July 4th

Sam started the first week of July leading a group of 4-H students to Washington, D.C. They all had an excellent time; Sam said it was great being in the capital for the 4th - they had fireworks in the shape of stars!

For my July 4th vacation, I drove down to Nick's house in Ames. We hit the mountain bike trails north of Ames before supper and fireworks with Nick and Nina.

The next day Nick and I drove up to Decorah and hit some awesome mountain bike trails around town! It had recently rained, so the wet terrain made some spots extra interesting (read: fun) and the whole 2.5 hour expedition a mudbath. Nina, and her brother and his girlfriend, met us that night in Decorah at Twin Springs, where we grilled, had a campfire, and camped.

After getting Nick's flat tire fixed on the Explorer the next morning, we hit the Upper Iowa River for 3 hours of sun-filled paddling. We took a quick hike to the spring of Coldwater Creek before heading to Lanesboro to get supper and cleaned up at Mama Schmidt's house. Then it was off to the gun club to shoot clay pigeons before retiring to another campfire and campout.

The heat woke us up on Saturday morning, so we hit the Root River in Lanesboro with the canoes. After some rocks, a stretch of Class I rapids, and a stop at the confluence of the North and South branch, I made my exit to the MSP airport to pick Sam up from D.C.