Jenyfer Matthews

Last day of vacation photos, promise! Just be happy you got the short version. Friends and family will shortly be sent the link to the extended play album!

The last full weekend I was on vacation, my father and step-mother took us out for a picnic and canoe trip on the Swamp River. I always like to get out on the Swamp River. Not only is it a very lovely and serene spot, but I remember going out there to fish with my own grandfather when I was a child. Even if we didn’t fish, it was a nice circle to take my own children out there.

After a picnic of bratwurst roasted over an open fire on greenwood sticks (yum!) and smores (double yum!) we took a ride in the canoe. My children love the thrill of a speed boat and I’ll admit that speed has its thrill, but in a place like this, a canoe is the way to go.

I could have taken pictures of the reflections of the sky in the water all day…

See that hill in the distance? The next plan for the afternoon was to hike up a trail to the top of that hill (locally known as Camp Five Mountain) in search of blueberries

A lovely little water lily that was growing amongst the wild rice along the banks of the river. Try picking a water lily while riding in a speed boat

A view of Swamp River, where we were canoeing, from the top of Camp Five Mountain

It wasn’t much of a trail up the mountain and very buggy, but we were rewarded for our efforts!

Dessert! My daughter wanted to collect the most berries which is why she tossed in all the raspberries she found as well!

Just in case you thought I was foraging for all of my food while in the woods, thought I’d toss this photo in. I’ve eaten “happy pizza” in Cambodia and buffalo milk latte in Cairo - now I can add moose burger in Minnesota. Not sure I’d go out of my way for another one, but it wasn’t bad.


This weekend author Mona Risk will be here to introduce you to the cast of characters from her recently released book French Peril. If you like a thriller set in an exotic location, you’ll want to stop by and check this one out!

I was in Minnesota for about a month. Most of the week days I spent in town, visiting with my mother, poking in and out of the various gift shops that make up most of the town’s businesses, taking the children to the playground or to play mini golf.

The weekends were a different story though. On the weekends my father and his wife would take us on outings - long outings that required packing food and water bottles and bug spray. The three mile hike up the Fingerpoint trail shown yesterday was the first such outing. The next was a five mile hike through part of Judge Magney State Park, along the Brule River.

I’ve known this hike was in the plans since last year when we walked the park trails with the children. They enjoyed it so much and had so much energy to spare at the end that my step-mother commented that next time we’d do the longer version, to which my son enthusiastically replied “okay!” I just wasn’t sure I was going to join them until this year!

Five miles sounds like a long way, and it is. But in reality, it wasn’t too bad. Once we reached the river, we took frequent breaks so my step-mother’s dog could swim and the kids could wade and there was plenty of interesting stuff to see along the way.

(click any picture below for a larger view)

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the distance - or you were interested in seeing it for yourself

A toadstool growing in the middle of the trail. Looked so pretty just sitting there in the sun…

It’s never a problem to get my son to walk in the woods where there are such yummy thimble berries to be found and eaten! He snacked the whole way!

Pretty, but inedible.

See - I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a long walk!

Anyone know the name of this wildflower? My step-mother told me but I forgot…

Pretty much the extent of the wildlife we saw that day!

It was just sitting there, waiting for me to take its picture…

But what a reward! The Devil’s Kettle water fall, Brule River. So named because there is a hole on the left that about half of the river plunges down into and supposedly no one knows where it comes out…My step-mother’s dog almost found out this year, trying to retrieve his stick from the current upstream. There were a few tense moments there, but I’m happy to say he let the stick go and came back to shore. Smart dog!

Tomorrow, the last of the vacation photos (promise!)

I have so many pictures of my time in Minnesota - what do you want? It’s a picturesque place! - I can’t possibly share them all here. I took the most pictures when I was out hiking in the woods so those are the ones you’ll get to see

My first stop in Minnesota was Duluth. We stayed in town a couple of days after flying in so I could do a bit of back to school shopping (school starts tomorrow - woo hoo!!) and take the kids to do a few town things, like visit the zoo. As zoos go, it is fairly small but it had some nice exhibits and was just big enough for the kids to get a good run around.

I try to resist taking animal pictures because they never turn out very well, but this guy was practically posing for the camera!

Calm down - it’s not a real tortoise…

Once I arrived in the woods, the first really long hike we took was actually just over the border in Ontario - called Fingerpoint Trail. The trail head actually starts in the parking lot of the Ontario Welcome Center and following the trail to the summit is actually about a 3 mile walk.

See that bump? The top of that knob is our goal…

The view from the top of the knob - beautiful!

This is a beach along Lake Superior where the trail passes. If you collect driftwood, this is the beach for you!

This shiny log caught my eye - hasn’t dried out quite as much as the others and was shining like gold in the sun

The children loved to play on the various beaches along Lake Superior - any excuse would do. It’s hardly the worst place in the world to hang out for an hour so I spent a lot of time there while they stripped down and swam. I thought after the first time that the frigid water temperatures would put them off, but what do I know? So while they played polar bears, I snacked. Look at all the wonderful beach food I found:

There is nothing tastier than wild raspberries - picking them yourself makes them taste better!

Wild beach peas - they only grow in the rocks and gravel along the beach.

These are best eaten raw - like most fresh peas. Yummy!

Tomorrow - more pictures from the deep woods…

Summers are short in northern Minnesota (for frame of reference, it’s been down to about 42F the last couple of nights). So when the weather is nice, as it has been lately, you have to get out and take advantage of it. Which is what we did, non-stop, all weekend long.

Saturday was cool, breezy, and clear. We took a morning walk, and then headed out to the Grand Portage reservation around lunchtime to catch the grand entry of their dancers at the annual pow-wow. We’ve been for the last several years and the children really enjoy looking at the elaborate costumes and head dresses and watching them dance to their traditional drumming. It is a striking display.

After the dancing and a look at all the sales tables - my daughter bought herself and her brother each a buffalo tooth, because hey, it was there - my dad and step-mother and I took the children to a beach along Lake Superior. It was windy enough that the waves were pretty high but that didn’t put the children off at all, nor did the fact that the water couldn’t have been more than 40F - they both stripped down to their underwear and dove in! What doesn’t kill them…

Sunday was another gorgeous day. We packed a picnic lunch, the canoe, and off we went to the Swamp River. First we had lunch - bratwurst cooked over a campfire, cheetos, and smores - and then we got in the canoe. I’m surprised we didn’t sink it as much as we all ate! The river was tranquil and lovely as always - so calm in places it was like a mirror.

After our big lunch and our canoe trip, we went blueberry picking. That makes it sound easy - before we found any blueberries we first had to climb a small mountain along a trail that was a tad overgrown. I really should have brought along a machete. I had on jeans and insect repellent, but someone needs to write to the makers of Off! and tell them that the Minnesota mosquitoes and black flies laugh in the face of their floral fresh spray. They bit me through my shirt so thoroughly I look like I have measles on my back! (we won’t talk about my face!)

We were at least rewarded at the top with a bumper crop of blueberries.

So my city children learned a thing or two this weekend: 1) don’t rock the boat - particularly if you are in a canoe, 2) always wear jeans when going hiking with grandpa, 3) don’t beat on rotten logs unless you want to stir up the ants, 4) it’s a good idea to pee downhill if you want to keep your shoes clean.

Less than a week left now. Time flies when you’re having fun…