Boundary Waters, Day 5

After the worst dream of the night, I gave up and got out of bed at 5:30. No more late afternoon naps for me.

The sky was uniformly gray. A breeze made ripples on the lake. It didn’t seem like it was ever going to get light. I started the chicken stock right away. There was a good deal of gelatin in the broth. It had congealed to the consistency of Knox blocks in the refrigerator. Nothing like a young chicken! I covered the chicken bones, broth, and fat with water and put the pan on the stove. As the fat melted, it bubbled up through the water like a lava lamp.

By the time Jane got up, the stock had had two hours to simmer. I strained out the bones, quick-chilled it in the dish pan filled with ice water, and put it in the refrigerator. I then made blueberry pancakes again.

It was a good day to go to town. We took showers and put on relatively clean clothes. I thought it was just going to be gray all day, but I was wrong. It started raining before we’d gone far down the Gunflint. Our first wildlife siting of the day was a squirrel-sized skinny member of the weasel family cavorting in the road.

We got to town at 10:45 and thought about a snack. I checked the tourist guides for bakeries. We couldn’t find The Pie Place. Java Moose listed pastries on their window, but there was no parking anywhere close. We gave up on the snack idea and went to Betsy Bowen’s studio for our calendars. We poked around the studio for half an hour and got our calendars. This year’s theme was water animals. Jane was excited because there was a turtle.

Where to have lunch? We thought of trying someplace new, but the only parking place was in front of the Blue Water Café, which was just across the street from The Crooked Spoon. We liked the Crooked Spoon, and it was still raining. We went there.

I had the muffuletta special of the day. It was served on a baguette and had the usual cold cuts, provolone, and olive tapenade as well as thick, surprisingly good slices of tomato and big hunks of smoky roasted red pepper. Very good. Jane’s catch-of-the-day whitefish sandwich was, she reported, nothing special. Both our sandwiches came with rosemary popcorn that was delicious. Jane took hers home in a box. I put half of my sandwich in a box and ate all my popcorn.

Muffuletta with rosemary popcorn

It had stopped raining when we were done with lunch. We looked through the gift shop next to the Crooked Spoon, which didn’t take long. There was a new gift shop behind B FRANK that sounded promising, as it had Birch Bark in the name, suggested local, handmade arts and crafts. It was huge and ordinary.

It was so cold (54°) and so windy that we had to eat inside Sydney’s. We’d never done that before. I’d never seen Lake Superior so riled up before either. Huge waves washed over the rocks. 

Waves crashing on Artists' Point. It if very hard to photograph waves crashing over rocks.

Waves crashing on the beach outside Sydney's

Gulls hung nearly motionless in the wind over the beach. How could that be? Perhaps the wind provided lift without pushing the gulls backwards, and the gulls were not strong enough to make headway into the wind.

Gulls in the wind

Genes IGA did not have any fettucine with the fresh pasta. We decided on three-cheese tortellini for our chicken and noodles. How fortuitous that I decided to make stock! This was a perfect day for soup. 

After a stop at the gas station, we headed back to the cabin. Just in time, too. It POURED. Heavy rain all the way back. We made our annual stop at the Loon’s Nest anyway, where we once again found nothing at all that we needed or wanted. No idea how that place stays in business.

Back at the cabin, we turned up the gas fireplace and made cups of mint tea. We were glad we were not starting a canoe trip in this weather.  I put on my sweatpants and a dry pair of socks and settled in for another evening listening to the rain on the roof.

I heated the chicken stock, adding chicken meat, sliced scallions, and the leftover peas. I cooked the tortellini separately, portioned them into the giant bowls, and poured the soup over the top. Chicken soup is so comforting on a rainy day. It seemed like the best meal I had ever made at the cabin.

Chicken and cheese tortellini soup