Camping at Lake of Three Fires

This June we stayed a week at Lake of Three Fires near Bedford, IA. We were fortunate that the weather was 95% awesome during our stay. It rained the night we arrived--after we had all of our stuff unloaded, then it sprinkled a few drops the next day and was dry the rest of the week. The temps were also in the low 80s all but our last full day there (when it was 90 and breezy, but not too humid).

Lake of Three Fires is a small (no wake) lake with a swimming area and several jetties to encourage fish habitats and allow for easily docking or mooring your small boat. The park also has several miles of trails, but they are designed to be used by horses, so most of the loops are longer than 3 miles. So we only walked a couple of partial trails while we were there. In addition to the trails designed for horses, there's also a nice horse camping ring with little paddocks and everything.

We stayed in one of the parks cabins. There are 5 cabins with running water, air conditioning, and a kitchen (that has pretty much everything except an oven). The above photograph is our view of the lake from the cabin. As you can see, there's one cabin that has an even better view close to the lake.

There was quite a bit of wildlife at the park. Here's a shot of a woodpecker in a tree near our cabin.

This photo shows some of the many many of what we think were turkey vultures. On two evenings that we were there, the entire brood was gliding overhead. We counted as many as 53 one night.

The park also had trails that linked the cabin area to the non electric camping area to the electric camping area and then to the swimming area. The photo above is one of the views of the lake from these trails. On the last full day at the park, it was quite a bit warmer, so we tried out the swimming area, which was fairly shallow, but well kept.  All in all, I'd go back, it was a great relaxing week. If I had a small boat or a horse, I'd be even more eager to go back.

If you'd like to see more photos of our camping trip click here: Lake of Three Fires Album.

Spring Flowers 2016

The weather this April and May was perfect for our spring blossoms! Our Plum/Chokecherry trees went gangbusters and smelled wonderful.

We also went and took some photos of the Bradford Pear trees that the city planted at a local intersection. They create a beautiful canopy of white blossoms that you can walk under.

Our crabapple tree also blossomed well this year. The only ones that didn't do very well were the lilacs--hopefully next year.

Later on in the spring, our roses bloomed like crazy. There are three different varieties on the side of our house: light pink, deep magenta red, and these pretty variegated ones pictured below (technical names I know :)).

To see more of my spring flower photos, click here.

Lacey-Keosauqua State Park

Rob and I recently returned from a week camping at Lacey-Keosauqua State Park in southeastern Iowa. We had a great time, but wished the weather had been a bit cooler and a little less rainy, but June is the rainy season in Iowa, so I guess I can't complain. We had our first 90+ degree day while camping too, so that was a bit of a shock to the system. However, we did manage to get in lots of grilling, sitting around the campfire, some hiking, and we went swimming when it was hot.  We also read two books each and played a ton of games from my basket of games that I brought along. We even learned quite a few new games. Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, Kahuna, and Battle Line were some of our favorites.

There are about 12 miles of trails at Lacey-Keosauqua. The state park is situated next to the Des Moines river and has a small lake inside its boundaries along with lots of creeks criss-crossing the area. So the park is very hilly, and the hikes are not easy. Our longest hike involved walking the Lake Trail around the little lake and surrounding area. My phone tracked the walk at 2 and 3/4 miles, but it felt even longer with all of the hills. The trail has several stone bridges and dams over the little creeks and drainage ditches. The stone structures were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The bridge above is one of the more intricate ones. 

As we neared the end of our Lake Trail hike, there were a couple of stopping spots with benches overlooking the lake. They were a welcome rest.

We stayed in one of Lacey-Keosauqua's cabins while we were there. They are small and modest, but have a kitchen and bathroom...and more importantly AC. We had a great time, and I'd definitely put it on my list of parks to return to. More photos of our camping trip can be found in this flickr photo album.

Our drive home had us going through Eldon, IA which is home to the American Gothic house (you know, from that painting). Eldon is tiny, but they have a very nice little museum and park next to the house. It was all free and you could even borrow costumes to match the painting for photographs if you wanted. Next stop on our trip home was Pella. We drove home on Rob's birthday so we stopped for lunch and pastries from Jaarsma Bakery. Their beehive cakes made a good birthday cake substitute and we lit them up after hauling all of our camping gear back in the house (and giving the dog a bath). If you'd like to see more photos of Rob's Birthday and the American Gothic House, you can find them in this flickr photo album. Overall it was a delightful vacation!

Welcome Spring!

I think we should just forget about how there was a giant snowstorm between when I wrote last and now....but I suppose if you want to see my pictures of our 14+ inch snowfall in February, click here.

We had a nice spring break in March. The weather was gorgeous the week before break, and still pretty nice for most of spring break. We went out to Jester park and hiked on some muddy trails one day.

And another day we went downtown and visited the botanical center and the asian gardens. 

On the warmest day of break, we took a walk around Terra Park to see the changes being made there and then spent a good chunk of the afternoon hanging out in the backyard.  We couldn't have asked for a better staycation.

Much of April has been spent grading papers and getting ready for the end of the semester, but in the meantime, the yard exploded with early spring flowers. Now I'm grading portfolios and waiting for the next batch of flowers to bloom. I hope you're all having a great spring! I can't wait for more warm weather adventures!

All of the links in this post take you to my photo pages on flickr.

End of Year Review 2014

It was a beautiful fall this year until a nasty cold snap hit in November.  It was below zero and snowing much too early, but December was mostly wonderful, so it all worked out in the end.

There was a lunar eclipse in October.  I didn't stay up until the early morning hours to watch it, but I did take some photos of the bright full moon early in the evening. See more photos of the moon from our backyard here.

We always love going over to Terra Park/Beaver Creek Natural Resource Area in the fall.  This year was no different.  Terra Park is being redone into a fancy shmancy new park, but we still were able to walk through the Resource Area.  To see more photos click here.

I took some great photos of the fall colors in walks around our neighborhood in October--I even managed to catch a monarch butterfly on one of my neighbor's flowers in their front yard. You can find more fall color photos here.

In early December, Rob tested for his second degree black belt (and passed).  To see more photos from the test, click here.

The second week in December we had beautiful weather in the 50s. We snapped a few photos in the backyard without coats on to put in our Christmas letter.

Rob had to work over Christmas so we had a nice celebration at home.  To see more photos from our Christmas letter photo shoot and Christmas, click here.

After Christmas we went to Estelline to celebrate with the family and we made lefse. To see photos of lefse making click here.

Happy New Year (a little late)!

4th of July

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July.  Rob and I went up to the cities to visit friends and family for the weekend and had a great time.  On July 3rd we went to the Bloomington Fireworks display.  The display is just a couple of blocks away from my brother's house, so we walked through the droves of people and all around the lake where they were setting them off.  The fireworks lasted the typical 20 minutes, but ended with quite the impressive finale. We definitely weren't sitting around asking each other if it was over afterwards.

On the 4th of July we went out to my friend Shannon's new house for a barbecue and got to catch up with a group of college friends that we hadn't seen in ages. Shannon's new house is awesome and I can't wait to see our old college friends again soon!

On July 5th we went to our first Twins game.  They were playing against the Yankees.  We had seats in the upper deck, but they were right behind home plate, so it made for an excellent view of the game and of the stadium.  The weather was gorgeous for a baseball game, and the Twins beat the Yankees, what more could we ask for?

More photos of our 4th of July celebrations and of the Twins game are posted on Flickr (available at the links).

Annual Family Camping Trip

Last weekend was our family's annual (ok we've done it twice now, but it does seem to be a thing) camping trip.  This year we camped at Pickerel Lake in northeastern South Dakota.  I hadn't been camping there since I was about 10--so it was brand new to me.  Rob and I had the week off so we went up to Estelline a few days ahead of our camping trip.  I finally got to go visit the Veterans Memorial Park that they installed a couple of years ago.  It really is a beautiful little park for such a small town and it didn't hurt that the sun was setting as we were walking through.

The first day we were at Pickerel was beautiful--weather wise--but we couldn't check in until afternoon, so it was a lovely evening around the fire.  Rob and I took the dog for a walk down to the "marina" that they have for putting boats in and along the trail that goes from the boat launch to the campgrounds along the shore of the lake.  It was really pretty watching the sun go down through the trees over the lake.

The next day of our trip was hot, but I did get to go swimming.  The lake is pretty nice compared to our swimming options down here in reservoir land, and the cold water felt really good.  It clouded up that afternoon and threatened rain, even rumbled and lightninged off in the distance, but it didn't rain until the next morning.  And then it rained off and on all day.  It stopped raining long enough for dad to cook lunch (fish they caught when the weather was changing the night before and pancakes) and then it rained very lightly for a while.  Rob and I took a hike up to the top of a nearby hill that had views of the surrounding area (in the photo below you can just make out the lake). 

Then later on that day half of us went to Fort Sisseton.  It rained very steadily the entire time we were at Fort Sisseton, but I did get my fill of Dakota territory history

It stopped raining in time for us to have supper and a fire that night and rained again in the morning before we packed up to head back home to Iowa.  Aside from the rain, it was a lovely trip.  More photos of our trip can be found here.

Spring is Here!

Not much exciting happened this winter, and I didn't take too many photos, but spring has finally arrived, and with that--more photo taking!

This past weekend we went to Pella, Iowa to enjoy their tulips and visit their amazing Dutch bakery.  It was beautiful weather and nearly all of the tulips were blooming. We came home with a bag of pastries and a camera full of tulip photos.

You can see more photos of our day trip to Pella here.

And just like the spring flowers are blooming in Pella, they are blooming at our house too.  You can see my spring photos from around our neighborhood here.

Fall Photos

We've been keeping busy this fall, but the one thing I try to make time for is to enjoy the fall colors and go on some walks while the weather is nice. I love fall in Iowa, even when it goes from 80s to 50s like it has this year, it's still a beautiful place to be in the fall.  Our colors peaked at the end of October this year and lots of trees are still hanging on to their green leaves even now. It's always nice when the fall leaves stick around for Halloween.

You can see more photos of fall colors around our neighborhood here.

Earlier in October when the weather was warmer, we visited Terra Park again.  We went to Terra Park the first week in October last year too, so it was fun to see the differences in the photos I had taken from last year to this year.  The trees were greener this year, but the black-eyed susans were done for this year and they were in full bloom last year.

Check out the rest of the photos I took of Terra Park here.

Camping at Okoboji

Last weekend we went camping at Gull Point State Park on West Lake Okoboji. This was our second time visiting Okoboji, but our first time camping.  The weather was great until it started raining on Saturday night.  We enjoyed swimming, roasting marshmallows, walking around near Arnold's Park, and catching up with old friends. The campground is pretty nice with old growth oak trees and a nice swimming beach; however, the spots are oddly laid out (some with very little space) and the park is filled with single width roads with no direction signs. We had an uncomfortable night on Saturday since we were sleeping in a tent and it rained all night--thankfully the airbed kept us mostly dry from the large puddles that were forming on the floor. I just took a few photos from our weekend, but you can see the rest here.

Beach near Arnold's Park