Our National Park Monopoly board has ended but there are plenty of adventures yet to be had. So far the next year has a couple of travel plans in it. Up first on the list is a trip to Northern Minnesota to explore the frozen North Shore with our French Student we are hosting until the end of the school year and in search of birds that migrate to Minnesota from farther places north in search of food and easier conditions than their summer homes. Seems a little weird to think birds actually travel south to Minnesota for the winter. One such bird that I’m hoping to see is the Snowy Owl which resides in the arctic during the rest of the year. Northern Hawk Owls are another bird traveling south along with Pine Grosbeaks and Evening Grosbeaks. Along the shores of Lake Superior during the cold reside an amazing winter wonderland. Ice coating much of the shoreline, frozen waterfalls, and snow covering the landscape make for a beautiful scene many don’t get to see. It can definitely be cold but appropriate clothing makes being outside in Northern Minnesota actually enjoyable. This should be a good way to kick off Two Thousand and nineteen.

Another trip currently in the plans is exploring some of the off road trails in Utah. Designed and constructed his Jeep to go off road. We decided it’s time to take it out on and adventure and enjoy the fruits of these labors. Utah is well known for these types of activities with trails catering to multiple skill levels along with different off road vehicle levels. Skill levels vary and make sense as each trail adds experience to the driver as well as those navigating a trail but vehicle levels? As it turns out not all off road vehicles can handle the same conditions. Stock 4 x 4 trucks can handle many dirt/gravel/sand roads as long as they don’t have too large of ruts or too steep of angles for the vehicle to climb. Lifting a vehicle along with different types of suspension systems can increase the trail difficulty it can handle. For the serious off roader things like winches, extra fuel tanks, skid plates, and on board air compressors can increase the types of trail challenges a vehicle and driver can handle. Trails can be ranked in difficulty by different means such as the likely hood a vehicle will tip over or what type of equipment must be present in order to attempt that trail. Our sights are on easier to moderate trails for this trip as Utah is very remote and getting help can be a bit of a challenge if something were to go wrong. I’m looking forward to crawling around the Utah landscape and seeing some amazing sights.

Early in the summer there’s an adventure planned to go back up to Northern Minnesota to show another friend of mine the North Shore which he has never seen. During our week there we hope to see Minnesota’s native orchids in bloom along with the beautiful area of Duluth and multiple waterfalls along the shores of Lake Superior. With any luck there will be a nice summer storm producing some beautiful lightning out over the big lake. It can be a beautiful time to be in that area with all of the spring blooming flowers and wildlife roaming with their young even if the temperatures tend to get a little cool at night and the mosquitoes are starting to hatch in full force. We’ll be camping for the week and exposed to the elements which most likely will include rain. I’ve never had a full week up at the North Shore so am looking forward to being able to explore things in a little more thoroughly.

One final adventure in the plan for this next year is a backpacking trip to Isle Royale. I tried to do this a couple of years ago but things didn’t really work out to actually do it so I’m going to try it again. This time there should be plenty of moose to see but also a potential wolf howling off in the distance as they’ve began to relocate wolves onto the island to help control moose populations. If there are too many moose, vegetation can get decimated along with disease going through the herds which is something people would like to avoid if possible. A different route is planned bringing new views and areas to explore and things to photograph. The challenges of a longer hike and ways to reduce the weight of the backpack are things I’m looking forward to taking on.

As the year progresses I’m sure there will be other possible adventures and unforeseen events to make for a fun new year. Here’s wishing all of you a promising and eventful 2019!

I think I’m still trying to catch my breath from the past year. It seemed like there was always something going on making it feel as though every week just kept flying by in the blink of an eye. There were a lot of memories made and fun had but I hope the next year is a bit more relaxed. A few of my goals for Two Thousand eighteen included taking in as much of Super Bowl VII in Minneapolis, finishing the National Parks Monopoly board, celebrating a graduation, and doing some summer camping. Ohh ya, and continuing to work on my photography. I think all of the objectives set out for the year were achieved. You can read more if you’d like on the Year Ahead post.

Super Bowl VII was a lot of fun and pretty tiring with ten days of events. For each of those ten days I was either volunteering at Super Bowl Live helping people navigate downtown Minneapolis, taking pictures for people, crowd control for the outdoor concerts, or getting people out of their zip line gear. Many of the days were cold with temperatures dipping below zero degrees Fahrenheit but for those of us living in the cold, it’s all about dressing correctly for this very weather. Don’t get me wrong, retreating into a warm building now and then felt really nice just to gain some feeling in my fingers and toes. For a little more on Super Bowl adventures you can click here.

With the Super Bowl in the rear view mirror all focus turned to our final park: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. With a few months left to finalize details there were many hours spent preparing for one last National Parks trip. After a couple of months passed we boarded a plane and landed in Kona, HI many ours later. I had forgotten just how humid Hawaii can be. It almost took my breath away as soon as I stepped out of the airplane. From there it was a week of exploring, snorkeling, enjoying family, and standing on an active volcano as we all found out a few weeks later. There was so much to see and do and I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. Many of those adventures can be found on these pages. One piece I had forgotten about was on our last day on the Big Island. I got up early to see the orange glow of Kilauea, which you can read about on this post. After taking in this amazing orange glow it was off to the airport heading to Honolulu for the remaining few days of our adventure. Upon landing we began to hear news of activity at Kilauea. This was the beginning of months of eruptions and earthquakes. A very memorable time!

Once we landed back in Minnesota and Spring Break was over the realization set in that the final weeks of school were about to begin for Lysa. Preparations for graduation went into full swing. The end of May came flying at us before we knew it and it was graduation week and then graduation day. Definitely a day of mixed emotions. A sense of satisfaction that your child has reached this stage, sadness that they are becoming adults and will be moving on beginning a new phase of their life, and looking forward to what they will become. Have you prepared them for this time in their life. What have we missed? The next day was continued celebrations with many friends and family stopping by wishing their congratulations and good luck. It was so nice to see many people that we’ve not gotten together with for some time. And now Lysa has entered her first year in college.

As all of the years events wound down and summer hit I took some opportunities to go camping at Lost Lake in Northern Wisconsin. Here’s a few posts about that if you’re interested. These were much needed weekends of quiet after the craziness of spring. Hopefully this is something I can do again in 2019. Near the end of summer we decided to take one more National Park adventure and visit the only one in Minnesota – Voyageur’s. We spent a couple of days here camping near the park during the peak of the Persied Meteor shower. Is there a better way to watch a celestial event than in the darkest area of the state? My post on Voyageur’s can be found here. During this trip we stopped at Itasca State Park for a few nights exploring one more area I wanted to see with the family – the place where the Mighty Mississippi River begins. A few posts on that can be found at this link. This completed everything I had set out to do in two thousand eighteen which was a great year of adventure. On to another year…..