So for our family vacation this summer, in addition to spending some time in the Shenandoah, we went camping for a long weekend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Porcupine Mountain State Park.

Our connection to Porcupine Mountain began the summer Simon was born.

Taido loaded up the three big kids + one cousin and took them all camping there. He drove our mini van (pulling a flat bed trailer full of gear) all the way up to the north of the north of the north.

To Lake Superior.

It was 2006.

The barefoot child in the above photo just graduated from college.

15 years ago, these four ran and played and swam and threw rocks…

And experienced the joy of being in this beautiful place.

While I was at home nursing a baby, they climbed through forests and made trails over their own little mountains.

They even enjoyed a little (probably enforced) camp chill time.

They walked the long staircase every day to stand in the freezing cold lake, and to watch the sunset.

And then they drove back home and told me all about it.

But I forgot about this place I had never been to.

Until 15 years later, Taido suggested we go there again. He said it would be cooler in the summertime, and that the drive would be shorter since we don’t live in Arkansas.

So a plan was made.

A long weekend in July was marked off on the calendar.

And off we went.

Again there were four kiddos. Much bigger this time.

And a different set of kids, save Ben.

We drove to the north of the north of the north and escaped the hot summer sun.

We walked the same long stairway down to Lake Superior.

We hiked the same trails.

And found ourselves in the middle of quiet woods.

And alongside waterfalls.

The kids crawled over rocks.

They sat by the river and watched the water flow by.

Now that the kids are older, sometimes we left them back at camp and went on morning hikes while they were still asleep in their sleeping bags.

We walked along the river in the cool shadows before the sun was high.

And we pondered how it is possible that piles of rocks can be so gorgeous.

When the kids were awake we drove as far north as we could go.

And everyone at least touched the ocean-like lake, and some brave folks got all the way in.

And then more hiking!

Porcupine Mountain State Park has miles and miles of beautiful trails.

This trail above The Lake of the Clouds might have been our favorite.

But it’s hard to choose! We also loved the river hike along the waterfalls.

And we enjoyed not having to watch little guys so closely.

I remember when Taido came home in 2006 and he showed me pictures of the giant staircase down to the lake, I thought that if I had been there, I might have been a little nervous about the kids camping up so high. Of course, this time I didn’t even think about the kids running down to the lake on their own.

Though I was still tempted once or twice to tell Ben to be careful.

And after hiking and swimming, we had a little camp chill time.

Napping + Outside = Dreamy Summertime.

This time, no one had to be forced to nap.

We had no cell service at our campground. Such a rare gift in 2021, y’all.

My niece Emily let all the cousins use her drawing materials.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw these boys drawing.

And just like in 2006, we went down to the lake every night to watch the sun drop below the horizon.

The colors were different each night.

It’s amazing how the sunset happens every day but is never the same.

And of course, the kids still got their shoes wet.

And they still spent hours skipping rocks.

Our sweet camping trip reminded me again and again that you’re never too old to play in the sun.

I found this passage about teaching kids to love the outdoors in a Mary Oliver book of essays recently that I just love:

Teach the children. We don’t matter so much, but the children do. Show them daisies and pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of sassafras and wintergreen. The lives of blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin flowers. And the frisky ones — inkberry, lamb’s-quarters, blueberries. And the aromatic ones — rosemary, oregano. Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school. Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms.

Attention is the beginning of devotion.

(from Upstream)

My little kiddos grew up so fast (just like everyone told me that they would.)

This camping trip was a blessed pause, a moment to see that yes, I think we did give them the field and the woods.

I hope we showed them the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit.

And I will always rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms.

A few details for if you go to Porcupine Mountain:

There are two campgrounds in Porcupine Mountain State Park: Presque Isle and Union Bay. Both of our camping trips were at Presque Isle (no electrical hook-ups + pit toilets), but we drove one day to Union Bay, and it is lovely as well. Reservations are accepted (and recommended) at both campgrounds. There are also several great-looking backcountry sites, which we have our eye on for a return trip. The closest town to Presque Isle is Wakefield, which was a good 30 minutes away, so stock up on ice and firewood when you drive through there on your way.

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From the moment we moved to Germany, Ben told us he wanted to go to Berlin.

Every time we took a short trip, he would ask when we were going to Berlin.

So as our year in Germany was winding down, we decided we needed to make it happen. We rented a car and headed for Berlin.

Now, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that one of Ben’s primary reasons for wanting to go to Berlin was to watch a League of Legends championship series, which he did while we were there.

But we also managed to fit in seeing a lot of Berlin as well, which made this history-loving Mama happy.

We did a Rick Steve’s walking tour (via the app) on our first morning in Berlin, which took us through most of the major sites.

We had a gorgeous day, and even though it was July, the city was not nearly as busy as I had suspected it might be. (Note to self: Berlin is a great European city to visit in the summer!)

One of my favorite things about Germany is how there is a constant reckoning with the hardest parts of German history. (We Americans could learn a lot from the Germans about reckoning.) These slates of rock are in front of the Reichstag, and they mark the lives (and deaths) of the people in government who tried to stand up to Hitler in the early days of his rise to power.

Near the Reichstag is a small garden with a map of all the concentration camps, the death tolls and a stone for each camp.

You cannot walk far without seeing a reminder in Berlin of the Holocaust.

If you keep an eye out, you will see Solpersteines marking the last homes of Jewish people before they were rounded up and taken away to their deaths. These stones are all over Europe.

Around the corner from the Brandenburg Gate is another important memorial that has been in Berlin since 2005.

It is the official Holocaust Memorial of Berlin and it is actually titled: Memorial to The Murdered Jews. I think it’s so significant that the act of murder is acknowledged in the title. There is no ambiguity. Underneath this field of 2,711 concrete slabs is a short exhibition hall about the Holocaust. It’s not recommended for young children, but we took Simon (age 11) to both the Holocaust visitor center and to the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

This gorgeous modern sculpture is inside a large bank building just next to the Brandenburg Gate.

Parts of the subway system in Berlin still look exactly as they did before the Berlin Wall went up because these stations were closed and out of use while Berlin was divided. Here are the boys in front of some old school green subway tiles.

In front of the illustrious Humboldt University is the large courtyard square where Hitler burned books.

In the middle of the square you can stand on top of a glass window and look down into a room full of empty bookshelves, enough to hold 20000 books. This is the reminder that this many books were burned by the Nazis in 1933 here in the Bebelplatz.

Museum Island was the next stop on our walking tour. We had a rest to watch people in the garden in front of the Berlin Cathedral. Everyone was out “taking the sun” as they do when it shines in Germany.

We had such a gorgeous few days in Berlin, so we didn’t spend too much time indoors. The only museum we all four went to was the Jewish Museum.

We headed there after walking past the famous TV tower, and after a quick visit to Checkpoint Charlie.

The museum has two buildings, an older one and then a new one designed by Libeskind. The architecture of the new building was so fascinating and effective that it took me a long time to get through it to focus on the actual exhibitions.

Here’s a quote from Libeskind about the design:

The new design, which was created a year before the Berlin Wall came down, was based on three conceptions that formed the museum’s foundation: first, the impossibility of understanding the history of Berlin without understanding the enormous intellectual, economic and cultural contribution made by the Jewish citizens of Berlin, second, the necessity to integrate physically and spiritually the meaning of the Holocaust into the consciousness and memory of the city of Berlin. Third, that only through the acknowledgement and incorporation of this erasure and void of Jewish life in Berlin, can the history of Berlin and Europe have a human future.

There is a section called the Garden of Exile, which is tilted and disorienting, with these pillars that block your views.

Then there are empty spaces throughout the museum, voids which represent, in Libeskind’s words: that which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: Humanity reduced to ashes.

The voids are effective. There is all this empty space to remind you that something is missing. Or more accurately, that someone is missing.

There are several rooms that you walk into and don’t know what you’re meant to do. You have to sort of wait and see. In one of the voids, all you can do is walk across this floor of metal faces and listen to the noise they make.

Then there are the exhibitions, the history of Jewish life in Germany beginning in medieval times. There is this long rich history of Jewish communities living and working and thriving in Germany. There is also a long history of persecution, but none so unimaginable and horrifying as the Holocaust. In the history leading up to Hitler’s rise to power, you can see the signs of discrimination becoming more acceptable and widespread. The history was haunting in both its telling of the events of WWII Germany and for how many patterns of hatred felt eerily familiar.

It took me close to three hours to get through the Jewish Museum and I rushed through the end because the boys were already done and waiting, so if you go, plan accordingly.

After the museum we found some dinner (and a Biergarten). We walked along a preserved section of the Berlin Wall, and then headed off to bed. The next day we visited nearby Potsdam before taking the boys to their video game event. And then Simon and Taido headed back to Tübingen while Ben and I stayed on for one more day in Berlin before taking a much-anticipated trip to Poland to see a dear friend of his.

On our last day in Berlin together, Ben and I walked a TON up and down the river, because that’s one of my favorite things to do in any European city (including Rome, Paris and London).

We walked by lots of modern eye candy architecture.

Fun walkways and places to sit out by the river in the sunshine.

Long stretches of garden where you could order a picnic or bring your own.

We also visited the German History Museum which we did not even manage to get all the way through before it closed. Ben has had way more European History in school than I ever did, so he enjoyed walking through the museum. I am always blown away by how I know almost nothing from before about 1935. So I pretty much have most of European history still to learn.

We also walked by these monuments to remember those who were killed while trying to cross the Berlin Wall into West Germany. So much sadness.

We claimed a spot on this green grass for a while to sit and rest after two days of walking and learning.

The new Deutsche Bahn (train station) in Berlin is gorgeous. It’s full of shopping and restaurants, which was handy for us as we got ready to travel on to the next portion of our trip.

We grabbed some train station Pho before hopping an overnight bus to Gdansk, Poland.

We all said we would be glad to return to Berlin again, especially in the summertime!

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On one day of Snowcamp we took a break from skiing and spent the day wandering around the town of Taos.

Taos has a really cute downtown square area with all kinds of shops, restaurants and galleries. (LOTS of galleries)

We ate lunch at La Cueva which was delicious.  I had shrimp tacos, which I recommend.  The winning dish at the table though was the trout.  Mary Polly and Ben split some very yummy enchiladas.

Then, of course, we had to stop at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which is a longtime favorite of the kids!  Ben always gets a giant caramel apple.

I also love, love, love this little independent bookstore in Taos called Moby Dickens.  Taido grew up going there for books for summer vacation with his dad, and I always pick up at least one new book from the Staff Pick Shelf.  (This time I bought Hacking Your Education by Dale J Stephens, which look super fascinating to me!)

A definite favorite souvenir seemed to be these funny parkas.  I cannot even count how many guys (and gals) left $15 in Taos for these rug jackets.

@jkluch13 instagram

One of the funniest things that happened on our day in Taos was that a group of guys decided on the way into town to have a contest to see who could bring back the most interesting souvenir.  All the choices were presented at group that night and the winner (chosen by applause) was this Yodeling Pickle brought back by Justin Klucher.  SO random I know, but really funny.

Sadly, his prize was this disgusting box of Fish McBites, which are just wrong.

All in all, we had a great day in town.  And we were all rested up for our last day of skiing!

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We have had an amazing week in the mountains here at Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico.

I love being in the mountains at any time of the year, but this week’s spring sunshine on the snow has been just about perfect.

This is our first year to go skiing that I have not had to carry someone (and all their stuff) up the mountain.  Friends, I am feeling the freedom of having left toddlerhood in the dust, and it is a pretty happy place.

In fact, my legs are burning from all that freedom.

And from trying to keep up with the big kids.

Mary Polly and I have skied together a lot, and every once in a while, we do a run with the boys.

It is always fun to be out here with so many friends.  Some we have known a long time and some we have just met, catching up and telling stories on lift rides.

Nothing bonds you to someone quite like losing your skis together on a hillside of moguls.

However, Ben has informed me that he has mastered his fear of moguls this week. So that’s good.

Far away from some of the more commercial ski areas, this excluded mountain valley has become one of our favorites.  Taos Ski Valley only opened up to snowboarders a few years ago so it has maintained its quiet ski village feel.

You might forget yourself and think you’re lost in a small German ski town, staying at the Alpendorf or sipping a drink at the St. Bernard.  So quaint. There’s even an authentic crepe stand halfway up the mountain. (Yum!)

Our group has definitely felt like the skiing is challenging at Taos, but I think everyone found runs that they were comfortable on.  My favorite has been Lower Stauffenberg, a long blue run on the far right side of the mountain.

Of course, a huge highlight has been Simon’s finally being on his own two skis!  He has graduated off of the magic carpet to real chair lifts and even went up on the big mountain!  He was super proud and so are we!

I hope your are enjoying Spring Break!  I’m excited that we have one more day of skiing before we load back up in our vans and drive all night back to Arkansas.

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Sometimes with all the hikes, bike rides and adventures we have on our camping vacations, I overlook that one of the very best parts of camping is just being there.

Sharing coffee and hot chocolate on a cold mountain morning.

Sitting around in our chairs telling stories.

Laughing at Grandpapa’s jokes.

Watching Taido fix bikes.

Doing camp dishes in bright tubs.

Reading a book. Playing cards or Settlers of Catan.

Letting the cool breeze from the river blow on my face.

Wondering at how the kids still have energy to play after hiking all day.

Throwing rocks.

Building forts and dams with rocks and sticks.

Noticing how the clouds change as the day goes by.

Makes me wishful for a little fall camping weekend sometime soon!

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In honor of my daddy’s birthday today, I thought I would share this sweet little picture that Simon brought home from school.  It’s his favorite summer memory.

Riding a motorcycle with Grandpapa.

My dad has this off-roading motorcycle that he rides when we are camping.  He can be gone for hours on it and you never have any idea when he’ll be back.  There have been many years that we’ve driven home at the end of a trip and left just him and his bike out in some wilderness.

He always finds a way back home eventually.

For the last few years he has lead a trip for men in the Rockies, camping and riding four-wheelers and motorcycles.  While we were there he was riding around doing “research” for that camp.

The kids love going for rides with him.  I just have to close my eyes as they drive away.  I love that they enjoy adventures with Grandpapa, and I love that they are not afraid, but it makes me a little nervous.

I’ve had enough experiences in motorized vehicles with my dad that I am generally just fine to wander the woods on my own two feet.  (Even on foot, he can lead you somewhere you might not want to go.)

These are the kinds of signs you can expect to encounter when riding around with my dad.

Daddy has braved a lot of narrow steep roads, literally and figuratively.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

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Oh Be Joyful.

That’s the name of the valley we camped in near Crested Butte, Colorado.

We’ve camped here several times before, so it was all shouts of joy in the van when we decided to return there for the last leg of our summer vacation.

My parents met us there and the kids were very happy to see them.

Even though we live in the same town, it is a special treat to go on vacation and have a little uninterrupted time with the grandparents.

We also met up with our friend Jermaine, who we’ve known since we lived in Seattle.  She’s in the US for the summer visiting from her current home in Central Asia.  It was so fun that it worked out for her to jump in with us on our camping trip because we all camped together in the Pacific Northwest many moons ago.

The mountains are such a great setting for catching up.

You can visit while you hike.

And there is plenty of time for storytelling back at camp.

For a good part of the day we could just sit and watch the cows meander through our campground on their way to greener pastures.

They were joyful too.

We hiked the Oh Be Joyful trail right from our campground on our first day there.

There were fewer wildflowers than last year because of the dry weather, but it was still so beautiful.

The bikes were put to the test on the mountain trails in Colorado this year.

Taido fixed MANY flat tires.

Ben and Mary Polly took Jermaine on their favorite ride.

Our kids love to ride into the town of Crested Butte.  It’s about 3 miles from the campground.

The reward for the ride is often a trip to a Chino family favorite, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

It was time to say goodbye to Jermaine after just a couple days in Colorado, so we sent her off on the next leg of her journey to see friends and family.

We had such a fun visit.  New memories made together.  Until our paths cross again.  Maybe next time in her part of the world??

If you go, a few details:

Oh Be Joyful Campground is about 3 miles down Slate River Road (which you turn left on just after you go through downtown Crested Butte, CO).  The best part about this campground is that it is FREE to camp there.  That’s right, free. Maximum stay is 14 days.  And if you find that the campground is full, you can find overflow spots on up Slate River Road (such as the field where we camped last year), but then you don’t have a bathroom nearby.

 Did you enjoy this post?  Perhaps you’d like to see other posts on hiking with kids.  Or you can subscribe to the Chino House via RSS feed or by email and never miss a post!

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One of the reasons I was remembering my friend Laura yesterday is that our families met up this summer in Utah at Arches National Park!

We did this one other time when we were traveling in the Pacific Northwest in 2008 (we like to call that summer Living the Dream).  It’s so much fun.

Our kids get to try to remember each other from their toddler days and discover what new interests they have in common.  The parents get to enjoy catching up on the years that have passed and exchange stories about life, kids, marriage, ministry and whatever else we can cram into a few days.

The best part of our meetup this year is that we also all got to have a new adventure.  We shared the experience of seeing one of the most unique places I’ve ever visited and being in awe at the creativity of our God at Arches National Park.

When I look at these pictures, I still can’t even believe this place was real.

I have experienced desert-like climates before, but Arches National Park was different from anywhere I’ve ever been.

It was so beautifully desolate.

The rocks changed colors all day long, with the clouds and the moving sunlight.

The puffy clouds and blue skies also made the rocks appear different at different moments of the same hour.

When you got closer to a certain formation, you couldn’t even believe it was the same one you were looking at a few minutes ago from far away.

We had seven kids between our two families and they were all troopers as they we walked in the blazing sun to see different arches and formations.

I’m convinced that part of what kept them going was that a child innately loves to climb rocks.

They were all scrambling to the tops of things before I could get there and decide if it was safe.

When we got too hot, we would hide for a minute in the shadow of one of the arches.  I was amazed at the relief this provided.

We went at the hottest time of year in Moab, which we might not have chosen to do without the incentive of our friends’ being there.  However, there were no crowds at the most famous spots.

The visitors’ guide at the park tells you the best times of day to visit the different arches, so a few of us got up to see the sunrise one morning.

When we walked up to the window in the above picture, the view took our breath away.

We watched the light move across this valley and paint the rocks with fire.

Then we wandered in the early morning light to this double arch.

It was also like a huge cave with an opening at the top that kind of dropped off on the other side.

I took my favorite instagram of the trip from about halfway up into this arch.

I’ll leave you with maybe the best series of pictures Taido took of an arch called The Turret.  Each picture gets a little closer to the window of the arch. SO beautiful!

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After a few glitches on the road trip out (flat tires and lost keys and such), we had a wonderful two weeks in Colorado and Utah.  We saw new beauties and old favorites!

Here are a few highlights of our first few days, which we spent in Aspen, Colorado at Difficult Campground.

The Aspens and trails right around our campground were gorgeous.

Lots of exploring happened right around our camper.

Everyone was thrilled to be able to dig out warm clothes after June in Arkansas!

Our second day we hiked a familiar Aspen trail, the Maroon Bells.

It is breathtaking.

Because of its popularity, the mountain road to the trailhead is closed to cars for a good portion of the day. You can take a bus to the trail when the road closes at 9am, so the best way to hike it is early in the morning.

We love to pull into an almost empty trailhead parking lot and then finish hiking just as it is beginning to fill up.  That’s what we did this day when we drove the road before 7, but the kids were a tad grumpy about getting up so early.

It wasn’t long though before everyone was scrambling over rocks and finding new hiking sticks.  Or bows.

Taido always has a few treats in his pocket to make our hikers smile.  We sat for a long time at Crater Lake while the kids played and fed daring chipmunks before we headed back to the bottom.

Maroon Lake is at the bottom of the trailhead and it always amazes me to see these twin “Bells.”

We hiked this same trail two years ago and everyone has changed so much since then:  (except me…I’m still wearing the same shorts!)

So much taller!  And so much faster on the trail!

We caught the 4th of July parade in Aspen, which Ben and Simon loved and Cole and Mary Polly tolerated.

We did a new hike in Hunter-Frying Pan Wilderness that I enjoyed.  The Lost Man Trail was much more level than our other hikes, more like meandering than climbing.  Lots of wildflower fields and happy streams.

We spent the mornings hiking and the afternoons playing in Aspen or hanging around our campsite.  The kids rode their bikes through the campsite loop and I sat in my chair and read.

We escaped into the camper or to the public library during the late afternoon mountain showers.

All in all, even with bear scares and burn bans, we spent a most lovely 4 nights in Aspen!

If you go,

we really love this campground: Difficult.  And they take reservations.

and here is more info on hiking the Maroon Bells area found here.

and on The Lost Man Trail, here.

If you have a favorite Aspen hike or activity, please share in the comments!  We’ll be back for sure!

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Yesterday we drove up to Lake Louise, arguably one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

A path runs along one side of the lake.  Towards the end you can look back at the famous Chateau at Lake Louise.  My grandmother stayed there many years ago and I remember her talking about how beautiful it was.

From the edge of the lake, we took the Plain of Six Glaciers Trail up into the mountains.  We were excited to find the Tea House that was built for hikers in 1927.

The trail leading up away from the lake was very steep.  Lots of climbing.

From the trail, there were several points you could look back and see Lake Louise.  I stopped lots to take pictures in front of me towards the glaciers and behind me of Lake Louise getting farther and farther away.

The yellow trees continue to amaze! Waves of them high on the mountains.

High above the lake, the trail meanders through fields of boulders and along cliffs.

The trail went along a ridge below the glaciers.  We think we counted six as we were hiking this ridge.

Just before we got to the tea house, we reached snow.

We were so excited about reaching this adorable tea house.

We had the best lentil vegetable soup ever to warm up our tummies.  Plus a rich chocolate cake, apple pie, coffee and of course, tea.  Wonderful rewards for a hefty hike.  Everyone was delighted.

We bounced back down the mountain with full bellies.

This picture is from just below the tea house before we hiked back down.

Back down at the lake, we spotted a bear (small black blurry spot in the picture above).  He was across the lake from us, so we stood and watched him for a while as he climbed up the hill away from the lake.

All in all it’s about seven miles round trip to the tea house from the trailhead.  We were plenty tired when we finished.

And a little chilled from the damp air.  We finished the day with more coffee in the Chateau.

Cold, cloudy days will forever remind me of our summer of camping in the Pacific Northwest and how I drank coffee or tea all day long.  You are always trying to warm up those chilled bones.  The kids are motoring through a huge warehouse box of hot chocolate.

But it is well worth the chilled noses and toes to get to see this part of the world.

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