I had just quick Google Mapped our route, and didn't pay attention to the cities we would be going through (other than we wanted to avoid the Duluth route). Imagine our surprise when we saw a sign saying Spooner - 20 miles. My cousin Caroline is doing an internship in Spooner at the Visitor's Bureau. We were even more surprised when our route took us through Spooner. As I was saying to Adam, "I wonder where the Visitor's Bureau is?" we drove right past it. And right outside was Caroline's car! I was like, "TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!" So he did, and we stopped. The look of surprise on Caroline's face when we walked in was hilarious. It was fun to spontaneously stop by to see her and her work. And of course I had to document the moment with a photo!
We didn't stay long though, because we still had a ways to go. We finally arrived in Bayfield around 4:45, just in time for the 5 pm ferry to Madeline Island.
It was about a 20 minute ride over and uneventful other than the annoying people surrounding our vehicle and leaning on it. Rude!
It was Adam's first ferry experience, and my first time taking a vehicle on one (we took ferries when I was on my London semester pre-tour).
Once on the island, we drove to the other side of it to Big Bay State Park. There we checked into our campsite and faced blip #1. According to the park ranger, no one sells fishing licenses on the island. Ugh! We had planned on buying our Wisconsin Fishing License once there and doing some fishing. Luckily, I think I was more upset about this than Adam. So we left the ranger station, picked up some overpriced wood ($5 per tiny bundle) and headed to our campsite. Set-up went very quickly thanks to our awesome new Coleman Instant Tent. Have I mentioned how awesome it is? It seriously goes up in a minute. Plus a minute to stake it down. Amazing. Our other tent is nice, but takes FOREVER to set up. I'm glad we got the 6-person tent because it was just the right size for our queen air mattress and a few bags.
While unpacking, we faced blip #2. I had packed everything EXCEPT matches or a lighter. Oops. Of course we would need something to start a fire. Unfortunately, the park rangers didn't have any (even though they sell fire starters?), so we drove back in to town and purchased a lighter at the grocery store. Disaster averted. At least Adam noticed this BEFORE it was dark out and we were starving.
Next on the agenda was a little exploration. We took the boardwalk/stairs down to the Big Bay Lagoon on the State Park side.
There we walked around a bit and put our feet in the freezing cold water.
We were getting hungry, so we returned to the campsite where we cooked hotdogs over the fire.
We also played a few games of cribbage until disaster struck. The wind blew one of my precious MN Vikings cards into the fire. Adam got a real kick out of me trying to get it out with the marshmallow roasting stick. I got it out, but only after half of it had burned. I was sad. Adam thought it was just HILARIOUS and had to take this picture of it.
To cheer myself up, we had s'mores. Delicious!
Saturday, we got up bright and early thanks to the creaking of the nearby old-fashioned water pump. Super annoying. We lounged a bit, and left the campsite around 9:30 to go hiking. I thoroughly enjoyed our 2 hour hike. Adam enjoyed the first hour, humored me the next half hour, and was ready to be done the last half hour. We saw so many cool things though! It was my favorite part of the trip. And I have LOTS of photos from our hike to share!
We made a few stops to relax and enjoy the views, like this detour to climb and sit on the rocks..
This photo taken by Adam:
People were jumping off these rocks. It wasn't very deep in spots, so there's no way I would be doing that!
We had worked up quite an appetite on the hike, so we drove in to town for lunch. We decided on The Beach Club. We ordered our meals at the window, and then grabbed a table outside. I had The Manitou (1/3 lb bison burger topped with french fried onions, bbq sauce and Cheddar cheese) and Adam had The Devil's Burger (1/3 lb seasoned with "devil dust" topped with jalapeno bacon, Pepper Jack cheese and fresh pico de gallo).
I also indulged in an Island Punch cocktail, which I got carded for. Adam ordered his beer before me and didn't get carded (I am 6 months older than him). As I just had a birthday and feel old, it made me happy! Ah... the little things.
Next, we headed to the Town Park Beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Adam enjoyed a nice long nap, while I read a book. We also played cards a bit. Relaxing on the beach in the shade was Adam's favorite part of the day.
Around 6, we headed back to our campsite. There we played more cards, drank some champagne and then made dinner - Pizza Pudgie Pies. Yum!
For dessert, we had Blueberry Pudgie Pies. Also delicious. It was a beautiful night to sit around the campfire.
Sunday we got going early so we could make the 10 am ferry. I couldn't believe how quickly we packed up camp, due in large part to our awesome new tent. I may be obsessed. CORRECTION - I AM obsessed. And I would recommend the Instant Tents to anyone that's going camping. Major time and frustration saver!
We got there a little early, so had to wait about 15 minutes for the ferry to arrive and then to start loading.
Here it comes!
This time on the ferry, we couldn't get out of our car because the attendants had parked us so close to the wall and the neighboring cars. And once again, we were surrounded by annoying people that leaned on our car the whole ride. Is that not a big deal to other people? Are we crazy about our car since this really bugged us?!?
Once in Bayfield, we roamed around the little downtown a bit. I got some yummy Mocha Almond ice cream that I of course shared with Mr. I-Don't-Eat-Sweets. I think he ate as much as I did!
Overall, we weren't too impressed with Bayfield, so we didn't stay long and opted to get lunch on the road somewhere quick instead of a restaurant in Bayfield. That quick meal on the road ended up being at McDonald's (ish) because all the small towns we went through only had Subway and McD's.
Back at home, we unpacked and then did some weeding in the backyard before Chester was dropped off. We had a wonderful relaxing and fun weekend together!
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