“Where The Heck Is Cornucopia?”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia contributor Royalbroil

These are the words uttered by my husband when I told him where we were staying for our vacation in the Apostle Islands.  At the time, all I could tell him was, “I don’t know.  Somewhere over by Bayfield.”  Seriously, I had no idea.  I thought it was fairly close to Bayfield but on our way up, we soon discovered it was actually another 20 miles past.  Long drive gets longer when you have no idea where you are going.  It looked close on the Google map, but that didn’t seem to fill Dave with confidence.

Sorry, honey.  My Vacation Planning OCD failed and it was the end of June before I realized our 30th anniversary was almost upon us and I still had not looked for a place to stay.  By the time I found the Siskiwit Bay Lodge in Cornucopia,  I would have booked it if it were a smelly old tent next to a raccoon infested dumpster.  Thankfully, the photos showed beautiful shots of Lake Superior and a cozy suite with a kitchen and private seating area.  It even had a separate bedroom with a queen sleigh bed and a corner jetted tub that looked over the lake.

Just waiting for you…

None of the photos showed a single rabid raccoon or ax wielding maniac, but I was leery.  We had been burned by pretty photographs before (and ended up with crappy accommodations although no mouth-foaming wildlife or serial killers so far.  But it’s still early).

Plus it was a bed and breakfast.  Eating with strangers every morning seemed like a recipe for a Sue Disaster.

You know, what if I spilled food down my chest, or snort laughed coffee out of my nose, or stuck my foot in my mouth instead of my fork or just acted like such a complete dork that nobody (not even Dave) wanted to sit by me during breakfast? All of my friends are seriously nodding their heads right now because I have done and will again do ALL OF THESE THINGS.  The struggle is real.

As it turned out, our hosts – Bruce and Sandy – were wonderful, and the grounds and room were actually better in person than they were in the photos.  Vibrant sunsets and blooming flowers and comfy adirondack chairs.  There weren’t even any mosquitoes.  And all of the other guests were wonderful, too.  And the breakfasts were homemade and delicious!  And tiny singing birds and little chattering squirrels dressed me each morning while I broke out into song and twirled on the deck.

Okay, maybe not that last part.  But I did have coffee on our private deck each morning while listening to the blue jays and red squirrels argue in the pine trees and getting visits from hummingbirds on their way to the flower gardens.  All in view of Siskiwit Bay and Lake Superior.  I gotta say – it was pretty awesome.

First sunset

Another highlight of our trip was our cruise out to the mainland sea caves with Captain Mike of Good Earth Outfitters.  We decided not to do the kayak thing seeing neither of us wanted to work that hard, and Bruce and Sandy highly recommended Captain Mike  as an alternative.  We are really glad we took them up on it.

Because of the rough waters that evening, our cruise out to the caves meant engaging both 200-horse motors, resulting in whipping hair and water spray and grinning from ear to ear.  I draped my hand over the side to feel the water smack against it, and giggled like a little kid.  It brought back a lot of memories of boating with my family and my Dad going wide open while we all hung on and laughed.

I yelled to Dave then – “I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LOVE A GOOD BOAT RIDE!”  and he yelled back – “DOES THIS MEAN I HAVE TO BUY YOU A BOAT NOW?”.  Hmmmmm..

Captain Mike’s real expertise and years of nautical experience growing up on Lake Superior came into play as he maneuvered the boat right in to some of the caves, despite the high waves.  His knowledge and obvious love of the area made him the perfect spokesman as he described the formation of the rock by the passing glacier, and the caves by the relentless pounding of Lake Superior.

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(The caves were stunning and my photos don’t do them justice.)

Although Cornucopia is small, and off the beaten path a little bit, we found ourselves gently swaying to the music of this small seaside community.  Of course we did the touristy Bayfield trip and took the boat cruise and checked out the souvenir shops and ate at a restaurant that required a reservation.  But I think our best memories will be from little Cornucopia.

By our last day, we were tapped into the slower drum beat that comes with unplugging.  Evenings spent with our toes dangling in the sand of Corny beach, mornings on the deck, hiking to Lost Creek Falls and sloshing thru Siskiwit River, sunsets spent side by side in the chairs at the lodge, plunging under Lake Superior to rise gasping and laughing (and freezing!), digging thru the sand for rocks and stones and driftwood.  Not saying a lot – mostly just BEING.  Being present.  Being together.

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30 years is a long time.  But it doesn’t seem like near enough with this man.  I hope we get 30 more.

Sue

PS.  I did not ONCE spill food down my shirt at breakfast, nor did I burp out loud, pass gas, or say anything inappropriate.  Truly a magical week.

30 years. Word.

 

 

Go Fly A Kite

Man, I’m beat. I’ve been a big crab ass all week and wanted to tell several people to “go fly a kite”. Well, I really wanted to tell them to do something much ruder and much, MUCH, more acrobatic.  I could really use a beach, a beer, a cigarette and a big ole piece of chocolate cake.   Seeing as I won’t be getting any of those things in the near future, I decided to participate in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge instead.  A huge “thank you” and blog hug to Cee for sponsoring these challenges each week (you should absolutely go check out her site), and thus likely saving me from a life of lung cancer, alcoholism, and sun burn, although I’m too far gone to be saved from chocolate cake.

Interestingly enough, this weeks photo challenge theme is the song, “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” – (You see what I did there?  How I tied that all in?  BOOM!  That’s how it’s done.  Hell yeah.)

With tuppence for paper and strings, You can have your own set of wings, With your feet on the ground, You’re a bird in a flight, With your fist holding tight, To the string of your kite. Oh, oh, oh! Let’s go fly a kite, Up to the highest height! Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring, Up through the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear, Oh, let’s go fly a kite!

Here are my entries:

Adorable cow kites at Neshota Park’s Flags Over Lake Michigan

Flags Over Lake Michigan, Neshota Park

Up through the atmosphere!

Until next time-

Crabby Sue

PS:  Found some weirdos on the beach…

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bark or Leaves

Here are my entries for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:  Bark or Leaves

Taken from the Clingman Dome in TN

Beach log at Jurassic Park (Joliet Park, WI – full of fossils)

Sue The Explorer With Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire or Season of Summer

Welcome to another addition of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge!  This week the theme is “Fire or Season of Summer”.

At first, I didn’t think I had too many photos for this, but after going thru my library, I actually had too many!  In fact, I still probably have too many….but I am horrible at cutting a potential prospect, because there is a story behind every photo, and you all know how I like to talk.

My first photo is from about 5 years ago, when I first got my new camera.  Which is now an “old” camera…  Anyway, it’s 10 mega pixels or something like that – a huge step up from the 3.4mp Sony I was using.  I will say one thing about that Sony – it was built like a tank.  I lost is twice in the same day one weekend when we were in Rockford IL for the Midwest BMX Nationals and got it back (twice) in good working order with only a few dents and dings after it had been run over by a car and kicked by countless teenagers in bike shoes.  (I am fully aware that I am one of the few people who could lose the same camera twice in the same day.  It’s a gift.)

My “new” camera, incidentally, is a Canon Powershot, and has never been lost.  The irony of losing the other one is that I had often berated my children about the danger to their lives if they ever lost my camera.  Yeah.  I’m that mom.

Okay, on to the photo.  I was out playing in the neighborhood with my new toy, at night mind you so the neighbors were probably scared until they saw it was just the neighborhood weirdo stalking among their flagpoles.  You can’t get much more summer than Old Glory and the 4th of July.

Old Glory

I grew up loving horses and read pretty much every book available about them as a kid.  The Black Stallion was my favorite.  I spent many a night daydreaming about riding The Black.

The photo below was taken at the graduation party of one of my relatives.  Now, we will see if they read my blog and recognize him.  Or her.  I’m not entirely sure.  But who cares?  Pony!

 

Pony!!!

When I was a kid, my best friend used to say “It’s hotter than blue blazes!” in the summer.  The picture below, while not blue, certainly looks like it’s that hot.  Definitely fiery.

Here comes the sun!

Ah, kayaking!  Doubt we will get out there this year, as we are still trying to figure out where to keep the kayaks now that we moved, so I have to live vicariously thru my own photos.

Wish I was doing this right now!

This next photo is one of my favorite places to be:  Neshota Beach in Two Rivers, on Lake Michigan.  People often fly kites there, as well as the usual beach activities.  Personally, I like to lay on my blanket in a comatose state, with a jar of peanuts, a bottle of Spotted Cow beer, and a trashy novel.  High class, all the way.

The photo below is from a different kind of beach.  This is Schoolhouse Beach on Washington Island in Door County, WI.  It is a rare smooth stone beach and it’s illegal to remove any of the stones.  And I did NOT remove any.  Nope. Nope. Nope.

Schoolhouse Beach, Washington Island

Last summer, The Daver and I vacationed in the Badlands and Blackhills in South Dakota.  Awesome trip, and so beautiful.  One of my favorite shots.

Summer in the Badlands

The following is my obligatory summer dock photo.  Taken from a small public landing on a small lake near the small town of Brillion, WI, of which I don’t remember the name, because I’m old.  Another fabulous cycling find.

My final photo was taken just a few days ago, on another bike ride.  I saw the sun going down thru the branches and hopped off my bike and ran in some guys yard to snap this.  New neighbors are going to have to get used the me.

Sun going down over the Bay

And that’s it folks!

Oh, and the picture of the horse reminded me of a story I need to tell you someday about the time I used to own a horse.  High in entertainment value and my usual dumb assery.  But you’re going to have to wait.  🙂

Sue
PS: Don’t forget to visit Cee and check out her photos, as well as those posted by the other folks. Really some talented people out there – way more talented than me! You can find her site by clicking here: Cee’s Photography

 

 

I Got A Rock

The Jesus Rock – Shores of Lake Michigan near Bjorklunden

Dave and I have an inside joke, that isn’t really all that “inside”. Based on the Peanuts Halloween episode, where everyone gets candy while trick or treating except poor Charlie Brown, who keeps getting rocks. I no longer remember the particulars, but something happened at home, and Dave’s response of “I got a rock” elicited giggles from our oldest chick. Her dad has been in love with her and her laugh since the day of her birth and so pretty much anything he says or does that makes her laugh is repeated until it becomes a family tradition.

Although this particular chick has fled the nest, the “I got a rock” tradition continues in our house. It pops up at odd moments – shopping, on our walks, vacationing, dinner, decorating for Christmas…

I Got A Rock

The thing is, we love getting rocks. I have a collection of them on my desk, we have various rocks brought home from vacations, and any trip to the beach has me bending over God’s glitter with curiosity and wonder.

Rocks are mysterious, beautiful, gentle, brooding, forceful.  They have a story to tell but they are slow to speak.  For me, being around rocks is like being around God – I have a sense of well being, warmth, and calmness.  In the rush of living, they remind me to slow down and take a breath.  Look around me.  Sit a spell.  It’s like I can hear God whispering to me in the warmth of the sun soaked stone.

It’s always interesting to see what people do with rocks.  Sometimes they polish them into jewelry.  Make tools out of them.  Carve out tunnels and drive thru them. Create masterpieces within them.  Bake with them.  Curb fire with them.  Build shelters from them.

“Look at that giant rock! Let’s drive a bus thru it! Heck, yes!”

Mostly, I just like to touch them, especially those worn smooth by wind and wave.  Last time I went to Bayshore, I decided to rock pick with my camera instead of my hands – these specimens were a little large to fit in my pocket. Here are my favorites.

Playing with my shadow.

In the shallows

Mr. Stripey

Rocks with big strips like this in them intrigue me. I always wonder what was happening on earth during the making of that layer.

I love this one. It looks like a brain.  No need to point out the weirdness of that statement.  I am fully aware.

I love this one too – the color is so rich.

If you look closely, this one has a daddy long legs on it. I usually hate spiders, but even I’m not freaked out by daddies.

This one makes me think of a whale. Or a dinosaur skull.

Love the color on this one too. And how the water swirls around it.

I love how the water bubbles over this one. And of course, I caught this shot totally on purpose….

This one reminds me of an ancient temple. Or maybe the dutch windmill cookies my Grandma Conard used to always give us.

This one I just liked because of all the tiny dot things on it. Sort of like worms but not in a gross way.

This one reminds me of a side view of some sort of alien or dinosaur or something.

This one you can see the “mouth”.

This rock with the wound of exposed granite really caught my eye. I took one picture dry, then wet it down with the rest of the water in my water bottle (which I regretted on the hot bike ride home).

Here it is wet

Extreme closeup!

Last but not least…

Besides awesome rock pictures, I got a bit of a sun burn that day too.  All in all, a wonderful afternoon.  I’ll be back next week with tales of Wisconsin Summer Survival!

Sue

Don’t Fence Me In

Tonight I tried to take my cat for a walk.  We had limited success.  He was pretty happy until I wouldn’t let him sit in the weeds all night.  Then we had a bit of a tiff, which I won after several minutes of coaxing, pulling, cajoling, and hissing (him, not me).

You might be wondering (most normal people would) why I was walking my cat, and the best explanation I can come up with is that we were both bored and we both wanted to be outside, even though I am currently covered in bug bites and smell like chemicals.  But that’s the point of tonight’s blog – I would rather swat mosquitoes and beer bugs than sit safely indoors.  For me, that’s the point of summer – to get outside and explore the world.  That would be Midnight’s point too, but he is not allowed unsupervised outdoor visits due to neighborhood garden pooping and baby bunny decapitating.

Do you think she can see me? I don’t think she can see me.

I have had several outings since my last photo blog.  I even took a break from sunsets to switch to wild flowers and waterfalls for a bit.  My traipsing around snapping photos has earned me 280 miles on my Cannondale and around 30 on my Townie – not a bad start, although I would like to finish up the season at 2000 overall.  We will see how ambitious I get, and who wins my weekends – the bike or the beach.  Of course, if I bought a Burley, I could throw my cooler and lawn chair in it, and bike TO the beach…hmmmmm…

My first pictures are not outdoor explorations.  My friend, Joe, the captain of our mTT (My Team Triumph) Bellin Team from last year came to my day job to rally the troops about mTT and tell his story (always worth repeating – you can read it here).  Any day I get to see Joe is a good day, and it’s wonderful to see him spreading his wings as the race ambassador for mTT.  If you are looking for an organization to add meaning and heart to your running, check them out and sign up to be an angel.  Life changing, I’m tellin’ ya.  DO.  IT.

Left Picture: From Left to Right – Joe’s Grandma Marge, Mom Dee, Aunt Do-Do (Doreen – my bestie so I get to make fun of her), Joe, Christian Jensen (Wisconsin mTT Director) and me.
Right Picture: Joe, myself and Christian.

My first excursion took me on a 25 mile circuit thru my ancestors old stomping grounds.  I purposely mapped my ride to run the entire length of Conard Road, because the dork in me found it exceedingly cool to ride down a road named after my ancestors, even if it’s just an old farm road.  It was also cool to find an ancestral  headstone in the local cemetery, although it seems to be one stone marking the very short lives of three children.  Two of them died within a couple of months of each other (April 1882 and May 1882 – if I am reading the stone correctly.  It’s a little worn so hard to tell), so now wondering if there was a local illness that year, and if so, what?  May have to have a little discussion with my dad on that one.

 

As my ride continued, I noticed storm clouds in the distance, so had to hoof it a little, but I did take time to stop on Mary Road to grab some pictures of blooming wild flowers, including our beautiful state flower, the trillium.  I think the small yellow ones are marsh marigolds – notice how they are thriving right next to an old plastic bottle.  Gotta love man’s mark on this earth, and nature’s ability to thumb its nose back at us.  Does anyone know what the single yellow flower is?  Wild or accidental cultivation?

Incidentally, my mother tells me it is not illegal to pick trilliums – just illegal to dig them up and transplant them.  I’m not sure if she investigated this or if she is just covering her tracks from all her illegal trillium picking.  She’s a little shady, that one.

My next ride took me to Red River County Park, so named because of the color of the river that runs thru it, feeding into the Bay.  I’m not sure what causes it – it looks like iron to me, but my dad thought it might be from the clay in the earth or from the bark of local trees.  I tried to find something on the internet but Google failed me, so a trip to the library is in order.  I supposed I could randomly ask a local too, although the “weirdo factor” kicks in when sweaty strangers in spandex start asking questions.

Red River County Park, Wisconsin

Notice the shells?  When I first visited this park with my Grandma Conard way back in the day, this was all sand.  I swam in the river with a bunch of other kids – I was a little freaked out by the water, which is probably why I remember it so well.  The shells are from an invasive species called the zebra mussel.  These little buggers have taken over the Bay and many other local waters, and are causing ecological issues such as avian poisoning and smothering native clams and mussels due to the sheer number of them. My intention is not to start a dissertation as to why the zebra mussels are tiny evil crustaceans, especially seeing as we have so many other ecological issues going on that zebra mussels seem like they would be pretty far down the “should we be alarmed” list.

This picture shows two sides of the same tree at Red River, taken on the same day at the same time.  What a difference a little perspective makes.  Kinda like life.

My next adventure involved a hike in the woods.  There is a bird preserve that has a trail used by birders and forestry students at the local college.  Dave and I heard about it thru his cousin Jeremy, and ventured down it a short bit back in April.  It was too wet then to continue, but I knew I wanted to come back and explore it.  Given the current bug population, Dave declined my invitation.  Apparently he is rather attached to his blood.

It was still a little wet – in fact it reminded me of some southern bayou.  It occurred to me that it would make a great place to hide a body and I started nervously looking around for the serial killer.  And giant hair Shelob spiders.  And bloody-muzzled slavering dire wolves.  Right about this time I scared up a deer and nearly wet my pants.  The beauty below is not imaginary, though.

Memorial weekend Dave and I visited Wequiock Falls, and then Matt and I returned this past Monday night.  The difference in foliage in a week is phenomenal, but so is the water volume.  Monday’s photos were taken after 2 days of heavy rain – the current was crazy.

This is just a pretty shot of the falls from when Dave and I went over Memorial.

Saturday was spent lounging on the beach at Bayshore, which is primarily crushed zebra mussel shells and rock, but enjoyable anyway.  When I got too hot and was tired of dozing in the sun (although honestly, who ever gets tired of dozing in the sun?), I stone hopped along the larger shoreline rocks, occasionally dipping my feet in the Bay to cool off.  Notice the “peace” rock.

The rest of these are more sunset pictures – some taken at Bayshore and some at the local boat landing.  I also experimented with the panorama function on my iPhone for the first time.  Turned out pretty cool, I think.  I also really like how the dock and the rocks have a pink hue from the setting sun, and how the one sunset has a cloud that looks like a giant space ship.  Oh, and a random flower picture thrown in for good measure.

I did enhance a few of these – the camera never seems to capture the vibrant colors as well as my eyeballs.  Hopefully I didn’t over do it!

 

Stay adventurous my friends!

Until next week,

Sue

Weekend Update

Welcome to “Weekend Update” – the portion of my blog where I fill you in on what’s been happening on life details that I may (or may not) have mentioned in past blogs.

100 Pushups – I start week 5 tomorrow.  To be honest, I’m not sure how well I will do.  Tomorrow’s sets are 36, 40, 30, 24, 40.  Seriously?  That’s 170 pushups.  One hundred seventy.  One.  Hundred. Seventy.  Pushups.  And I have not grown any fonder of them.

SAD Light – I ordered my SAD light (SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder – basically, you get depressed in the winter due to lack of light) and it came last Tuesday.  First of all, I have to say I paid a lot of money for something that looks and feels like it should cost ten bucks.  Then, not all of the lights worked – about 6 of them did not light.  Oh joy.  My skepticism and annoyance just multiplied by a billion.

Perhaps what I really need is actual sun on an actual beach for an undetermined length of time. Like 3 months.

However, because I did NOT want to package it back up, trudge to the post office, ship it back and then pray I got my money back, I decided to try it, regardless of the 6 dark LED’s.  I have used it for 30 minutes every morning since and the first three days (W-TH-F) I felt more awake and had continued energy at night after work.  However, I did not work out two of those three days because work was hair-curling crazy, so that may have influenced my evening energy.  On Saturday, I was talking about it with my sister, who said the energy increase was probably psychosomatic, something I kind of wondered about myself.  After which, I suddenly felt exhausted and promptly went home and took a nap.

So the jury is still out on the light.  I have read that it can take a few weeks to fully kick in, so I will keep using it.  I certainly don’t mind trying as it requires no real effort on my part, and I’m just drinking coffee and browsing the internet anyway in the morning.  Oh, and ironically, the 6 LED’s are now working.

Oh yes, I did just go there.

Y-M-C-A! – Sing it with me!  I joined on Thursday after work.  Haven’t gone yet and frankly I am a little stressed about trying to figure out when I will have time to go.  I am also stressed about putting on a bathing suit in front of strangers – something I don’t mind when I am at the beach because of all the weirdos at the beach anyway – I blend right in.  At the Y, I will be donning my suit with Michael Phelps Wanna-bes in goggles and speedos, pretending I know how to swim well enough to claim a lane in the cut throat world of 5am swimmers.

I am also going to try the spin classes.  A couple of the gals from the bike club also belong to the Y, so we are planning on meeting there to take them together.  And, heaven help me, I am probably going to start running on the indoor track.  Not that running in a circle and counting laps is what I want to do, but it’s slightly less boring than running on a treadmill.

Do not bathe us! We like smelling like corn chips!

A Clean Dog is Not a Happy Dog – However, a clean dog makes for a happy owner, especially when said dog sleeps right next to said owner’s face.  I noticed an increase in the corn chipiness of the air when one of them was next to me, and decided that November 19th, the day of their next grooming, was much to far away for my survival.  They now smell like soap and doggy perfume, which I am sure they hate with the heat of a 1000 burning suns, and that they are quietly plotting revenge.  The ‘revenge’ will likely show up in the hallway when I get up in the morning.  They are masters of the well placed doggie tootsie roll.  (This would be one of those “updates” that really have nothing to do with any past blog entries.  It’s pretty much just shameless yorkie poo promotion.  Or anti-promotion, as the case may be.)

And that, my friends, is that.  Time for bed and a new work week tomorrow. Hopefully, it will contain fewer moments of hair tearing than last week!

Sue