This tweet appeared at random one night during my social media scrolling and made me literally laugh out loud. It’s timing could not have been better as our interest in birding seemingly erupted out of nowhere. Logan and I have been diving deeper and deeper into our photography and sure, taking pictures of birds is challenging and birds make pretty subjects. But only recently have we actually started to care about tracking species, rarity, etc.
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Giddy on the high that was Grand Teton, we headed north into America’s first and most visited national park: Yellowstone.
Truthfully, Yellowstone is everything you have ever heard about and more. It is epic, vast, and otherworldly. There are times when you honestly believe you must be on another planet. For example, Mammoth Hot Springs felt like we were on the set of a post apocalyptic, sci-fi movie. We tried to imagine what the first people who explored this land must have thought. The indigenous people considered the land sacred. And it is said that when white explorers returned to their homes with tales of what they had seen, no one believed their stories of boiling mud pits and explosions of water and steam erupting from the very earth. This is in no way surprising.
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When Logan and I were married in the fall of 2018, our original plan was to honeymoon in Italy in the spring of 2019. But as spring rolled around, we found ourselves still reeling from all the major life changes that occurred in 2018. So, we decided to postpone our honeymoon for a year. Then of course came COVID-19 and international travel became a no-go for the foreseeable future.
CONTINUE READINGThis past fall, because all other vacation plans were crushed by the pandemic, Britt and I decided to take a trip to Badlands National Park. I love National Parks but have never planned a full trip around one. As part of our preparations, I recalled that visitors to parks could keep track of their travels with a passport. Visiting more National Parks has long been a goal, so I decided to look further into this.
With COVID-19 came the cancellation of almost all of our planned adventures in 2020. California? Cancelled. Canada? Cancelled. Walt Disney World? Cancelled. That last one hurt the most. Partly because it was to be my first ever WDW experience, but also because it was planned almost a year in advance for February (right about now). The moment we grudgingly and mournfully pulled the plug on that trip it finally sunk in that we would be in this pandemic for the long haul.
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I have now been camping three times and am officially a fan! I still maintain the fundamental need for toilets and running water, but as long as I have some version of that, I’m confident I will survive the excursion.
In keeping with what we hope will become an annual tradition, we embarked on another Labor Day weekend camping trip with our dear friends, Ruthann and Dan – and this time, River tagged along as well. This year, we explored Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth, and Cascade River State Park between Lutsen and Grand Marais on the North Shore.
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I am an ‘indoor’ girl. As much as I like to imagine myself as being one with nature, I have definitely been conditioned (or conditioned myself) to be more in tune with modern comforts and amenities like food delivery, air conditioning, and flushing toilets. So, when our good friends, Dan and Ruthann, broached the subject of a group camping trip last year, I was hesitant to say the least; though, Logan had been slowly priming that pump for years. “Maybe you would like camping…”
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While it is currently 10 degrees outside, and the snow is knee-high, Logan and I can’t help but reflect on warmer times and our amazing summer. Here’s a look back at last spring, when the snow was gone, and we took our newly purchased kayaks on their maiden voyage…
Truthfully, it could be a while before our official honeymoon becomes a reality, so Logan and I planned an April, three-day “Mini-moon” to Duluth, Minnesota to coincide with Logan’s running in the annual Fitger’s 5K race. Here some highlights from our weekend getaway!
Continue readingLogan is a mountain boy. He loves the challenge of scaling a steep trail to the inevitable payoff of a spectacular panoramic view at the top. We knew when we agreed to leave Colorado that trading the mountains for flat land would present more than just a change of scenery. In Colorado Springs the mountains were literally at our doorstep. By leaving the endless miles of readily accessible hiking trails, we lost our most prevalent physical activity. And while there are parks and walking trails galore in the Twin Cities and beyond, Logan does not consider ‘walking’ and ‘hiking’ to be the same thing, and thus began the search for a new hobby.
Mountains to Midwest 