Day 10- Guns, Swiming, and Grilling.

6/21/18
Today all us kids were up by 7:00. So we watched some "Little House on the Prairie," ate breakfast, and got ready for the beach. Then once mom and dad woke up (finally) we went to the Hibbing Armory where we rode around on pedal karts, looked at guns, and played with Sampson (the dog). Little known fact, security measures for the weapons vault improved because of Bonnie and Clyde... apparently they robbed an Armory before using the weapons in the following bank robberies!

                     Playing with gas masks.

                                   Guns.

                              Night vision.

                          Night vision.

                              Go karts.                                  Then we went to McCarthy Beach State Park for swimming. You could go out pretty far and not go past your waist. It's aparently the 14th nicest beach  in America... really soft sand. We swam for about 4 hours and only got a little sun burned, where as the parents (who were sitting in the shade) got WAY more sun burned.

                        Daddy "working".

Then we went to the Oberg's house and rode bikes around the block, drove around in Uncle Caleb's '77 Corvette, and ate burgers.

When we finally got back to the trailer (at 12:00 am) we were all pretty tired. But there were groceries to be put away. So after we did that it was about 12:30 then every one went right to sleep.

~Kate                                                                    

Day 9- Campsite Transfer to Hibbing

6/20/2018

We drove. We ate at Pizza Ranch. We watched "The Counte of Monte Cristo". Caleb, Katie, and the kids came over. 

- Eric

Day 8 - Roots And Rocks - Joe's day out

Today I woke up and Daddy was awake and all the other people were asleep. Breakfast was parfaits, cereal, and coffee. After breakfast we went to Bear Head Lake State Park. After three days of being cooped up in the trailer, Joe was able to come with us for this excursion.

When we arrived we had a quick lunch; crackers and cheese, Dubliner, havarti, Dill havarti, Edem, and smoked Gouda with grapes.

When we started hiking we went on a 3 mile trail going to Lake Norberg. We saw a bunch of roots on the ground and a lot of rocks on the ground too.

I climbed over them which was fun. Later on our walk we found really small strawberries which were adorable because they were about the size of my pinky nail. They were DELICIOUS.

 The whole trip there were a bunch of deer flies and just normal flies and a bunch of mosquitoes too which were annoying. 

Kate says she wants to make a bug zapper hat.

When we got done with our hike we went to Ely and we got some ice cream. 

On our way into town we saw a wild black bear on the side of the road.

At first he was just sitting on the side of the road, and then he crossed the road and walked alongside of our truck for a while. Eventually the bear started running when Mom floored it! It was a really small bear. Daddy also freaked mom out by opening the door while the bear was on his side of the truck.

After the ice cream we went to Kawishiwi Falls, which was fun. When we got there it was a half mile that we walked to the falls, and another half mile back to our truck. 

Everyone walked around and climbed around on the rocks. Joe did too! Taylor and I went up towards the waterfall where it was rushing down from up top. We tried to get up onto the rocks that were up there. Taylor and I almost got all the way up to the top of the waterfall and freaked mom out a few times, but I'm still alive right now.

When we were done at the waterfalls we hiked back to the truck. From there we made a quick stop at the grocery store and headed back to our campsite. Mom dropped us off at the lake and she and Daddy went back to cook dinner and bring it down to us. We all ate dinner in the lake. We did some more swimming and Daddy took a bath. From there we headed back to the trailer. Lights out. Good night. See you tomorrow.

-Lily

Day 7- Meh.

6/18/2018
The humidity broke overnight, so today was a great day to turn the A/C off, and open all the windows... this was a good start.

BUT..... Not all vacation days can be awesome, right? Our plan was to see the North American Bear Center, use the library wifi to get our phone service back up and running, and populate all these blog posts with the really great photos from our actual camera! Yay!

Well... we thought we should start some laundry, which was good, and while I DID get some time to recharge my battery while journaling and folding laundry, the family was at the N. American Bear Center, doing the bear things. I made it back in time to catch the last 5 minutes of a tour, and then the kids were whining about how hungry they were.... I know I know... I was too. Over to the library to get some quick work done, except the wifi kept timing out the Verizon website, the online chat help didn't like that it took more than 5 seconds to respond, and by the time we'd dealt with live people and an automated system on the phone, it had been two hours. To upgrade our service and link our phones to the same account. Not rocket science. Crabby pretty much sums us up at this point.... we'll remedy it with ice cream! Except they closed at 5pm. *sigh*

Well.... homemade steak fajitas helped, and then some swimming for the girls, a pipe for Eric, and a phone call to catch up with my parents... 48° tonight, so our windows will be open! Sleep well!

-Nelina

Day 6- Soudan Mine. Go there!

6/17/2018
Today's destination was my FAVORITE thing we've done in Ely thus far... the Soudan Mine.

Highlights:

- The Engine House contains impressive machinery to run the elevator cables, which can handle 3000 tons... the elevators house 11 people in each "car", and weigh only 6 tons.

- 1/2 mile down, then 3/4 mile over (I'm claustrophobic and had ZERO issues)

- 52° underground (crazy muggy ABOVE ground)

- The Soudan Mine contains high grade iron-ore, 67% pure iron, and 30% oxygen, which made it highly sought out to purify iron across the nation. As America was growing, building, and fighting wars, the Soudan Mine was the backbone for America's backbone, STEEL. Go Minnesota! 

- Speaking of wars... Soudan Mine was SO important to the cause, that if you worked here, you were exempt from the draft! 

- The mines were not quiet... not by a long shot. We experienced two drills, on idle, for 5 seconds, and just THAT was plenty loud.

- In the early days, pre-headlamps, there was one candle for every three men.

- To get the iron ore down to the transfer cars, there would be pits drilled in the floor, so that gravity helped move these heavy pieces. A basketball sized piece weighs about 350 lbs. Only one pit had a ladder for entering/exiting.... try not to fall in the pits, using only 1:3 candles.

- There were mules that lived underground for 9 months, then their eyes were wrapped in cheesecloth to go up top for pasturing. One layer of cheesecloth was removed each day, to allow their eyes to adjust to the light.

- When the mine closed in December 1962, it was between the 1st and 2nd shifts... many things were left as is, including the Christmas trees in the lunchroom underground (per our fantastic tour guide, Justin). 

- WHY would such an important mine close, you ask??? Taconite. The Soudan Mine extracted 17 million tons of iron ore over the 80 years it was open.... the Mesaba Taconite Mine extracted 17 million tons... in one year and 3 months. Crazy.

Go and tour this place.... this would be the first thing I'd recommend seeing in the Ely area!!

Today was also Father's Day! We snuck in the last tour of the Dorothy Molter Museum (Root Beer Lady)... sweet lady that was the last resident in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, made Root Beer for the visiting summer vacationers on the linked islands, and was known to portage two canoes 14 times in one trip with winter supplies. Quite an adventurous spirit!

Back to the trailer for Beef Stroganoff, Fathers Day cards, "Get Smart", and an early bedtime.

-Nelina

Day 5- "What's for Dinner?"

6/16/2018
The day started off with pancakes and sausage, topped with peanut butter and Cheryl Mickunas' raspberry rhubarb jam. A ground squirrel tried to sneak into the campfire area and eat Joe's dog food, but ran away when Joe was watching him closely. We just finished washing dishes and walking the dog, when it started to rain, so I swatted away a daddy long leg spider that was trying to drink my milk, and curled up under a blanket in the trailer and watched "Singin' in the Rain" and "Little House on the Prairie" while mom and dad napped through most of it. Once the rain slowed down we planned on going to the Root Beer Lady museum, but that was closing, and the bear museum told us the bears were hiding from the rain, so we walked around Ely, ate some brownies and pie at a folk art gallery social, spent about 30 minutes picking out 2 stinkin' candies from the old fashioned candy store (I got little tiny lemon drops, and a caramel apple sucker), and found some jeans for Lily at Goodwill, because she didn't pack any. (Nice, Lily.) Then we went BACK to the International Wolf Center for the once a week program called, "What's for Dinner?", where you see wolves "ferociously" "demolish" a deer or beaver for their supper. They brought out a deer carcass and the wolves proceeded to...............................

..... stare at it.... sit there.... do nothing... play with water coming out of the hose.... it was lame... UNTIL the alpha, Aiden, proceeded to gnaw on it half heartedly before he gave up, sat on a rock, and chased off the other wolves when they came in for a bite. He was like, "Nuh uh, that's my deer. I may have gone and sat on a rock and done nothing, and you guys may have thought I was done, but I was not." He really was done, actually. He let some of them come back and eat eventually, where we saw Greyson, the wolf, suck out the deer's tongue (from it's throat), like a spaghetti noodle. Yes, I'm getting into all the gory details... you're welcome, America. We were hungry at this point, and dad mentioned deer tongue pizza, so we went to Sir G's Pizza and Pasta. They didn't have any, so we got a Supreme pizza, salad, and pasta instead. I really liked the ham stick that came with the salad, and the lasagna, I guess. :) We went back to the campground and now I'm laying in my parents bed, playing with a rubber band, and speaking loudly while I narrate my day for my mother to type out while laughing and mumbling to herself as she tries to keep up with my ramblings. (She came up with last little bit.) Now I'm off of to bed, so I bid you all a good night.

-Kate