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), I announced to the kids that we were GOING. To show my commitment, I booked a nearby hotel room for us to stay and started packing. This was a pretty big deal, because I have never taken the kids on a trip overnight on my own before. We were all excited....though I confess that the logistics of actually being the sole caretaker of 5 children on a journey across the state didn't hit me until....well.....they were throwing shoes at each other in the van (WHY didn't I let them bring their Gameboys again?) .It was such a relief to get to our hotel. We ordered pizza and had it delivered to the room. Then we changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the pool. The first thing that I noticed is that there was no kiddie pool. This, of course, meant that I had to get into the water myself with Aidan. Forget the fact that I dread shopping for swimsuits or...that my swimsuit this summer is....well....in an embarassingly large size....The only thing worse thing than shopping for the swimsuit is actually having to WEAR it in front of people....especially skinny people...which were the only kind in the pool area.
To top it off, my kids were antsy from having been in the van for so long and they were excitedly playing "shark", laughing and hollering at each other. The other children in the pool area were being quiet and polite. I started feeling really awkward about the fact that people *might* be judging us.
I was relieved when it was finally time to pack it up and head back to the room to get ready for bed....
The next morning we all got up bright and early (for our standards anyway!
) and we checked out of the hotel by 9am! That is a record for this family! Within 45 minutes, we were at Lake Itasca State Park preparing to finally go in and explore the source of the Mississippi River!
We checked out the Visitor's Center First...which was a good thing, because I realized that I hadn't charged the battery on my camera and it was completely empty. I was able to plug in the camera while we explored the center and then pop it back into the camera before heading out into the wilderness. I know that I would have been really upset to have come all that way and leave without pictures!
The Mississippi River starts at the headwaters of Lake Itasca
I was a little crabby and uptight at first about letting the kids climb the rocks and wade in the water...but once the other parents started letting their kids in I relaxed. It's tough going on an outing with five children....it took me time to find my groove.
Alex was busy searching for frogs and turtles. Amazingly, he found one within minutes of arriving!
Our Headwaters Frog (released back into the Mississippi before we left, of course):
Aidan was the great climber. He was fascinated by the rocks that mark the end of Lake Itasca and the beginning of the Mississippi!
He was too little to go it alone...so Andrew stepped up to the plate to help him across.
Actually, the rocks were a huge hit. This is one of my favorite pictures of Andrew and Amanda!
Zoe loved the water.....and...all of the rocks. She tried to eat every stone she found:
Amanda did a great job of holding onto her so that I could keep an eye on the others too.
By far though, this is the image that I connect with our trip to Lake Itasca:
I am....so blessed....so very honored to have been given these 5 beautiful children to love and to take care of.
By the end of our time in the State Park, I was feeling more relaxed than I have felt in.....weeks. It was still early in the day and so we all decided to....
drive to Canada!
I admit that it as a bit impetuous...but...hey...you've gotta live...
We were about 2 hours from the border to St. Frances, Ontario and I decided that we probably wouldn't get another chance soon to cross the border and finally see how they live up north. It almost seemed silly NOT to go.
Thomas just laughed when I called him and told him we were on our way to Canada.
"No Way."
"Yes Way."
He knows me though and pretty much immediately reconciled with the fact that we wouldn't be getting home until late!
We weren't disappointed. I had to pay $6 to get across the border, but despite having only my driver's license to identify myself and no identification for the kids, we were allowed to cross the border.
Our walk along the Rainy River provided an interesting look at some of what we perceive to be the basic differences between the Canadian and American ways of life. In Canada, there was a beautiful walkway along the river so that everyone could walk or ride bikes. It was a Sunday afternoon and there were many families out enjoying the breeze.
On the American side, the homes were all built right on the river so that individual families could enjoy their own private view of Canada.
I'm not suggesting that we, in America shouldn't have our own free markets or private property...but it would be nice to see us with a more social (note that I didn't say socialized) system. Chasing individual happiness at the cost of society as a whole has hurt this country. It would be nice if we could adopt a more community conscious way of living.
Other highlights included watching a boat pull up to a gas pump right on the water's edge.
The driver filled up his boat, went into the boat depot/ice cream shop on the docks and paid...and then he kept on driving.
We probably have something like this here in the US too...but I have never seen anything like it.
The last difference that we spotted were the garbage cans along the river:
I thought they were mailboxes until I finally read one:
"Don't feed the bears. Stash your trash".
The kids loved that!
After our walk, we took a drive through the center of town
Now that you have seen my pictures, I assure you that you have had the ENTIRE Port Frances, Canada experience! If you take the several hour journey yourself, your pictures will probably.....look exactly the same! Obviously, this isn't all of Canada....it would have been nice to see a bit more of the country, but there wasn't time to do much more than visit the border town. I assure you that International Falls (in MN) wasn't much better though!
Our final run through Port Frances did remind us that we weren't far from home though:
and....in case you are wondering.....................
Yes...they do have Wal-Mart.....and Yes, we traveled all the way to Canada and went shopping at Wal-Mart! How can you not?
We crossed the border back into the US (where a bewildered agent was a little taken aback that I didn't have identification for my kids!) and then Aidan finally had his way. We ate at the McDonalds with the play area back in the US. To Aidan, though, Canada is McDonalds (even though we didn't eat at the one in Canada). Yesterday, when we were driving through town here, he saw our local McDonalds and screamed "Mommy, please can we go to Canada". (I decided that we would go in and play and from the backseat I heard him saying "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you".)
During this trip, the destination did seem to be a bit more valuable than the journey at times! There are certain parts of the *journey* that I'd like to forget....my own impatience sometimes and the kids screaming and fighting "he kicked me in the balls, she called me twerperitis, she's making faces at me" (at least Zoe never got bored). Ultimately though, when I look back now, even the frustration, arguments, potty breaks and stops for coffee refills were all memorable parts of the destination.[/quote]