We decided while we were up on the North shore we should go ahead and cross the border into Canada!
It would be a first for everyone in my family.
First stop was the Grand Portage National Monument!
It is right near the border and we had gone several years ago.
It ended up being a great stop because we got the early history of the Northwest Trading Company here and then at our next stop we got the what happened when they moved to Canada.
I have been reading several historical novels about fur trading around the time of the French and Indian War and early fur trading in America so I found all of these stops fascinating.
The boys looked the part!
Such a beautiful area!
Next we crossed into Canada and went to Fort William!
It is a giant fort and the tour is pretty amazing.
It was a little long for some of my kids but Nick just took them to walk around some.
The man giving the tour acts the part the whole time and was very interesting!
He even had the boys act the part!
The twins favorite part was the barnyard.
They let you help with chores!
Chicken lovers.
While at Fort William one of the workers told us about a giant waterfall that we really should go see so we looked it up and went, not really knowing what to expect.
The Kakabeka Falls was breathtaking!
It was a total surprise and was the biggest waterfall I had ever seen!
We did not really have any other plans other than make it back over the border and hopefully stop at High Falls on Pigeon River which is at Grand Portage State Park.
What I did not realize was how close to the border it was!
I was a bit flustered from the border patrol questions and totally missed the park so we had to turn around!
It ended up being totally worth it though!
It was a beautiful stop and was another part of the history we were learning.
This is the reason for Grand Portage, this giant waterfall.
Best field trip ever.
It was a pretty small museum and did not look like much from the outside.
It ended up being really interesting though and the boys really enjoyed the exhibits.
Little Bit loved looking for touchable exhibits and had a lot of fun looking for the blue handprints that let you know you can touch things!
We decided to check it out and found beautiful open sites and hardly any people!
The best part though was it was totally free with our National Park Pass! It is really cheap even without the pass but free was nice.
We did not see as much wildlife as at previous refuges we had stopped at but it was still very pretty.
The only downside to this beautiful spot was the vault toilets which were pretty bad but doable.
After backpacking with Nick and having no toilet though I am pretty thankful for anything with a door.
I had not used this benefit before but sure enough we were able to get in for free to three museums in Albuquerque!
We only went to two of them though.
It does get a limited number only in for free but that worked fine for us since someone always needed to stay with the dog.
This museum had some incredible displays.
I used to worry a bit about visiting places like this as a creationist but have found that I can enjoy it just fine.
I find their theories fascinating and I love to see what they think the area looked like before.
The boys knowledge of dinosaurs and creation science actually far surpass me.
They had an exhibit on the how the brain works also that was interesting.
It is a science/children’s museum and they really liked it!
I really enjoyed the quiet in the vehicle.
Our site might have been a lot of work to get to but it was pretty.
Next we headed towards Texas and got turned away from our next camping spot!