Apostle Islands

Can we just laugh at ourselves for a minute?

Today's plan was to kayak to Meyers Beach Sea Caves in Lake Superior.

Today's temperature is 61°.
The water temperature is 41°.

We wisely decided on a boat tour of the islands instead — which was cold, and were fully dressed.

While we were out, as the captain commented on points of interest, he highlighted the last hunk of ice out on the lake that hadn't melted (it was miles away and yet big enough to see). Maybe not the best kayaking situation.

Ok, yes, it is June 12th, and in our neighborhood, this time of the year, you can get out on the lake and enjoy water sports. We simply lost perspective of the differences of the north and the south. So a little oopsy.

But no, that is not why I am laughing at us. I'm laughing at us because before we found out the water temp was 41°, we were still trying to figure out if we could do this and stay dry in 61° weather (NOT A CHANCE).

But we had a great day. The boat tour registered a solid "ok" on the fun scale which is being just a tad bit liberal as the highlight was the boat view of the sea caves at Devils Island. But without this tour, I think we may have returned home lacking perspective for the vastness of Lake Superior. At one point we could look far into the horizon on the west and see Minnesota, and at the same time, look to the east and see Michigan, and look nrth and only see a horizon.

We saw such a small part of the lake, but it has more of a feel of an ocean than a lake.

The sea caves would have really cool (had it not been so cold). But the rest of the day made up for it 10-fold.

Today was bike riding, shopping and essentially taking a day off in a beautiful small town. No crowds. Everything just a calm day and relaxing. As we cycled from 1 place to another, we looked at pretty houses. We hit every little shop in town, enjoyed key lime pie ice cream, looked at all the pretty flowers and basically spent the day doing "us".

We learned that we will have to return during harvest time and do the fruit loop.

And I said, we did Apostle Islands tour:

This was a 3 hour tour (♬♬ a 3 hour tour♬♬) where we were introduced to Magnificent Sea Caves, Multicolored Cliffs, Raspberry Island Lighthouse, Devils Island Lighthouse, Brownstone Quarries on Hermit Island, Manitou Island Fishing Camp, Basswood Quarry. We were told of the history of the people who lived and worked on these islands.

We withstood the wind and the spray from the lake and came back Jonesing for some fresh fish and chips.

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Shopping in a tourist town you are bound to see t-shirts, coasters, and signs with cute sayings on them. We were shopping in a tourist trap retail store and one of these signs said read:

"These days, I'm expecting to open my utility bill and find a place to leave a tip."

I could absolutely relate. Ironically, at the checkout of this retail store ... a tip jar.Read more