allison-foleyfamily: McCarthy Beach State Park...

We ended up camping for a couple of nights at McCarthy Beach State Park, a new park for us. It's north of Hibbing by about twenty miles. After a busy day of learning about the mining industry, we were ready to set up camp and relax, at least I was ready to relax...

We got camp set up, I was tired, but they wanted to go check out the park...specifically the beach...we didn't swim, but they would the next day...

After walking back from the beach, I figured I could relax in the hammock...wrong...

We finished the night off with marshmallows...

Lex had a hard time with this one...see the one on the left? It's burning and would ignite the one on the right...

After breakfast the next day, we went off on the 'hiking club' hike. It was a three mile hike, plus another mile to get to the start of the hike, so about five miles total. On the way, we found a couple of deer...

Obviously, the above picture I zoomed in some...

We finally got to the trailhead...Lex really wanted that long-sleeved sweatshirt along...eventually, she regretted it...

Whenever we get to a location were the trail is telling you to go one direction, Lukie likes to go the opposite direction (which is what he's showing here)...he figures that the recommended way will take longer to get to the password, so he wants to got the short way...

Part of the hike took us along a nice lake...and we had the entire area to ourselves, we saw two people total on the hike, near the end...

Best part of the hike? At open areas on the lakeshore, we found blueberries!

Snacks are good when hiking...blueberries are better...

But for this hike, Lukie and I will remember the horse and deer flies...when we turned away from the lake, they swarmed the two of us for the better part of a mile...

They pretty much ignored Lex's blond hair...until the moment I took this picture...we found the password and one of the flies found Lex...

Like I said, it was a new park for us and a new stamp for the passport...

After the long hike, we walked across the road and got some ice cream...we ate it alongside the lake...

I was ready for a nap...they were ready to swim...I lost...

But Lukie spent a long time building a 'fortress' that was under attack. If you ask him, he could describe everything in this picture...

After we walked back to camp, I was ready for some rest...then Lukie decides 'hey, let's go geocaching!' Walk back to the office to get their pre-loaded GPS devices and we were off...

There were 6-7 stops loaded on the GPS, each one taking us to another clue...

I just followed along as Lukie and Lex followed the GPS...

From clue to clue...

Until they finally found the cache...

The reward was a card of a leopard frog...the MN State Parks geocache program this summer has a water theme...it was our first time doing this at a state park and I'm sure we'll be doing it again...

After returning the GPS back to the office and walking back to camp, I was ready to rest...look at numbers on my watch for that day alone (and it was only 6:26 pm)...