A few highlights from the weekend!

What an amazing weekend! Steven got me a kayaking trip near the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore for my July birthday and we did it last weekend. We had beautiful weather. It felt like summer without the humidity, which was AMAZING. And we had clear blue skies for most of the trip!

Thursday

• Logging off work for the day and getting ready to go. Packing always stresses me the eff out and I am always so glad when it’s done.

Friday

• The beautiful drive to Bayfield. We went through a national forest that was just stunning, and we got to see the leaves starting to change color.
• Seeing Lake Superior for the first time (on the trip) in Ashland.
• Arriving in Bayfield and seeing our Airbnb. We rented a condo on the lake that I would definitely recommend and stay in again. It was quiet, clean, the perfect size for us, and had a great view. I mention all this because I don’t have a great track record in finding places to rent!
• Our boat tour of the Apostle Islands. Sigh. I didn’t realize we needed to get there so early to get in line to get a seat so our view wasn’t the best but I am still glad we went – our captain was great (Captain Mike) and we got to see so much we wouldn’t have seen had we not taken the tour. When we started the tour he mentioned that the midday tour was really rocky and wet, and warned us it could be bad – but it was calm! Yay! We lucked out. We did a 50 mile ride and went past Madeline Island, Basswood Island, Hermit Island, Stockton Island, Oak Island, Manitou Island, OTTER ISLAND, Rocky Island, Bear Island, Devils Island, and Raspberry Island. There are 8 lighthouses on the Apostle Islands, and we saw a few of them, but I was there for the rock formations/sea caves. It’s funny, Steven and I both had a different perspective of what the islands would be like – much smaller and much rockier! But they’re huge, and spread out, and people still live on them (interestingly, they all signed contracts with the government that once the deed holder dies, the property goes back to the National Park Service).
• That our pet sitter loved the rock I left for her. And the fabulous pics she sends of the cats!

Saturday

• Seeing a beautiful sunrise.
• Running through town and exploring and hiding some rocks.
• Walking through town and exploring with Steven.
• Steven making his smashed penny (he has a collection from out travels!).
• Getting lunch at Manypenny Bistro. They definitely had the biggest menu/most options in town, and had great wait staff.
• Going on our kayaking adventure. It was off of the Red Cliff area on the Bayfield Peninsula, and it was stunning! We were able to kayak right up to rock formations and go under them too. It was so neat to see in person and pictures don’t really do it justice. We loved it and I would love to see more of the sea caves (maybe on the actual islands!). Our experience with the kayak company was a bit odd, but it all worked out. (This was another time where they said it was super rough on the morning tour, but by the time we went out, it was fine, yay!)
• Visiting a waterfall in Cornocupia. Captain Mike mentioned there was a waterfall on the peninsula so we drove out and hiked to it and it was lovely! There are so many beautiful trails in forests in the area!
• Driving by a property for sale, to look at, for funsies.
• Getting a surprisingly good protein bowl at Pier Plaza.
• Watching Shark Tank every night.
• Writing postcards.

Sunday

• Being lazy in bed in the morning.
• Riding the ferry to Madeline Island. It’s just so novel (to us) to put our car on a boat that goes on the water.
• Hiking in Madeline Island. Ha, we quickly found out there was hardly anything to do over there, commercially, anyway, so we went on a hike that looked like it was in town but when we got to the end we were a mile from town and had to walk back! Ha! Don’t trust cartoon maps!
• Eating lunch on Lake Superior.
• Seeing the beautiful Big Bay State Park area.
• Hiding rocks on the island.
• Visiting an orchard and getting hand picked apples and pears.
• Eating at Manypenny again, then getting ice cream.
• Seeing that the post office had a kindness rock garden when we walked by.

Monday

• One last run. I tried to check out the trail right by our place but it was closed, womp womp. There are miles and miles of trails I didn’t get to! I need to go back.
• Seeing the sunrise.
• Dropping off postcards and adding some rocks to the kindness garden at the post office.
• A beautiful beginning to our drive home. We went another way in the national forest. (Then we went on four lane highway that was not as pretty, but was okay!)
• Being slap happy on the ride home. Lowlight – this means we were so tired. Ha. But we’d played a lot of fun rounds of “would you rather?”
• Getting home and unpacking and seeing the cats!

Lowlights

• Not a lot of vegan food options in Bayfield or nearby. This didn’t surprise me, and I brought a lot of food, but should have brought more to cook with.
• Coming back home to heat and humidity and bugs. UGH. (It finally cooled off two days later)
• Remembering we had to take our old couches out to Dragonstone the night we got back since we were getting new couches on Tuesday. Womp womp. But yay for new couches!