state campgrounds, but would that translate to a nicer experience? As it turns out... yeah, whoa. This one had one of those giant jumping air pillow things, a pool, a splashpad, and individual shower + toilet rooms as the norm.^[1] We didn't examine its offerings too deeply before we got there so we didn't have swimthings and couldn't take advantage of the pool, but a lot of jumping was had. In general, everything was extremely clean and well maintained, and their main office/store/laundry/etc was very shiny. We'll probably try a closer one for a weekend camping trip sometime; it was quite a glamping, and that that can be a lotta fun. There was even an outdoor kitchen with counterspace, a large two-basin utility sink, and lots of tables/seating. They apparently would deliver wood and. even pizza. To the campsites. Wild. The one oddity was how there weren't really any obvious water pumps. The outdoor kitchen served us for this purpose, and we probably coulda bummed off an open electric site since they all had hose taps too, but it felt odd across the board--when we asked one of the staff where water was, he was confused and recommended bottled water?? Maybe KOA campers are built different and bring in their own water. Or maybe the multitude of options meant people don't ask that question. Regardless, it was funny.

Nights were all cool--mid 50s generally--and that night in the tent we ended up all in the same bed for part of the night (Snap was bundled in a porta-crib until growing pains woke her up). For our wedding registry I asked for a pair of extra-long 0° (F) rated sleeping bags that had mirrored zippers so they could be combined into an Ultra Sleeping Bag. This has been one of the All Timers and I'm really glad we were gifted it! The extra long aspect means even I have wiggle room in the length, the combo mode lets us snuggle up and make it frankly too hot in most weather (we unzip the toe at that point), and it's a nice plush flannel inside. Since it is our 10th anniversary this year, that means they've given us 10 years of cozy sleeping when camping! All bundled up and cozy it was as good a night, even on an air mattress.

The "real" vacation started once we got up to our cabin--at the most northest bit of Lake Michigan--at Wilderness State Park MI. No electricity. Vault toilet up the path a bit. Wood stove in the cabin. Beach just on the other side of some trees. It was glorious:

I'm writing this bit sitting in our cabin. It started raining some time in the middle of the night. Thankfully, Em had gotten an updated forcast so we knew it was coming--I had pulled in all our chairs and equipment, then even brought our wood under the eaves of the cabin to keep dry. Now it's midday and we've had a lovely sleepy rainy morning. I took my belovèd fishtable^[2] out under the generous eave to hold our coleman stove to make coffee. It's not large enough to support the propane tank, and while it probably could hang free for a little while I like to use a bit of firewood to support the tank. We drank it under the cabin's largest window, watching the rain. I got a book called "Draw With Dad" for my birthday last year that has prompts on each page--the left page has a prompt for the kid, and the right one for the dad. Sometimes it's something you can draw simultaneously, sometimes the dad prompt is to build off of/draw a more complicated version of the kid's prompt. Today was actually the first time we did a few and it was great: I used to apply what I've learned from the book Teaching Children to Draw and work to push Goose's boundaries in what she can draw. I showed her a simple scooter she could draw, and then even gave her the vocabulary for speed lines based off the prompt on the dad side to draw her favorite vehicle in action.

The cabin has a wood stove, so with nothing better to do I fired it up. We weren't that cold but it is fairly cool and it's also fun to build a fire. I chipped apart a piece of firewood to give us the kindling we needed since everything was wet, and that was a nice bit of activity. If you do it right you can build a nice pile of thin chips for the early kindling and some decent sized flakes and splintered wedges to build to the point you're ready to add the remainder of the piece and then a whole chunk. I don't know that I've ever started a fire in a stove before. I found it best to light the tinder (a ball of paper with some teensy wood chips inside in today's case) outside the stove, let it really catch, then keep it close to the doors inside when you drop it in to add the little pieces to establish the fire. The first or second log can push that back in further. It was very satisfying to pop out side and see the cheery smoke rolling from the chimney!

The lake was a delight, as ever. (The great lakes are all excellent^[3] but Michigan holds a special place in my heart.) We finished most of our days sitting out by the water poking at the rocks and sand; it was easy to sit and look and look and sit and wander and sit and look and wander till the light started to give out. There were a ton of fossils. It got to the point where I had to stop looking because it was the only way to not find another fossil. Michigan's state park policy is individuals can cart out 25 lbs of rock for personal use, which on one hand is a silly amount of rock but on the other... we coulda done that in a day if we had wanted to. I think most of what we collected are bits of various corals but one is for sure crinoids and some are whorls of some sorta nautilus or possibly the end of a horn coral? Some we found we wondered if they were bits of small trilobytes but I'd have to sit down and study or something cuz fossils is not something I can ID like bugs. One is also... a limb?? It's a funky something, to be sure. Poking at rocks with waves whooshing is a top ten activity. Have done it, did do it, will do it again.

Speaking of "till the light gave out", we were camping just after the solstice, so days were loooooooooooooooooooooonggg. We generally didn't start cooking suppers till after six, and since starting cooking generally meant starting charcoal or even a fire, we weren't eating till 7 or later... but it felt like it was like. 5. The long days plus jumping forward one timezone made us all into night owls... except it was still light out. The long days of summer were a lazy treat. I've been more aware of this stretching/compressing cycle this year, I think, as we all stay up longer and longer coming from the dark of winter. I keep debating whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, which probably means it is neither: it just Is. A different part of the cycle of the year, a time to go and enjoy the sun for longer.

A little East of where we were staying is Mackinaw City, which holds Michilimackinac Fort, a reproduction of the French-then-British fort maintained there for a good while before Native Americans took it over with a clever ruse involving (proto-)lacrosse. Eventually the British took it back by diplomacy but then they moved onto Mackinac Island not too long after that. The reproduction fort is staffed with reenactors and has an active archaeological dig, both of which were neat! The fort was primarily a trading location; it was interesting to see the differences between the barracks and the traders' and officers' well appointed homes. The reenactors shot a big ol' brass cannon, which was neat; apparently the big floofy fuzzy ramrods were for sponging the inside with water to act as a seal; I had no idea. The most interesting part tho was watching the reenactors catch Marigold's whole attention: she kept saying "oh!! this is real!!" in an extremely Yotsuba way.

I have a little paperback 1970s copy of a 1950 camping guide. It's a funny little book, a slice in time and space that has some nice tips on organizing a camping outing--from gear to food to shelter to fire to making an outdoor kitchen to organizing a group. One of the recipes in the book is for "pioneer drumsticks", which are essentially tubes of meatloaf cooked on a stick over an open fire. They sounded fun, so we tried it out. I neglected the part in the recipe that recommended how much meat to put on a stick (about 1/8th lb), though, and made them far too heavy, dropping the goods into the fire. After we lost one to the hungry flames, we pivoted to frying the rest in our cast iron skillet. It was tasty (and always fun to cook with a skillet directly on a fire), but we'll have to try it again another camping trip--this time being sure to get the amount of mixture per stick more reasonable. A few of our other meals--brats and kebabs--I did with charcoal instead of a wood fire. The cabin had a park-style grill, which was very handy! The day we had brats, the breeze was Ideal for keeping the coals stoked and it was a nice time, but on the day I did kebabs the breeze had shifted just enough to no longer give any oomph to the fire. Some of these grills can actually rotate on their post to accommodate for this, but this one didn't seem to have that feature, so I had to fan the coals to get the cooking done. I'm constantly fascinated at how much airflow makes or breaks a fire, and how its needs change at different stages.

One day we ferried over to Mackinac Island. When I was a kid, my Dad was friends with a guy who owned a cabin on Mackinac's neighbor, Bois Blanc (pronounced "Bah-blow". Don't ask. Or Wikipedia it or. yeah. it's weird). We spent 2 or 3 summers where that was our vacation spot--a week on the island. The cabin ran up against a small lake on the island... that had another island on it. This was the coolest you could get. There was a raft, and we'd pole out to an island while on an island and Rule The Land. We also daytripped back then over to Mackinac Island. One time we were there and I got some black cherry icecream. I remember enjoying it, but also being slightly disappointed: the best cherry deserts are sour and this was sweet. In retrospect, given that black cherries are sweet cherries, it's no surprise, but as a kid what is a black cherry but a cherry with a funny color (not unlike blue raspberry or whatever). Coming so near to where we spent several Very Good Summers was pretty cool. When we were planning this trip, I almost planned a trip to Bois Blanc, but... it's pretty much entirely residential afaik and it felt kinda odd to go over to wander around. I settled for looking across the Lake at it and eating a cone of black cherry icecream. Knowing what to expect (and having a Refined Adult Palate), it was an even better treat. The cream goes well with the black cherry, and the (large) chunks of cherry were not full of ice crystals, making it easy to munch on them. Sweet, mild, and Good. Young me is still right tho: a sour cherry icecream would be even better. Right when we got to the tail end of our cones, a sneaky creature snatched the cone tip right out of Em's hand and quickly snarfed it down. The only warning we got was a declarative "yummynummynummynummynummy" and poof: it was in Snap's mouth.

While we were on the island, we walked past Fort Mackinac (but didn't pay for tickets--it seemed like it would be much the same... especially given the original buildings were disassembled from Michilimackinac and sailed and/or sledged over), and then hiked up the hills to the natural wonder left by the previous lake, Nipissing, that connected several of the lakes together however many ages ago: Arch Rock. It was a big ol arch all right! It was very neat to see--its composition looked almost like rough concrete due to how it was formed, and the way it framed lake and sky was particularly cool. It also was rather busy, though, so it was hard to sit and admire it for long. The walk there was accidentally Extra Long and Extra Scenic; we got abbreviated instructions from a boyscout^[4] and took one wrong turn. The path still lead to the arch but it was roughly twice as long (and twice as hilly). Em and I loved it, but the length knocked Snapdragon out; we took turns holding a sleeping babe while pushing a tired girl in a stroller. The first half was walking along residences on a bluff overlooking the pier, which was delightful, and the second half was in a cool shady wood full of yellow wildflowers, also delightful. Outside of a few passing horse-drawn carriages it was lonely and quiet, and once we got into the shade of the trees, soothingly chill. We took the right path back, and I found a map; it was honestly funny how much distance we added via the scenic route; what a great mistake to make.

I think part of me still prefers tenting over a cabin like this, but Em keeps finding absolute winners, and I can't deny our little tent is feeling extra little with two girls. This was a treat of a place to stay at, and the extra room the cabin provides is very helpful, especially on a rainy day! Coming back home is another kind of delicacy, too: the sweet sweet rush of a hot shower a few steps away, a fully stocked kitchen, doors to close off rooms, and our own good good bed are all the better after a week away. Home sweet home, till the next camp outing.

• camping