Lake Superior South West Shore - Hwy 13 Superior, WI to Bayfield, WI

I'm falling behind in my posting so I have to get this up before it's too late.

The second road trip of our vacation to Superior, Wisconsin took us along the north western border of the state from Superior to Bayfield, WI.  We decided to stop there, have some lunch, check out the very small town of Bayfield and tour the Apostle Islands on a glass bottom boat ride that would take us over and around some of the more prominent ship wrecks of Lake Superior. Because several days early in the week had been seriously windy, Lake Superior was quite churned up and had not settled quite yet at the point we took the tour.  Looking through the glass on the tour was mostly just cloudy but the tour itself was wonderful.  2+ hours of tales and facts about the islands and shipwrecks.  It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride.

We also decided to take a ferry boat over to Madeline Island to spend the July 4th afternoon. While it was nice I guess I was hoping for a bit more of an artisan vibe on this gorgeous lake shore but found myself very disappointed.  What I found was a lot of people packed into a very small couple block area populated by mostly pubs serving everyday hot dogs and hamburgers kind of food. There was live music in the square that looked as if it could have been fun had we known about it and brought chairs and such for a picnic. There was a nice state park campground but outside of hiking nothing to do. The lake shore in that areas were reached only after walking long steep paths not conducive to getting someone who is mostly immobile to a beach or fishing area.

By early evening the clouds were moving in so we decided to leave the island and head to Red Cliff for a Pow Wow. We always love the colors, dress, drum and dance of these events. This proved no different. We had a chance to talk with many of the local residents who were great to explain traditions and their way of life in the area.  We stayed until the rain started then headed back to camp stopping to pick up some driftwood, my only request of souvenir from the trip, for my garden. We found an area that was so loaded with driftwood that someone had made lean to's and teepee's from the long logs.  That and finding some pieced that worked in my garden happened to be the highlight of the day.  I suppose that is in keeping with my philosophy that it is, for me, truly the simple things I enjoy the most.