Pattison

Well, it's Thursday, but it feels like we just got back from our trip to Pattison State Park, just South of Superior Wisconsin. We had a lovely time at the campground. With borrowed hiking packs (Thanks to Kristin's Mom!) we were able to load up all that cool camping stuff that we got from the wedding last year. It really put things in perspective. Kristin and I have been married for a full year now, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Before we packed out to our site, we spent some time at the lake at Pattison. Just beyond the lake are the Big Manitou Falls, which were gorgeous. We had lunch along the Black River, and enjoyed some fresh food. Lastly, we decided that the best way to celebrate our anniversary was to write each other a letter. Since we're supposed to give each other a "paper" gift anyway, we decided it would be a good idea to get down all they way's we'd loved each other throughout the year. The future plan is to make this a tradition and keep it all together in a scrapbook.

Anywho, back to the story: We packed up lunch, got ourselves back to the car, grabbed our hiking packs and hit the trail. Our camping site was 1.5 miles down the trail, which ended up being a very quick hike. Now, I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate setting down my pack when we got there, but we could have done a bit more.

Overall, the site was OK, we found some garbage from the last tenants and there wasn't much a place to hang a bear pack, but we were happy to be off and on our own. I had great enjoyment setting up our tent, using our pot and pan, making a fire and doing all that fun camping stuff. We planed some great meals for ourselves, and we even had strawberries and angel food cake for our official "1 year".

Lastly, we celebrated my Birthday, We packed my sister, Laura's gift with us so that I could open in on by BD. She got me a really cool MN Wild T-Shirt, which will probably be my last for quite a while... I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the presents this year. I'm blessed to have good family and friends.

The night was very cold.

I was exceptionally happy that we had good sleeping bags and pads because the cold came early and left late. Kristin's idea was to ford the river so that we could take a different trail on the way back the next morning (the water was only knee deep). I was pretty tentative on the idea, but she was able to convince me. I'm glad she did, because there were some really beautiful views on the opposite side of the river.

Anywho, we had a really great time, and we were glad to have at least one night camping before we head to the Great South Land. Speaking of, we're going to have to start packing one of these days soon here. August approaches quickly!

---Daniel