Last week we went to Bent’s Camp in Land O’ Lakes, Wis. (at the UP border) with Kristin’s parents. Our cabin, which was spacious with three bedrooms, two baths and a separate three-season room, was secluded and had its own pier.

We always made Braden wear his life jacket when he was on the pier, and actually, he enjoyed wearing it (sometimes we couldn’t get it off him). He was eager to use a fishing net to “help Daddy catch fish.” However, on the few times that Brian did catch a fish, the fish frightened Braden slightly. He also didn’t like the worms, which he at first called “snakes.”

Braden also seemed to enjoy boating, which we did for most of the day on Wednesday. Bent’s Camp is on what’s called the Chain O’ Lakes, so many lakes are connected by small, hard-to-find channels. Fortunately, Braden never seemed to get seasick, despite how much he moved about the pontoon boat.

We had a couple of cloudy days, unfortunately. On one of them, Tuesday, we drove 30+ min to Paulding, Mich., to check out Bond Falls. It was very pretty out there, and Braden liked climbing the path with his grandpa.

We wanted to take Braden to this beach Brian found not too far from Bent’s Camp, but we never had the chance. Braden did get to play twice on the small beach at the resort itself, though we would have preferred a larger area.

One afternoon Braden refused to nap, even after Brian tried for 1.5 hours. Other than that, he slept fairly well the entire week, unlike the last time we went up north, back in 2009 at Maywood when Braden was just five months old.

For the most part, the bugs left Braden alone (instead, they attacked Brian). Braden also got to see some deer and loons (plus he imitated their wolf-like howl).

Finally, the travel for Braden was pretty good. The drive is slightly under four hours; we timed it so that he would nap most of the time, with a break for lunch each way.

Make sure to check out the Bent’s Camp photo album.

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