from jessie...with love: Wild Boys: Part 1

Thursday of last week's vacation was deemed "Kids Day" by the adults. All us young adults had the day to ourselves to plan a day in Minnesota. My three awesome cousins, Jeremy, Toffer, and Nick, were in charge of plans. Originally we thought about taking a day trip to the town of Duluth an hour away. Duluth sits on the shore of Lake Superior and has fun shops, museums, and "touristy" type places perfect for staying occupied. However, upon realizing that Jeremy would be in the car for 3 hours straight that same night heading back to the twin cities (Minneapolis and St.Paul), alternate plans had to be made. It was decided that "explration and adventure" were the name of the game.

After sleeping in (an adventure in and of itself), we took off on a .75 mile hike to a place called "The Gorge". For those of you unfamiliar with Minnesota's landscape there is a lot of water, countless pine trees, a variety of trails, and all sizes of mine pits (some active, some filled in with rainwater). We parked and walked a nice paved trail up to the "spot", along which the boys pointed out (and picked) wild strawberries.

They were super tiny, so you had to look close. We had to find some for Scott since his red-green color blindness was no help in spotting the ripe red berries on the small green bushes. In addition to the strawberries, there were GIANT dandelion seeds growing; I mean GIANT! I told everyone we should have picked a few and donated them to the "make a wish foundation". Perhaps the bigger the wishy, the better the chance you have of your wish coming true.

We sidetrecked down a dirt trail to the spot the three boys had visited before, and proceeded to jump into the CHILLY waters of the river. The temperature was a SERIOUS shock to the system, but was tolerable over time. We swam across, climbed rocks only to jump off again, and did some trekking along the river side. All in all, the gorge was an energizing experience.