The first day, the kids played on the beach and collected bucketfuls of tiny seashells.
For dinner, we had a baked potato bar (baked at home and then kept toasty warm in the cooler... uh warmer). We enjoyed s'mores by the campfire and hung out and talked until we were too cold or too sleepy.
The next morning, we headed to Minnetonka Cave for the adventure of the day. We hiked 444 stairs and 1800 feet IN and then we had to hike OUT! For me it was more of an accomplishment, than fun. (My out of shape body was huffin' and puffin'.) We had all ages and all abilities in our family group. The tour guide stopped and waited each section, for our little whimpering, cautious, short-legged, back-of-the-pack group.
Abree was the whimperer. Amazingly enough, as we were headed out of the cave she said, "That was so much fun!" I asked, "What was your favorite part?" She said, "The stairs!..... when daddy carried me."
After lunch, the kids headed back to the beach. They had so much fun digging, building and getting sand in every orifice they owned.
Around dinner time, a HUGE storm blew in. We tried blocking the wind by putting up a tarp. It helped for a little while, until the wind whipped so hard, rain was coming in from all directions.
The thunder, lightning, wind and rain started to concern my 4 yr-old niece Audrey. She said, "Daddy, our tent is going to blow away!" "No, it won't blow away" he assured her.
It was cold! I said, "Hey, maybe we should eat dinner in our tents, to get warm and make sure they don't blow away. Ha, ha, ha." (I thought I was making a joke.)
Minutes later, Jason said, "Our tent is blowing away!" I said, "Go get it!" We ran out there to see what we could do to secure it. Not a lot. The wind was blowing too hard and our wimpy little stakes just couldn't hold it down. We sat there for a few minutes, soaking wet and not knowing what to do. I went back to the picnic shelter to check on the kids. They were all in tears; screaming, crying and distraught over the extreme weather and blowing tent. I told them it was ok and that they needed to calm down. Then I went back out to the tent to help Jason. We decided to pull up the remaining stakes and drag it to the next picnic shelter and stick it under a picnic table to ensure it was there when we returned. We would have to deal with it a little later.
We went back to the shelter. Kids were still crying. We sent them to the van and told them we would bring dinner to them. I ran between the shelter and van, until everyone had some dinner to eat. We ate our dinner and fogged up the windows.
We came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to re-set up our tent and spend the night in soggy sleeping bags. We packed everything up and called it quits one day early. Other families followed suit.
The Waite Reunion 2009, will not be forgotten quickly.
