A Minnesota Fortnight

Dear Reader,

Having successfully broken the streak of consecutive daily posts, my attention turned to the looming milestone: one month on the road. I'm writing on Sunday, July 21. We left Portland on Sunday, June 23. In case you've forgotten, that was spent approximately one week on Whidney Island, one week driving to Minnesota and the last two weeks with Elise's parents in Duluth.

This past week was camp for all four kids. Lily and Henry went to an overnight camp on Sturgeon Lake, about an hour's drive south the city. Ali and Cate went to day camp, also offered by the Duluth YMCA. Among other things, this meant that Elise and I got to disappear for 24 hours up the North Shore of Lake Superior.

For a moment, I need to tell a story from almost two years ago in order to explain why we're doing what we're doing this summer. First of all, we have been talking about doing this trip for several years. In the fall of 2017 we (the two of us) went to Italy for two weeks and really settled on the idea of making it happen. A few months later, the idea that launched the enterprise was splitting it into three phases, the first of which would having a summer in Minnesota. So here we are.

What is a Minnesota Summer? Here are the key ingredients that I have been expecting, based on stories Elise has told me:

Play in creeks
Eat ice cream
Throw rocks into Lake Superior
Hike
Explore the North Shore
Go to day camp
Go to overnight camp
Visit Madeleine Island (Apostle Islands, Wisconsin)
Paddle sports
Bike rides
See friends
Gradually (re)adopt a local accent
Go to friends' cabins (on local lakes)
Eat cheese curds
Watch the moon rise over Lake Superior
Hope for northern lights

In the first week we were here, we tore though a lot of that list. Of course, last week gave us camp(s). In addition, we've been doing a lot of useful-adult-child chores to help Wally and Liz start to downsize the home in which they've lived for 40+ years. We made one trip to the dump, mostly to recycle a cubic yard of cardboard. We made two trips to the library to donate box after box of CD's and books. We made connections in the free-cycle community of Duluth to pass forward miscellaneous home goods. We still can't figure out what to do with those 3.5" floppy disks.

After these two weeks in Minnesota, I think we're doing pretty well. Each kid had a terrific time at their respective camps. Even though Henry came back from camp with exactly the same quantity of bug spray with which he arrived and dozens of scabbed over bites to prove it, he was happy. At this very moment, the four of them are refining the "village" they have built in the living room. Apparently this is a clothing optional endeavor because Henry can't be bothered to go up the stairs after peeling out of his wet swimwear.

* * *

I have certain readers in mind when I say that we've often been told that we are crazy for traveling for so long with "so many" kids. In the last few weeks, especially when I've had time to go running, I've been thinking about this a lot. There are often moments, no more than once per day, when there are episodes of "whackamole" so severe that I come to this diagnosis of "crazy." But most of the time this has been going really well.

As we drove across the country, for example, we figured out that it made more sense to put the twins (age 6) in the third row of seats and "The Bigs" in the middle row. This brought about a more stable dynamic than other configurations. We also learned the benefit of getting lunch takeout rather than eating in a restaurant, where bouts of parent-child stress are very common!

One thing that has surprised me so far is that it's been better to keep their tablets out of sight (and mind) than to use them for distraction. At the same time, my single favorite landmark anywhere we go is the library. The novelty of a new library is terrific. Even though Ali and Cate browse the shelves looking for any book in their preferred color (pruple and teal, respectively), they eventually absorb themselves in something.

In the last two weeks, Ali and Cate have gotten much better at riding their bikes. Cate would ride laps around a block near Liz/Wally's house. Lily continues to disappear into her books. Henry has learned how to shuffle cards, deal and play solitaire. Lily will challenge anybody who makes eye contact to a hand of gin.

For me, the big milestone is in travel planning. This Friday was a sort of informal deadline for planning the international parts of our trip up through March. We had booked our next batch of plane tickets a few weeks ago and now there were all sorts of lodging gaps to fill. We mostly go this done, although I found out the hard way that it's really difficult to book accommodations in Singapore.

* * *

So now we've started a new part of our Minnesota Summer: we've moved into a family friend's cabin on a small lake near Iron River, WI, which is about an hour east of Duluth. With a pontoon boat, a canoe, a miniature motor boat and a set of fishing rods, we've already had one fantastic, water-logged day. We have about two weeks of this and then we begin to pivot toward the RV part of the voyage!

Here's a load of pictures from the last two weeks.