What Happened to June ??

It happened , alright....
I was just too busy Livin' it to Yammer on and on
about it HERE ...
And now it's almost August....

I guess my available time to write here is drying up
as much as my grass , these days  ..


Well , Father's day found Kathy and I at Harrington
beach SP , camping with the kids --and grandkids-
showing up for the fun....we hiked & swam &
geo-cached ...a Great weekend ! Fantastic facilities at
this newly expanded park , too...

Our camping line-up minus Kelley and Father

Jacob sees a LOT of water !

Kelley got a year older on the 26th , so we celebrated
it on the 22nd , before she got too old to snuff out the
conflagration ...

Their big day is coming Soon !

TIMBER !! Tom , Kevin and I  took down Ol' Shaggy, the roughly 64
year old spruce , and its neighbor , Big Blue , in our front yard.

Not exactly ' Town -square Xmas - tree ' material ..
but they Will be missed !
A massive effort has already taken place to fill the gap
with new rock-garden plantings and cedar trees (from
Jim & Gwens placeup in doorcounty) , so we won't see those
phone poles and street wires in about 20 years ...

Kelley had the first of 2 wedding showers at Gwen's
 place on Lake Keesus , a fancy soiree to be sure...

Gwen,Mo,Kelley,Amy,Maddy,Jamie

I also seem to remember a day at summerfest , and the Big Bang
fireworks

And a bunch of other stuff.....

And THEN our big trip circumnavigating the Big Lake,
Gitchegummi itself --- Lake Superior !

8 miles and 2 hours of climbing  later - looking south from on top Sleeping Giant

Ten days of  (some driving ..) , camping , hiking , sightseeing ,
geo-caching (what I could get away with !), a little Cold-water
swimming , and general fun !
Yep , our friends up north think 85* is a God-awful  heat-wave,
they buy their milk in bags at the store, and develop lop-sided
walking gaits from the weight of all those $1 (loonies) and $2 (toonies)
in coins they lug around . I soon figured out to buy my gasoline at the
nearest First Nation ( Indian Reservation ) , at about $1.35 / Litre ,
a real bargain . Brats and beer --and everything else -- costs as
much as twice that at home . A 13% tax on all sales is the norm
 -- but we still lived the High Life , literally , with all the hiking
opportunities , like the 16 - miler ( 24 Kilometers ) to the top
of Sleeping Giant , across the water from Thunder bay ; Ouimet 
Canyon Provincial Park ;Temperence River SP ; Picnic Point ;Many
 waterfalls, from Aguasabon to Rainbow  , from Duluth all the way around to 'the Soo' ;

Kathy at Pigeon river falls, Mn.

the treacherous Agawa pictographs ; --and the memorable Crack in the
 Wall hike--with the 5/5-rated geocache  - 'Crack' -  just 480 feet out of
 safe reach ...

Just inside entrance to Crack in the Wall, looking up in awe...

Actually I'm satisfied with 24 finds out of 33 attempts for caches ...
Juuuuuuuuuuust enough for Kathy's patience , too !


Check out all the pics (well, SOME of the 375 I took !) on 
our family pic site in right column ...
if you dare !

PS....If you havent already noticed , I have a new music player up there , Called MIXPOD ...Feel free to turn your volume up and/or hit the VIDEO button on top left for an extra sensory whallop ...I fill it on a seasonal basis with new /old tunes using Youtube as the source . Enjoy !