Weekends with Parents - Weekend #1

It's been a good summer for visitors so far! FirstMichael's parents visited, then mine.

Over the July 4th weekend, Michael and I made the 5.5 hour drive up to Ashland/Bayfield, Wisconsin to meet Michael's parents. They had already been on the road for several weeks.

Guenter and Inga left their home in the Black Forest and flew to Toronto with friend, Adi. They toured eastern Canada, stopping in Montreal and Quebec City. From there they flew to Chicago, where they rented a car and proceeded to drive the entire perimeter of "cheeseland" (a.k.a, the State of Wisconsin). After Chicago, the first stop was Milwaukee for Guenter's birthday dinner celebration. Naomi made the trip, Michael was in Lake Tahoe (see other posting). They proceeded up to Green Bay and Door County and then over to Eagle River.

Meanwhile, we drove straight north from Madison on Friday night and landed in Tomahawk, WI. We stayed at this great B&B- could have been straight out of Moosehead Lake, a log cabin house with themes for each room. Thank God we missed the overwhelming giraffe room, but we did land in the aptly-named Americana room. The hostess hadn't missed a detail, down to the red, white and blue plastic clothes hangers. We were overlooking the lake and the hill down to the water made me think of camp. After a breakfast of fruit and white chocolate pudding, we were off.

We arrived into Ashland and were overcome with the beauty of Lake Superior. It's the largest fresh-water lake, at least on this continent. The water is clean and clear and cold! Ashland is blue collar town (or was). The coal plant is right on the waters of Lake Superior as you're coming out of town. Also on the water is a huge bridge-like structure, at least 8 stories high. It looked like rusted iron, but was actually made of wood. The trains from the mines in the Upper Peninsula (MI) and Ironwood, WI came here, carrying iron ore. They would stop out here and use chutes to send the iron ore down onto boats that would take them away across the Lake.

As Michael and his dad watched a World Cup game at the hotel, his mom and I walked the historic downtown of Ashland. Looking for a tea and a coffee, we found an inconspicuous cafe that turned out to be a really nice spot for dinner. Over dinner we all sampled Wisconsin's best micro-brewery, New Glarus's Spotted Cow. It says alot to have 4 Germans enjoying your American beer.

The next day we made the drive up to Bayfield. It started looking so much like Maine. Some real hills, lots of trees and a beautiful lake that looks like the ocean. Bayfield, like Bar Harbor, is a slightly over-priced tourist town, that is the gateway to the Apostle Islands, a National Seashore. We took a ferry tour of the Apostle Islands - misnamed because the missionaries that named them thought there were only 12 of them.

The lake was amazing. The weather was hot but beautiful. We had crammed the tent into the trunk of the TT so Michael and I looked for a campsite. Nothing doing. The campsites were full with the holiday campers. Finally, on our way back toward Ashland, just outside of Washburn, WI (7 miles from Ashland), we stumbled upon a place called Rocky Run. This older couple had been running this place since the early '70s. They rent out these Depression-era cottages for weeks or days at time. The cottages were full, but they had a room in their house which worked perfect. Our room on the second floor had a big porch with sturdy curtains that you could pull off to the side or left gently sway in the breeze. Our view over the cottages, the lake. It was a great couple of days. After checking out their own private beach, we discovered their canoe. They generously let us use it for the whole time we were there. We couldn't get enough of being on the water.

Swimming in the water was, well, refreshing is an understatement. We were told that if you went down a few feet, Lake Superior's waters never warmed up past 42 degrees Farenheit. But the water was so clear and the bottom was all sand. The shore was red sandstone that had been hollowed out and worn away by ice and water. There were amazing natural caves. We did our share of exploring, and we're happy to share the results of Michael's experimenting with his new camera.

Michael's parents went on to the city of Superior and we made our way home quite refreshed as well as sad that this beautiful place was such a long way from Madison. We vowed to come back.