I have a few other posts to do about this summer, but I thought I would do this weekend tonight so I don't fall woefully behind.
Every year the Bayfield Rec Center hosts the Point to La Pointe swim, a 2.1 mile swim from Bayfield out to Madeline Island. Tim, Nick's dad, has done it every year that we've lived in Ashland. The past few years Nick has joined him, not as a swimmer, but as paddling support, there to help swimmers in distress. Tim and Dianne came up on Friday and shortly after they got here, Nick came home from work and we piled in the car and went to Bayfield for Tim to pick up his race registration materials and his nice hooded sweatshirt. We met up with our friends Tim and Elizabeth, Elizabeth was also doing the swim (and gives me a hard time because I made her swim with me a few years and haven't done it since). After learning we would not be having dinner at Ethel's, crying some, we tried a new restaurant in Bayfield. Then, to the Coast Guard Park.
After quite a bit of time playing at the park, we parted ways. The race started early, 7:20 AM, so everyone needed to go home to sleep.
The original plan was that Dianne, Lilly, Greta, and I would eventually make our way up to Bayfield, take the ferry over and meet up with the swimmers and paddlers (Tim was also paddle board support). New rules however required that Nick and Tim paddle back with all the other paddlers to Bayfield, and then if they were interested they could hop a ferry back over to Madeline. This seemed a bit ridiculous to us, so rather than go through all that and try and coordinate and meet up, we decided to skip Madeline Island. We were perhaps going to go cherry picking but Lilly decided against that and we just stayed home for the day. (Tim and Elizabeth did go and said the trees were just drooping with cherries, so we may have to check it out later this week).
One of our plans for the summer was to build a water wall, inspired by the blog Ana Dabble Do. Our hardware store didn't have quite the same supplies as the blogpost suggested, but Nick put this fencing up for the girls to decide how they wanted the tubing and to play with the water.
Of course, when I first mentioned water wall to Nick, he had another idea, and created a literal wall of water for the girls to run under. Well, for Lilly to run under and Greta to stand to the side and watch.
Saturday night the girls stayed home with the grandparents and Nick and I went out to dinner with Tim and Elizabeth. We can't remember the last time we went out to dinner with them without kids, it was great to have adult conversation throughout dinner!
Sunday morning Nick and I went out again just the two of us, this time for a SUP just on the north end of Washburn. He goes every Friday morning and has scoped out some cool places for us to check out. We just bought an underwater camera and brought that with us to check it out. After paddling out a ways and checking out a creek, we paddled into some caves and did some swimming around. There just isn't a great way to capture the awesomeness of these caves on film (pixels?), so you will just have to come and paddle out with us sometime!
There was one place where it looked like you could swim through but had to do it underwater. Nick was all set and ready to try it (I was too nervous because I couldn't tell how far I would have to swim underwater and was afraid I couldn't hold my breath long enough) but when he started under, he came across a fish. He tried a few times to get past the fish, but he kept swimming toward Nick when he would try and swim to it - as if he was playing chicken with him. And if the fish was playing chicken with him - the fish won. Nick went and got the camera from me (I was going to take a picture of him coming out of the cave) and got these pictures of the fish - I thought it was going to be much larger, Nick assures me the scale is off in the photo. (Also when we got home, Dianne saw the photo and said, "That's a bass." Greta said, "No. Fish.")
Elizabeth and Tim took Lilly tubing down a small section of "rapids." Nick, Greta, and I slowly made our way down that way, walking nervously in the river, not sure of all the rocks and such. But we got there and I even took a trip down the little channel - it was quite fun.
We were just blown away by the beauty of the cabin and that our friends built it and had to bring all the supplies down by hand - including the cast iron fireplace (which was small but heavy!). They have also blazed many trails for exploring their land, which we will do with them another time.
Every year the Bayfield Rec Center hosts the Point to La Pointe swim, a 2.1 mile swim from Bayfield out to Madeline Island. Tim, Nick's dad, has done it every year that we've lived in Ashland. The past few years Nick has joined him, not as a swimmer, but as paddling support, there to help swimmers in distress. Tim and Dianne came up on Friday and shortly after they got here, Nick came home from work and we piled in the car and went to Bayfield for Tim to pick up his race registration materials and his nice hooded sweatshirt. We met up with our friends Tim and Elizabeth, Elizabeth was also doing the swim (and gives me a hard time because I made her swim with me a few years and haven't done it since). After learning we would not be having dinner at Ethel's, crying some, we tried a new restaurant in Bayfield. Then, to the Coast Guard Park.
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| Lilly and Elizabeth monkeying around. Lilly earned a blister on her hand from her efforts to make it across the bars. |
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| Pockets! |
After quite a bit of time playing at the park, we parted ways. The race started early, 7:20 AM, so everyone needed to go home to sleep.
The original plan was that Dianne, Lilly, Greta, and I would eventually make our way up to Bayfield, take the ferry over and meet up with the swimmers and paddlers (Tim was also paddle board support). New rules however required that Nick and Tim paddle back with all the other paddlers to Bayfield, and then if they were interested they could hop a ferry back over to Madeline. This seemed a bit ridiculous to us, so rather than go through all that and try and coordinate and meet up, we decided to skip Madeline Island. We were perhaps going to go cherry picking but Lilly decided against that and we just stayed home for the day. (Tim and Elizabeth did go and said the trees were just drooping with cherries, so we may have to check it out later this week).
One of our plans for the summer was to build a water wall, inspired by the blog Ana Dabble Do. Our hardware store didn't have quite the same supplies as the blogpost suggested, but Nick put this fencing up for the girls to decide how they wanted the tubing and to play with the water.
Of course, when I first mentioned water wall to Nick, he had another idea, and created a literal wall of water for the girls to run under. Well, for Lilly to run under and Greta to stand to the side and watch.
Saturday night the girls stayed home with the grandparents and Nick and I went out to dinner with Tim and Elizabeth. We can't remember the last time we went out to dinner with them without kids, it was great to have adult conversation throughout dinner!
Sunday morning Nick and I went out again just the two of us, this time for a SUP just on the north end of Washburn. He goes every Friday morning and has scoped out some cool places for us to check out. We just bought an underwater camera and brought that with us to check it out. After paddling out a ways and checking out a creek, we paddled into some caves and did some swimming around. There just isn't a great way to capture the awesomeness of these caves on film (pixels?), so you will just have to come and paddle out with us sometime!
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| Inside one of the caves |
There was one place where it looked like you could swim through but had to do it underwater. Nick was all set and ready to try it (I was too nervous because I couldn't tell how far I would have to swim underwater and was afraid I couldn't hold my breath long enough) but when he started under, he came across a fish. He tried a few times to get past the fish, but he kept swimming toward Nick when he would try and swim to it - as if he was playing chicken with him. And if the fish was playing chicken with him - the fish won. Nick went and got the camera from me (I was going to take a picture of him coming out of the cave) and got these pictures of the fish - I thought it was going to be much larger, Nick assures me the scale is off in the photo. (Also when we got home, Dianne saw the photo and said, "That's a bass." Greta said, "No. Fish.")
On our way back to where we put in, we went in this cave, which was just remarkable. Also a little nerve-wracking because parts of it were pretty low and there were some waves, but we just hung out under the super tall part until the waves stopped. Again, the camera doesn't quite capture the total awesomeness of these caves.
In the first cave we went into, which seems to have lost the spider infestation it had last summer, we took a little video just to capture the sound of the waves in the cave.
After the paddle, we snagged some coffee to go and rushed back home so Tim and Dianne could go home (and Dianne would be freed from reading the Boxcar Children to Lilly). Then we rushed and packed up and headed to Tim and Elizabeth's cabin, which they built themselves, just west of Iron River, about 50 minutes away.
We walked down the trail quite a ways to get to the cabin, thinking the entire time how amazing it was they not only had to create the trail but they had to haul all the timber (old barn logs) down to build the cabin - themselves. It is an amazing structure and very beautiful.
They share the land and built the cabin with some friends from Duluth, who were there with their three kids. Their two older kids had found a mud clay landslide, which Lilly thought was amazing. Unfortunately it wasn't safe to take the camera over, the mud clay was super thick and impossible to keep off of things, so we were certain it would ruin our camera. But, here is a shot of Lilly after her second time playing at the mud pit (which would suck your feet in about 6 inches) and swimming back some through the river, washing some of the mud off. We spent our entire time down in the river (the East Fork of the Iron River) and had no clue it was 87 degrees outside.
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| Elizabeth bringing Lilly back from the mud slide |
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| Greta missed out on the mud but had fun playing on the sandbar |
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| Greta and Tim playing some game involving a stick |
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| Elizabeth showed Lilly the hammock after promising she'd wrap her up to keep the bugs away. |
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| The inside of the cabin and Lilly climbing up to the loft |
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| Hi from the loft! |
We were just blown away by the beauty of the cabin and that our friends built it and had to bring all the supplies down by hand - including the cast iron fireplace (which was small but heavy!). They have also blazed many trails for exploring their land, which we will do with them another time.
Greta had so much fun she conked out in the car just minutes after getting in. As it was 5:00, we stopped in Iron River to wake her up (she was out cold, we couldn't wake her up by touching her or talking to her), offered her fruit snacks and had her walk around a bit. Then home for dinner and baths (Lilly left a major ring in the tub). It was a great way to wrap up a wonderful weekend!
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