The Great Wisconsin Adventure - Part 2

We left off after our sailing trip in Wisconsin's only National Seashore. We have a National Parks passport book that the kids like to collect stamps in; unfortunately, the visitor center in Bayfield was closed due to COVID. We settled for a store-bought sticker instead. 

[the rest of] Day 5: As if we hadn't already had enough highlights for the day, Amnicon Falls State Park was a favorite of the entire trip. The water is brown from the iron, but the kids didn't care and could have spent hours in the water if it wasn't for the sunset. We decided we'd all like to camp there again sometime for 2-3 nights instead of just one, while also hitting Pattison Falls State Park which is nearby but we ran out of time for on this trip.

Day 6: On Friday morning, we packed up and drove to Duluth for a laundry stop and some sure-thing cell phone service, so I could attend a virtual nutrition conference. We didn't see much of the city, but from what we did see, it seems like a cool place - edgy, with people who choose to live that far north and off the beaten path and are proud of it. It was the perfect place for our family that day. The kids swam while I learned. Nate did a challenging mountain bike loop before joining the kids in the river and giving them the courage to jump from a rock. That evening, we drove to Lake Wissota State Park.

Day 7: The single day without a planned adventure. We woke in Wissota State Park and apparently there wasn't much to photograph, because we have zero pictures. From Wissota we drove through the particularly beautiful driftless region to Perrot State Park. We were buying firewood for the night in the campground when we noticed a flyer for Elmaro Vineyard, so decided to check it out. It was really lovely!

Day 8: Biking [part of] the Elroy-Sparta trail. We realized at some point that Cora is always the kid who asks how much longer we have to go on car trips and bike rides, so we decided to empower her with information by attaching a GPS to her handle bars. She knew we'd be riding 20 miles that day and WOW, did the GPS help. Instead of asking every five minutes, she was leading hip-hip-hoorays every mile and telling us all how much longer we had to go before we ate Hot Tamales or Sour Patch Kids again. WIN! We rode out 10 miles through two tunnels, ate lunch, and then turned around and biked back to the RV. The alternative was to bike 17 miles then have the kids and I sit and wait for Nate to bike back and bring the RV to us. The out and back option was way better, since we were wet and cold by mile five.