What I Did On My Summer Vacation

or

How I Ended Up Being Photographed With Some Old Guy And His Pouty Little Daughter Who Needed A Nap

It all started way back when we were planning our vacation. The debate was: do we stay in Wisconsin, or go down to Kentucky and Tennessee?

The wife and I were leaning heavily toward Wisconsin, but faced opposition from at least three of the kids. Normally, this is no big deal: I'm not nearly as frugal with my veto power as President Bush, but since it was a family vacation, thus a family project, we at least wanted the kids to feel like they were involved.

So, I bought the 5-year-old's vote with a train ride in the St. Croix Valley. That swung things my direction, and the decision was made.

The way we figured, we would drive north on Monday, stopping in Eau Claire to visit the wife's aunt along the way, then would drive home on Sunday, after spending the night at my mother's house in River Falls. That allowed us to spend most of the week in the Superior area (thus letting me buy the 11-year-old's vote with at least one day's fishing in the Brule River), and hit the train ride on Saturday, on our way back down.

Then the daughter discovered a living history museum, about halfway between our campsite and the train ride. Okay. We like that stuff. Another vote duly purchased.

We arrive at the museum in Bayfield Saturday morning, after a haphazard but ultimately successful search for fresh doughnuts. As it turns out, there's a Rendezvous going on - a sort of convention of Furtrapping Era re-enactors, complete with lots of little shops.

We began in the visitor's center, using the bathroom and consoling the 3-year-old who was crying for some now-forgotten reason. There, we spent a few minutes in the vicinity of another family, dressed in re-enactment clothing, whose youngest - a curly haired girl - was also crying. That family left first, then us, and I was struck by the thought that the Dad had looked a lot like Al the Old Whig.

Nah, couldn't be him, right? Too much of a coincidence, plus I've only seen his picture on his website. Too small to be really sure.

Still, I knew from his site that he does attend these things. One really can't leave such questions unanswered, can one?

So, we looked through the shops, bought a few things, wandered through the Oneida village, let the kids see the muzzleloaders and try some spear-throwers that the guy told me were in use 60,000 years ago (not those specific ones, obviously). Then we headed for the re-enactment camp.

The way I figured, I could just ask around. Nerds of a feather flock together, right? There can't be so many people who follow this particular hobby. Somebody will know Al.

So I asked around. No help, particularly from the woman who asked if Al had a beard. Hello. These were historical re-enactors. I was the only adult male there without a beard. Even some of the women had beards.

Finally, somebody directed me to the people who were administrating the whole thing, who should have a list of registrants. They looked through their list, and viola! There he was!

I should mention that my two older boys were in tow, while the wife and bookends were catching up to us after visiting another shop. They walked/ran all the way across the field through a drizzling rain to reach us, just to re-cross the same field through the same rain to get to the administration booth, just to re-cross the same field because, as it turned out, Al's tent was maybe fifty feet from where I'd gotten that advice in the first place.

I should've followed my first instinct and just walked through the camp yelling "Al!"

Anyhoo, that's how I found him. His little girl was pouty because, as he explained, they arrived too late the night before to set their camp up, and so slept in the truck, where the little girl got more sleep than anybody - about four hours worth.

Al's got the rest of the story. MJ was highly amused that you thought she was one of my kids, Al. She is, of course, about 15 inches shorter than me, and was wearing the 5-year-old's Dr. Seuss baseball cap because he'd gotten tired of it (fun fact - she didn't have to adjust the size).

We should have the pictures soon. Al, lemme know if you want the real pictures. I'll email you the scans.