Camping on Madeline Island

As we were trudging through the slow and cold spring months and planning our our summer months, Dr. Peds and I decided that we should do some camping this year.  We hadn’t been camping since Mr. TOF was born because of various reasons, one of which was that we had most definitely outgrown the tent we purchased right after getting married.  Lo and behold, we found the perfect tent while shopping one day, and made reservations for a short camping trip that same day at Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island, right across the water from Bayfield.  We love to go to Bayfield, and realized that the last time we’d actually been to Madeline Island was before The Banana was born when we still lived in Wisconsin.

I would be lying if I didn’t mention that while we were gathering up all the stuff to take camping on Saturday evening and Sunday morning before our departure we were feeling a bit fuzzy headed and nervous.  At least I was.  It’s hard to think through all the stuff that needs to come along on a camping trip, and since we hadn’t been camping for so long, we felt like we were forgetting things all the time.  We were also nervous about getting everything in the car, and questioning our sanity to choose camping on an island for our first camping outing in years.

It all worked out!  Dr. Peds was a genius about getting everything in the van, and we headed out in the middle of the day on Sunday.  Some of the kidlets were a bit apprehensive, but they all ended up having a terrific time, as predicted.  And unlike our last camping trip, which was filled with potty catastrophes and people  in neighboring campsites who were upset about our kids being noisy, this trip was a breeze.  The campsites in Wisconsin state parks are so great!  I’ve always been impressed with how they are spaced out and private and accessible, just good in all the ways a camping site can be.  To make matters even better, almost everyone around us had kids, lots of kids.  Hooray.  We didn’t have to worry about being noisy at all.

After a quick lunch in Bayfield, since our food somehow ended up at the bottom of all the equipment packed in the van, we drove aboard the ferry to get to the island.  Only YaYa vaguely remembered being on the ferry before, so it was a big adventure!  Mr. TOF was not overly impressed with the idea, (although he loves talking about it now)  and stayed in the car in his seat, where Dr. Peds distracted him with fruit loops.  (More on special camping food in a minute).  The big kidlets and I climbed up to the passenger seating for the view.  They were very crazy and had a great time on the boat.

When we arrived at the state park, we began unloading the van.  As soon as we opened the door multiple things fell out (those were the things we launched over the back seat after the door was closed when we left.)  Believe me, every spare inch of space in the van was occupied during transit.

We began setting up the new tent, which went more smoothly than I anticipated.  The tent was delightfully much larger than I envisioned, and SO much more roomy than our old tiny tent.  It felt like a tent mansion inside.

Once we had everything set up, we took a little trip to the beach (see the pictures in the last post0 and then came back to start making a fire and cooking supper.  We brought lots of easy, fun camping food along, like Grandma Kathy hot dogs from Valley City, sandwich supplies, and cans of soup to throw in the fire.  We brought tons of fruit and vegetables, and then some special “treat” food that we don’t ordinarily have, like a box of fruit loops and a big jug of berry smoothy, and individually packed berry applesauce.

They were so excited about the applesauce.  I think they ended up having three each in one sitting, which kind of defeated the purpose of single serving applesauce, but since we were camping, and it was applesauce, I didn’t care!

Mr. Trouble on Feet found his baby hat in the car, and wore it all the time we were at the campsite.  It worked great to keep the mosquitos off his head, and since our campsite was next to some stagnant water, there were lots and lots of pesky mosquitos mounting continual attack.

Mr. Trouble on Feet adores shovels.  He got ahold of the camp shovel and tried to dig holes all over the campsite.

YaYa was reading about the birds in Big Bay State Park.  

It wouldn’t be camping without marshmallows.  We made delicious smores each night.  YaYa did an amazing job of heading up the smores assembly department, which is my least favorite part of smores.  I was happy to hand the opportunity over to her and eat my own smore.

She was getting sleepy.

Then the sugar hit.

There was a frustrating smore thief at the campsite who snatched smores out of innocent children’s hands with his very own mouth.  Thankfully he replaced this poor girl’s treat.

Mr. Trouble on Feet savored every crumb of his smore, and then literally ran  nonstop circles around my chair for the next fifteen minutes.

Dr. Peds smuggled in some leftover sparklers.

Mr. TOF was so incredibly excited about the tent. He was in the tent.  He was out of the tent.  Repeat. When the moon was out and it was time to settle down, I read out loud while everyone settled into their sleeping nests with considerable squabbling.  It took a long, long time for Mr. TOF to settle down.  He wasn’t bothering anyone, but he kept signing “Excited!  Excited!”  He was so thrilled to be sleeping in the tent with everyone.  His nest in the tent was next to me, but a couple of times when I was busy reading he tried sneaking off to the other end of the tent to join his siblings.  I coaxed him back over and then kept reading, and eventually he finally zonked out.

The next morning we ate breakfast and when we got tired of swatting at mosquitos, we decided to go for a little hike.  It was the easiest hike ever, a flat boardwalk along the barrier beach with lots of interesting signs to read.  However, the kidlets were less than excited.  This was in part because they were so close to the actual beach but weren’t playing on the beach.  It also didn’t help that while the temperature was lovely, the humidity was actually 100%, officially, so it was a sweaty hike, even if it wasn’t invigorating.

Eventually we got to the end of the boardwalk and turned around, heading back at a snail’s pace.  On the way Mr. TOF developed blisters on his feet, so he walked a big stretch of the way in bare feet, something he didn’t mind at all.

Dr. Peds tried to tickle the blister away.

When we got back to the campsite, we ate a quick lunch and then headed to the beach to play all afternoon.  (I knew a second hike was out of the question, with so much delightful sand available).  I didn’t even bring my camera to the beach in the afternoon, because it was incredibly bright and sunny, and I had plans for a kayak ride.  We got the kayak down to the water just in time  to take a long paddle the length of the sandy beach over to the other side of the bay to see some interesting rocks before a nice cool breeze came up and made the water a little too choppy for my kayaking taste.  I had a lot of fun paddling, though, and when I brought my tired arms back, It was wonderful to relax in the sand.  The kidlets and Dr. Pds buried my arms and legs away from the flies.  It was so relaxing, until Dr. Peds dumped a bunch of water on me.  The kidlets were in and out of the water, and even Mr. TOF gathered enough courage to go in up to his waist.  He was so proud!  The Banana made a friend and played and played for hours.  Mr. SP found all sorts of interesting creatures.  Mr. TOF dug holes in the sand.  YaYa was all over.  It was an afternoon of bliss, no itinerary at all.

The second night of tent sleeping, Dr. Peds played UNO with the kidlets and then read a Choose Your Own Adventure Star Wars book to them.  Mr. TOF completely crashed just a bit into the story.  He was so sleepy!

We lucked out with terrific weather on our camping trip, just one tiny little rain shower.  On Tuesday morning we rose very, very early and packed up everything as quick as we could, needing to catch the 8:00 ferry so I could be back to teach lessons.  Things went so smoothly, though, that we were actually able to get to the 7:00 morning ferry.  It was a quiet morning drive back home