Guest Blogger Part 2!

A day full of forts and battlefields means one thing...guest blogger Steve is here!  After one fort and two battlefields in one day Becky is not feeling post writing tonight so y'all are stuck with me!

We started the morning in Fort Scott, KS.  We tracked down the local donut shop for breakfast and Daylight Donuts did not disappoint.  All sugared up we hit Fort Scott NHS just as it opened.  Fort Scott was built in the 1840s when the Kansas/Missouri border was considered the end of the USA and the start of the "frontier".  That all changed in 1849 with the discovery of gold in California.  The fort was closed in the 1850s and sold to the town only to be reopened in the Civil War for use as a hospital and supply depot and closed again in 1865.  The fort itself is mostly replicas and demonstrate well life for frontier soldiers in the mid-1800s.  The standout was an officers' quarters building that is original and has been used as a children's home and municipal building before coming to the NPS in the 1970s.  NPS has left parts of the building in varying conditions to show all aspects of its life.  It's an incredible tour through history!

After Fort Scott we headed to George Washington Carver NM in Missouri.  Even after seeing the Carver museum in Tuskegee, AL, we enjoyed the NPS museum at this site.  There is also a 3/4-mile trail at the park that includes GWC's birth site, the original cabin of his owners when he was a slave, and multiple memorial statues.  The trail itself winds through forests, streams, and ponds that were all familiar to GWC as a boy.  Given the beautiful weather it offered a chance for rest and contemplation.  All in all a very well-deigned NPS site!

GWC as a boy. 

Battlefield time!  Our third park of the day was Pea Ridge NMP in Arkansas (scratch off another new state for both us!).  Pea Ridge was a decisive Union victory in 1862 that kept large scale Confederate presence in Missouri non-existent.  A nine-mile driving tour of the battlefield provided a quality overview of the battle.  The most stunning stop was a high overlook from a mountain that provided perspective for the sheer size of the battle.  This battle included one of the largest mass charges of the Civil War.  Over 10,000 Union soldiers amassed shoulder-to-shoulder for almost one mile before simultaneously charging the Confederate lines.  And we got to visit with a husky puppy, so that was cool, too.

The Union charge came from this field towards our vantage point.  

Our ruthless park efficiency carried us through the day as we found ourselves with enough time to book our way back into Missouri and get to Wilsons Creek NB before the visitor center closed.  We were able to watch the diorama about the battle before completing the driving tour.  The tour road itself was open until 7:00 PM and we were surprised at how many people were taking advantage of the beautiful weather to enjoy an evening in the park.  This battle was nowhere near the scale of Pea Ridge, but gave the USA and CSA a second taste of the horror to come in the Civil War after Bull Run.  More scenic hikes gave way to a setting sun and growling stomachs as we made our way to Springfield, MO.

Marker at the site of Gen. Lyon's death.  He was the first USA general killed in the Civil War.  

Dinner tonight was at Bricktown Brewing.  We understand they are a chain, but the beer and food were both great.  We capped off the meal at Andy's frozen custard.  It gives Captain Sundae in Holland, MI, a run for its money.

Tomorrow brings lunch with a family friend and a return flight home.  After Wilsons Creek NB we are 2/3rds of the way through all 419 NPS sites!  Becky will be back next time, unless I torture her with more battlefields.  Stamps like Champs!!!!

The "S" Stands for Stamps

Welcome back to our adventures!  Steve and I are taking an extended weekend in the Kansas City area to get to a few parks.  This morning, we started our day with Harry S. Truman's home (Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, and this is the "S" I'm referencing in tonight's blog title).  This is a National Park Service hidden gem, because as the ranger on our tour put it this morning, the home and its contents are "100% intact."  Basically when Mr. and Mrs. Truman passed away, their daughter Margaret went through and took the sentimental items for herself, but left everything else to the park service and she even helped design the tour layout.  The house is literally left like the Trumans just ran out for some errands.  Because everything is original in the house, they do not allow pictures inside of the home.  The ranger made us turn off our cell phones too!  A couple fun things we saw in the house were two house plants that have been kept alive since the Trumans lived there, and Harry's Stetson hat (and cane and overcoat).  This was so neat to see so many original items in the house that belonged to the Trumans - typically in these house tours, it's only an item here and there that is original to the family.  This was a real treat to see it exactly as they left it!

Harry & Bess Truman's wedding picture

The church where the Trumans were married.

Truman Home

Our last park of the day was Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  Steve and I were both looking forward to this park because it was our only shot at seeing wildlife on this trip (the rest of the trip is basically battlefields and we all know how I feel about those).  Tallgrass has about 40 miles of hiking trails, and a free-range bison herd.  There is a bus tour offered twice a day that we learned fills up very quickly with a waiting list.  So we had to do the hiking if we wanted to see anything, which isn't the worst thing in the world.  It turns out that the bison herd is actually penned up for the time being while the NPS counts and vaccinates them.  So we were able to walk to the outskirts of the pasture where we watched the bison hoping they'd get closer for some better pictures for us.  They felt like being lazy instead.  Oh well, it was still cool to see!  We also took time to check out the ranch house and the barn on the park property too.

We take a picture of all the entrance signs to a park - this is one of the prettier ones. 

Part of the bison herd, and that's basically the scenery from the prairie too.

Buddy the Bison

It was just a tad windy today.

The Ranch house

We hit two breweries today, too.  For lunch, we went to Radius Brewing in Emporia, KS.  This was delicious, and had one of our favorite sampler presentations!  After dinner in Fort Scott, KS, we went to Boiler Room Brewhouse, which was okay.

Radius Brewing Sampler

Dearly Beloved...

...We have gathered here today to get through this thing called life.

Okay, the Prince quote will make sense at the end of the blog.  I'm sitting at the airport with nothing to do, so I figured I might as well blog about the rest of the trip.  So here it goes...

Our last morning in Voyageurs was spent kayaking on Lake Kabetogama.  We rented a tandem kayak from Northern Lights Resort and we had big plans of kayaking to the Rock Garden, which is a 4-mile kayak ride one-way.  As soon as we saw the water, we knew that wasn't going to happen at all.  It wasn't as windy as the day before, but it was still breezy.  When we got on the water, it was a tough workout.  We spent an hour in the little bay we were in and then called that done.  If you want to see Voyageurs from the water, wait for the National Park tour boats to start up - it's a lot easier that way!  We were one week too early for that.  We kept the day pretty easy after that because we had a long drive to Grand Marais where we were staying for the night.

Kayaking in Lake Kabetogama

Me constantly looking for Bald Eagles - Steve wasn't too mad about my lack of paddling.  ;-)

This needs to go viral.

The next day, we drove to Grand Portage National Monument.  This was a very well-done park!  They had to rebuild the Great Hall because it burned down at one point.  But with the new building, they've transformed it into a really cool museum about the fur trade and what it would have been like at Grand Portage in the 1800's.  Another fun fact about this park is that on a clear day, you can see Isle Royale across Lake Superior.  Had I known that it would have been a shorter (and likely more calm) boat ride from Grand Portage, I probably would have skipped the boat ride we took a few years ago from Michigan since everyone on that boat ride got sick!  We spoke with a couple people at Voyageurs who had been to Isle Royale and they all had similar stories about the lake not being very friendly.

In between the two land masses is an island in the distance - that would be Isle Royale NP

Great Hall at Grand Portage NM

After we finished up at Grand Portage National Monument, we went to Grand Portage State Park which had a pretty quick hike to High Falls - the tallest in Minnesota.  We were pretty impressed with the falls!  They are 100 - 130 feet tall - for some reason they weren't sure exactly how tall.  We continued with more hiking in a different state park to see Cascade Falls and Devil's Kettle.  Devil's Kettle is another waterfall that sits higher than Cascade, and 1/2 of the flow disappears - no one knows where it goes!  This is a pretty steep hike, about a mile one-way, and includes 176 steps.

High Falls

Devil's Kettle

Cascade Falls

Our last park was Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.  We did the Grand Tour on the boat which takes you out to Devil's Island (if Lake Superior and the weather cooperate, which it did) and back.  The narration includes fun facts about each of the islands you see on the tour.  The highlight, in my opinion, was Devil's Island - that's where some of the sea caves were and it just provided some fun scenery to look at.

Boat selfie - it was chilly!

Bald Eagle!

Devil's Island Lighthouse and some of the sea caves (the one on the left looks like a skull to me).

More of Devil's Island

Raspberry Island lighthouse

Today was our last day of vacation and since we had to get to the airport, we only had time to grab a quick tour of Paisley Park which is where Prince's recording studio is (and at one point he lived there).  Now the title of the blog should make sense!  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside, but this was a pretty neat tour.  I expected a lot more purple, but surprisingly there was only a tasteful amount.  We did the cheapest tour, but there is a VIP option which will show you more rooms.  We saw the atrium, Prince's office, rooms dedicated to specific albums/movies, a couple recording studios, and the soundstage.  And that's a wrap for this trip!

Paisley Park

Voyageurs National Park

We've spent yesterday and today in Voyageurs National Park (park #273 for us).  I didn't blog yesterday because I was too tired, but our plans changed a bit this moring making us finish up a little early today, so you get a blog!

Yesterday, we got to Voyageurs right around lunch time, so we enjoyed a picnic lunch near the Ash River Visitor's Center.  After lunch, we immediately hit the trails in the Ash River area.  We started with the Lake Kabetogama Overlook trail which is about four-tenths of a mile round-trip and pretty flat the whole way.  After that trail, we did the Sullivan Bay trail which is about a mile round-trip with a small hill at the end.  The trail ends with a pretty view of Sullivan Bay.  We ended our hikes with the four-tenths of a mile round-trip Beaver Pond Overlook trail, which does have an uphill at the end, but since it's a short trail it's really easy.  This overlooks what used to be a beaver pond, although there are no longer beavers there.  Supposedly, it is a great place to see "large mammals" according to the trail guide, but the trail guide lies.

Our picnic spot in the Ash River area

Lake Kabetogama Overlook

Sullivan's Bay

Swans just sitting around - Beaver Pond Overlook

After our hiking, we got our stamps from the other two Visitor's Centers in the park and then checked into our room at Thunderbird Lodge.  Steve found a brewpub, Loony's, in Ranier, MN that he wanted to go to for dinner.  As we pulled up to the place, I even asked Steve where he was taking me for dinner.  We pulled up to what looked like a run-down house in the middle of nowhere (but apparently a distillery and hotel are being built across the street).  We walk into the brewpub and it is filled with regulars.  I know that because our bartender knew everyone's name.  I would have felt completely out of place (and did at first) until our bartender welcomed us and was super friendly.  Same with one of the brewers who happened to be there!  We had a great conversation with the bartender and the beers were really good!  Don't get your hopes up about a big menu, because it only consists of cheese and crackers or frozen pizza.  Let me tell you something though, frozen pizza hits the spot after a day of hiking!

Beer at Loony's

While Voyageurs does have some decent hiking trails, the real heart of the park is in the water.  Because of that, we had reservations through Northern Lights Resort to rent a kayak today.  However, when we woke up this morning, it was not only chilly (52 degrees), but also windy which was not the best weather for a day of kayaking.  We were talking to one of the owners and she was willing to let us still use the kayak today, but she also said she wasn't comfortable putting us in the water either (the lake was pretty choppy!).  She asked if we'd be willing to kayak tomorrow instead because the weather would be better.  Thankfully that works with our schedule, so we took her up on the offer.  This was why we were able to finish up a little early today.  We were planning to hike in the Rainy Lake area this afternoon anyway, which we still did, but we were able to get it done sooner than anticipated.

When the kayaking plans were moved, we went back to the Beaver Pond overlook to try to find "large mammals."  We still didn't see those mammals, but we saw the same swans as yesterday with their babies and a hummingbird that would disappear from my camera view a half second before I took the picture, and a bald eagle that wouldn't get close enough for my zoom lens to pick up on it.  I would zoom the picture in on the computer, but we didn't bring my laptop on this trip, so I don't have my editing software.  If I remember, I'll add an eagle picture later.

Swans 

Click to open the picture and you may see the bald eagle in the tree

As we were driving out of the Ash River side of the park to get to lunch, we saw a black bear scurry into the woods from the side of the road.  It happened way too fast for us to get the camera ready, but it was a pretty big bear.  At least 6,000 pounds (reminder:  all bears are huge and scary to me, so please note the exaggeration on the size).

After lunch in International Falls, we went to the #1 rated thing to do:  Smokey Bear Park.  They have a 26-foot tall Smokey Bear statue here and that's about all there is to see.  After Smokey, we went to the Tilson Bogtrail, which is a flat trail, about a half-mile round trip on a boardwalk.  We were told there were owls on the trail, but the ranger lied to us.  ;-)

Smokey 

Bogtrail

We ended the afternoon hiking the Oberholtzer Trail which can be longer or shorter depending on what you want to do.  We just hiked to the two overlooks and went back, so it was about a mile round-trip for us.  Our last trail was the Rainy Lake Recreational trail which is paved and relatively flat.  This can be 1.75 miles round-trip, but we only did about half that.  We walked until you can see water and then turned around because there isn't much more to see beyond that point.  Now we are resting up before dinner.  Tomorrow we will hit the water in the park and then head over to Grand Marais as we work our way to Grand Portage National Monument.

One of the overlooks

On the Oberholtzer Trail

We Had an "Oar"-deal!

Another great day for us!  We had reservations with Riverwood Canoe & Kayak for 9:00 this morning.  On our way to Osceola to meet up with Riverwood, we stopped in town to see Cascade Falls that is just off the main road. You can see the falls from the road, but if you want a closer view, you have to take 156 steps down.  You can also continue two-tenths of a mile to get a glimpse of the St. Croix River.  After our short walk this morning, we met up with Andrew from Riverwood (who is very nice!) to be driven to the launch site to start kayaking in the St. Croix Falls National Scenic Riverway.  This was such a relaxing morning!  There weren't many people on the river this morning and the water was like glass along the way.  It was so peaceful and felt like we had the park all to ourselves.  We spent the morning floating along talking about some of our favorite National Park moments.  Along the way, we saw an eagle, an osprey, a heron, and several shy turtles (they'd jump in the water long before we got close to them).  Sadly no pictures of the wildlife since the turtles wouldn't cooperate and we used our Go Pro for pictures today (which doesn't have zoom).

Cascade Falls

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway

Selfie time!

After our kayak trip, we had a 4 hour drive to Itasca State Park.  This is where the Mississippi River headwaters are.  Once you get to the Visitor's Center, it's a very short walk (only 800 feet) to Lake Itasca and the headwaters.  This was a very pretty area and we spent about a half hour walking around and taking pictures.  It's so funny to see how small the headwaters are - it's only 18 feet across!  When you think of the "Mighty Mississippi," a 'stream' isn't what you think!

Lake Itasca is behind the rocks and the Mississippi starts in front of the rocks. 

Standing in the middle of the Mississippi River!

We have an incredible view tonight from our hotel room on Lake Bemidji, where we are enjoying the sound of the lake, watching baby ducks, watching the sunset, and drinking some Hunt Club.  I almost let the view keep me from blogging, so consider yourselves lucky.  :-)

Sunset on Lake Bemidji 

Duckies!

Mighty Mississippi

Today's adventures included some fun with the Mississippi River, more breweries, more card games, and more time with Tyler & Britta!  We started the day by heading to the Science Center to get information and the stamp for Mississippi National River & Recreation Area.  The ranger there recommended we go to Schaar's Bluff to view the Mississippi from an overlook.  We enjoyed a short walk around the park to the overlook and back.

Mississippi River from Schaar's Bluff

After the overlook, we met Tyler & Britta at Minnehaha Falls.  This isn't part of the park system, but it was still cool to see!  There has been recent flooding, so the waterfall and the creek were gushing!

Minnehaha Falls

The group at Minnehaha Falls

Lunch was at Surly Brewing Company

After lunch, we headed over to St. Anthony Falls to get another Mississippi NRRA stamp.  Tyler & Britta got to see first-hand a small park experience with us!  It wasn't too eventful though since the Visitor's Center was small and didn't have magnets or postcards (sorry T.R.!).

St. Anthony's Falls - the flow rate today was 23,000 cubic feet per second (to put in perspective, imagine 23,000 basketballs per second).

After the quick park trip, we headed over to Modist Brewing Company for another round of beers. Tyler was telling us that Modist is his favorite brewery in the state and it was delicious!  We ended up having a few rounds while we played one game of 99 and we taught Tyler and Britta how to play Quarters (another card game).

Beers at Modist

I already said as much in the blog about yesterday, but we had such a fun time catching up with Tyler and meeting his family!  Thanks again Tyler & Britta for a great weekend!  Steve and I are now in our hotel room in St. Croix Falls, WI.  We are headed for a kayak trip down the St. Croix River tomorrow, which is part of St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.