Busy week

I guess we have been been busy! It is Friday and I haven’t stopped to update the blog all week. Here was the week: 

Tuesday 

Fishing for most of the day. Nice to be out and about on the lake; no fish. 

Tuesday afternoon we went to the Vince schutte wildlife sanctuary. Really it is a bear sanctuary. Pretty cool place. There is no fence the bears are truly wild. 

Wednesday: 

This was the nicest weather day on our trip. Light winds and sunny skies. Of course we fished for a little in the morning then took a trip to the east side of voyageurs national park. Namakan lake- we took a cruise up to kettle falls which borders Canada. The falls themselves are less than exciting but the trip has beautiful scenery and well worth it. 

It is really cool to see the houseboats out and about. We stopped for some swimming along the way and had a picnic lunch. The trip took a couple of hours to get there. On the way back we stopped at iw Stevens which is an old resort and hoist bay where the train used to come a half mile on to the lake to load logs from the area. Interesting things to do but not must see sites. 

On the way back we stopped at a day use area (basically your private island) did a little fishing, started a fire and cooked some hot dogs. The sunset was amazing!!

Thursday: we fished most of the day but it was pretty rough on the lake. Then we went to international falls for some groceries around 4 pm. We had supper at a little place that has pizza not to far from here. 

Friday: we have to turn in the pontoon tonight and there is some weather coming in. But we fished and spent a few hours just “playing” on the lake.  

Not much for fish all week but we had a great time! We hope to come back for a guys trip next year. 

Monday at the lake

I only knew is was Monday because all of a sudden I was getting work emails. I replied to a few with a “I am out fishing right now” response and ignored the rest. 

Fishing on the morning was good. A little cloud cover and a little chilly but nice. Mid morning we decided to head out for pontoon ride exploring round 2. The sun came out and it was nice and warm. We boated around for a bit then found an island to explore. 

Then we headed over to Ellsworth rock gardens. This guy made a bunch of rock sculptures back in the 60’s- just because. A neat place to visit. We had a picnic lunch and walked around. 

When we were starting to pack up I noticed the wind had picked up a little. Then I noticed a pontoon trying to leave and he couldn’t get out; the wind kept blowing him back to the dock! Just as we see about to leave a nice young couple stopped us and asked if they could hitch a ride. They had KAYAKED out there (4 miles!) and were realizing it was too windy for the ride back. I did a little weight calculation and realized we would be pushing max capacity but should be ok. So off we went the nine of us and this couple WITH A ONE year old baby and these odd foldable kayaks.  

Again if you haven’t watched Gillian’s island, people don’t die they just get stranded on an island for years.  So I knew we would be okay but never thought I would be this close to sinking a pontoon. I didn’t even put on a life jacket this time so we were good :) but the waves were coming over the front of the pontoon and I was a little worried for the baby. We did make it back safely but it took a lot longer than expected. The kids did some swimming and kayaking in the bay near where we are camping. It is protected from the wind quite well. Nate and Matthew and I went out at sunset to catch all of the fish in the lake. Don’t worry they are all still there. We were starting to feel down on ourselves for not catching fish. Then we talked to the guy who has “the fancy white boat” and is pulling it with a fancy pickup with license plates “walleyes”. I mean he is serious! They have been here a day longer than us and caught ONE fish. I figured we can get those personalized plates when I get home since we did catch a few off the dock. 

Exploring the national park

One of the highlights so far has been the rental pontoon. We rented it for the week and have enjoyed it. After having it for 2 days I am convinced that Mother Nature does not want us all on it. If just a few of us go out, we have amazing weather, not true when everyone is on. 

Sunday we went to church in international falls and picked up some groceries. All of the visitors centers are closed so we had a tough tome getting national park info. When we got back we decided a pontoon ride would be amazing. So we loaded up and did some exploring. The weather was beautiful- light winds and few clouds. 

We found some awesome scenery, saw some wildlife and did a little swimming. Then I received a wether alert.  “Storms will till in around 8pm”. I looked at the radar and thought that is ugly we need to get back before then. You can see where this is headed, a little more than half way back Mother Nature went all Gillian’s island on us. The jokes about me not being able to swim with a peg leg and a pirate goes down with the ship got serious. I mean I even put on a life jacket! 

Enjoying the good life

Over night we had quite a bit of rain. So we woke up to a flooded campsite. We had a quick breakfast and loaded up. First we went to gooseberry falls state park and played in the falls. The kids had a blast. 

After that we visited split rock lighthouse. We didn’t want to pay $72 to get up close (everything is closed inside) so we took a hike that was free with the state parks pass. Learned about the life of a lighthouse keeper and skipped some rocks. 

Finally we started heading to where we are spending the next week; arrowhead resort on lake Kabetagama in Voyageurs National Park. We made a quick stop at the International Wolf center in Ely. I guess you need reservations now :(.  We have been there before but it was a good stop. Wish we could have gotten in. Finally rolled into Arrowhead lodge resort around 5 and we did some kayaking and fishing. We are looking forward to an awesome week! 

Vacation 2020

This has sure been a weird year. After two failed attempts, we are finally on vacation. We left after work last night and drove to walker MN. We stayed in the parking lot of a casino since we rolled in late. Since the camping was free, I tried to give them $20 on the slot machines. Instead I walked away with $20 extra. Can’t “win” them all I guess. :)

We had a great day today walking around Duluth. Our campground is just a couple of blocks from the lift bridge! We spent some time at canal park watching the boats, went to Fitgers, a state park a beach, a tower and some other fun things. 

If you know Matthew you know that he is filled with questions. My favorite of the day was after someone jokingly mentioned that there were whales in Lake Superior, he asked how deep it was. Google told me about 1,300 feet. He said no, “how many skyscrapers tall is it?”  After questioning that skyscrapers are an official unit of measure I estimated 2-3?  He said well, the blue whale dives 40 skyscrapers deep to look for food so they can’t live here. Not sure how he knows this or where he gets all of his questions from but it sure makes for some great inquiry while traveling. 

We really enjoy having max and Sara along on this vacation. 

Unfortunately no ships scheduled for today or tomorrow.