At the beginning of August, my family took a vacation up in Voyageur's National Park. I'm a little behind the times, but hey, what's new?! We rented a houseboat for the week and hit the lakes. Ryan and I left Omaha at 10 am on Friday morning. I had just completed five entire weeks of night float and was absolutely exhausted. Ryan agreed to drive {bless his heart} so that I could sleep. Unfortunately, between our house and Ryan's parent's house, I barely got any sleep as I could just not get comfortable. At Ryan's parent's place, we picked up their speed boat and ate lunch. When we hit the road for my sister's place for Duluth, I shunned the front seat and laid down in the back with some blankets and pillows. I literally slept the entire way to Duluth. Even after getting up to Duluth that evening, I was probably only awake two hours tops before going back to sleep. The transition from nights to days and vis versa really throws me for a loop.
Saturday morning, we packed up all the vehicles and headed for Voyageur's {another two-ish hour car ride from Duluth}. Ryan was still driving {I told him if we are pulling a boat, there was no way I was driving}. He really was a good sport about all the driving.
After loading up the houseboat and pulling away from the dock, we were finally on vacation for the week. It was absolutely beautiful up North - chilly and down right cold a few of the nights but beautiful none the less. Sorry in advance for picture overload but I figure its a good way to recap our vacay!
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| Heading down the Ash River from the houseboat rental site to the lakes. |
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| Our first houseboat site - Wigwam Point. |
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| Ryan, Ryan and Kristin manning the bonfire. |
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| Sunrise at Wigwam Point - gorgeous! |
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| So calm and peaceful. |
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| Sophie, Hillary, Mom and Ryan C taking a canoe ride. |
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| Kristin relaxing on the top of the houseboat. |
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| Mom, Sophie and me catching enjoying the weather. |
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| We had a few rainy days :( |
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| Ryan C brought his MN lakes GPS navigator - I would go boating up here without it! |
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| We had some chilly days - even Sophie had to put on her sweater :) |
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| First bald eagle sighting! |
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| The above eagle flew off and joined a second one. |
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| Then my family got to witness how a bald eagle goes to the bathroom - lol! |
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| The top of the houseboat - complete with a water slide and hot tub. |
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| Another bald eagle. |
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| Pine trees growing right from the granite. |
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| It started raining and it was so quiet where we were at the time that the sound of rain drops hitting the lake was so pretty. |
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| One of the several houseboat sites on the lakes. |
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| Kettle Falls {no actual pictures of the falls because of the dam} |
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| Ryan and me at Kettle Falls. |
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| Sophie feeling left out from the canoe trip. |
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| Photo evidence that I will, on very rare occasion, wear a baseball cap. |
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| Check out the slim - so gross! |
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| Our houseboat for the week. |
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| Dad and Ryan caught their fish at the same time - I love this picture. |
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| Dad's trophy fish! |
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| And Ryan displaying his trophy fish. |
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| The only fish that I caught and I refused to touch it - lol. |
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| Trying to keep Sophie warm on the boat. |
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| Kristin trying not to blow away as Ryan was zipping across the lake. |
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| Captain McSpeedy :) |
And last but not least - I can 't leave out a big portion of our trip....
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| They're evil! |
The majority of the group photos are on my mom's camera. Once I get my hands on those, I'll post them. We also have a few videos from the trip as well that I'll have to post. It was a good week and I was able to catch up on my sleep. It is so nice to have vacation time and see family but it is SO hard to go back to work after returning home :(
~Ashley
