But at least this one involves lots of nature, so it's closer to a garden?
It's been an entire year since Joe and I got away, just the two of us, for a trip. Last month we took a 3 day weekend and went to the South Shore of Lake Superior. We've done the North Shore (the Minnesota side), so decided to turn right at Duluth and explore a small part of the Wisconsin side. We did only have 3 days, and it's a BIG lake... We left on a Friday afternoon and drove to Superior, so we'd be pretty much there by Saturday morning. Nothing spectacular about that part of the journey, although we were both surprised by how small towns like Siren and Luck were. Why do we know the names of these towns of no more than a few hundred people? Oh, well, we do. Good thing we stopped for food when we did - after Siren (I think) there was barely anything all the way to Superior! (In its defense, the area has a lot of national forest lands, which makes it pretty deserted.)
The next morning we headed off towards Bayport, no more than 90 miles east. It took us all day. No, the roads weren't bad and we weren't attacked by cheeseheads. We just decided to take our time and explore along the way, the journey itself being a big part of the destination. We stopped to look at historical markers and anything else that looked interesting. We saw some incredibly massive docks that used to transfer ore from the trains to the huge ships. Too bad there wasn't any signage to explain how it worked. These docks (and that may not be the right word) started at least 20 feet off the ground, and you couldn't begin to see both ends of them. One place had 3 sets, each one built at different times. The railroad cars used to drive onto the docks and dump their loads into the ships. I forget how many freight cars worth each ship could hold, but, trust me, it was one big number! This blog has some great pictures to give you an idea of the size.
One sign pointed to a marker 1/2 mile ahead. Well the turn to the marker was 1/2 mile away. We kept on driving and eventually ended up stopping on this barrier penninsula. Joe got to skip some rocks, we got partway to a lighthouse (the causeway was uneven slippery wet rock and my shoes weren't up to the task), and eventually found the marker. It was five miles from the turnoff to the marker! They really ought to give you some warning.
We stopped for lunch in a little cafe my dad would have loved - unpretentious, with simple good food. Some of the best onion rings I've ever had. I picked up a tourism brochure - turned out to be a great find. We were right next to Twin Falls. They didn't turn out to be much, mostly because it's been so dry, but it was a nice walk. The big thing we found was a hike that took you to an overlook of the sea caves on the lake. So off we went, 1.7 miles each way. The sign warned the trail was rugged. They weren't kidding. It wasn't awful, by any means, but it was up and down and back and forth. Those 3.4 miles took us 2 hours! Granted, we weren't racing along, but we weren't lollygagging, either. We came to this sign - graphic, eh? 
Well, we took careful heed of it and never ventured to close to the cliff edge. You can see why this was important. Our immediate goal after the hike was to get something to drink! We didn't carry anything with us, as the brochure didn't say how long the hike was, and then there wasn't anywhere to get anything.
On in to Bayfield, where we hunted up our cottage before it got dark. Our host kindly pointed us in the direction of a good restaurant, and then we came back and collapsed in our cozy cabin.
We were up and out reasonably early on Sunday, as we had to meet our guide at 10:30 and needed breakfast first. Good thing we left when we did. We walked right in and sat down, but after that there was a line. We finished a bit early, so drove around the Apostle Highlands golf course (Get it? Apostle Highlands by the Apostle Islands? Made me giggle.). It was cold and damp, although not raining, when we met Captain Peter for our private 2 hour tour. I had on long johns, jeans, long-sleeved tee, wool sweater, fleece pullover, raincoat, hat, scarf, heavy gloves and my coat hood. I was glad for everything I had on - I still came back cold! But it was worth it. Capt. Peter took us past several of the Apostle Islands.  |
| Brownstone and sea caves |
You've heard of the brownstone buildings in NYC? All the rock came from these islands. Who knew? We got to see sea caves from lake level - see why they had the sign? And we saw parts of 3 shipwrecks. No casualties in any of them (these all went down within 25-50 feet of shore), thank goodness. This one had just unloaded its cargo, then it caught fire, all the crew got off and it burned to the water line. It was one of the first insured boats on the lake in, I think, 1901.
We had hoped to go out to Madeline Island and rent scooters or bikes, but it started to drizzle. The ferry isn't cheap, and taking the car - since we didn't want to be out in the cold and wet - would have tripled the cost. Maybe next time. So we drove around to some apple orchards. Boy, could they learn something from the MN orchards. Most had no apples left - in mid-October! They didn't have much else to do (hayrides, mazes, etc.). One we went to had a Sears barn. We thought it might be kinda cool, but they had nothing on that part of its history. The owner collects beer cans and baseball caps. They're just hanging in the loft of the barn, and have been for years. I would recommend to anyone who wants to show off a collection that they keep it clean... We had some wonderful apple pastries and then decided naps were just the thing. 
We finally had sun the next morning, so drove around the golf course again and headed east. We chuckled over how many streets in Bayfield are marked as snowmobile routes! It amazed us how little was open - only one place in town serving breakfast and everything else closing for the season. I wonder what they do in the winter if they want to go out? Yes, I'm a city gal... We had a lovely hike to Houghton Falls. Would have been lovelier if there'd been any water, but they were totally dry. But it was wonderful to sit in the sun and look at the lake. We had hoped to take in another drive, but time marched on and we headed towards home. We stopped in Baldwin at the A&W (Joe loves their root beer). I waited outside to stretch my legs, and got asked if I wanted to buy a pumpkin! The guy had a few left and sold me a very nice one at a good price.
The weekend was too short, but it was lovely to get away for a few days and unwind.
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