Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

September 5-6, 2009 Lake Superior, in Northern most Wisconsin
Saturday finds the “Fantastic Four” heading north-east; a good drive along Interstate 90 to Lake Superior. Minnesota was beautiful, and Wisconsin appears to be a lot the same, very green, lush, with lakes, streams and many panoramic views of nature. We skirted the big city of Duluth, MN; would have liked to have stopped, but felt like we should try and make up some time. We arrived in Bayfield, Wisconsin about mid-day. We found a small picturesque lake-side town with many colorful boats in the harbor, distinctive older houses, and several artsy shops. Quite busy in town because it was Labor Day Weekend and for many folks enjoying the sights and wonderful weather. Hard to believe that in a couple of short months the weather will be cold and the water here will be frozen up to three feet thick. We are so lucky the weather has been near perfect. The leaves are starting to change already. We had dinner at the Pickled Herring Restaurant – nice view of the harbor.
Sunday morning we took a 3 hour boat tour (uh oh, remember Gilligan) of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. We zipped around most of the 22 islands that skirt the coast line. It was an interesting excursion with an informative narrative about a lot of culture, geology, and natural history of this area. The boat captain has been doing this for 38 years, and has written 4 books about the islands and this part of Lake Superior, he has an amazing amount of information to share. The most interesting was the farthest north island – Devil’s Island with amazing sea caves that would have been fun to kayak in and around. We took an afternoon drive along more of the coast line this afternoon stopping in a small town of Cornucopia, having pizza and drinks at the local restaurant, Fish Lips – sort of a dive, but fun. We finished the evening with a nice campfire and s’mores. Oh the fun just keeps on coming, how lucky we are.