Boundary Waters, Day 4

 Wednesday, August 10

We got up at 7:00 to get on the water before it got windy. We weren’t so eager that we wanted to start before we had our coffee/tea, and by the time we were ready to go at 8:30, the wind had already come up.

No matter, we went out for a little while anyway. We were rewarded almost immediately by a bald eagle, soaring through a cloudless sky. Of the 15 pictures I took, this was the only one that showed both the white head and white tail. All were out of focus.

Eagle over the lake

The loon family of four, with the smaller chicks, was on the far side of the bay.

Loons far away

Jane rowed over in that direction. We kept our distance so as not to disturb them. The loons very kindly came toward us so we could get good pictures. These are the babies.

Baby loons

The parents came so close to the boat it was difficult to frame them in the photo.

Mom and Dad Loon close to the boat

We drifted with the loons to the end of the bay. I took one more picture of the whole family before we went in for breakfast.

One more family photo

I made eggs with stuff (leftover foil pack potatoes, grilled zucchini, onion, mushrooms, cheese curds, and cherry tomatoes) and bacon. I like how the trees are reflected in my tea in this photo.

Eggs with stuff for breakfast

After breakfast, we sat on the deck, enjoying the cool morning. Motion on the steps caught our eye, and there was a garter snake. It was big, as garter snakes go. It warmed itself in the sun and then went about its snaky business.

Garter snake

After a light lunch of peaches and yogurt, we ventured down to the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center for a talk by a National Forest Service naturalist. The Events listing said it was “Boundary Waters Wild!”, but that was just the generic title of (I guessed) a series of summer talks. The real topic was the black bear. The naturalist was a young woman, full of energy and enthusiasm, and well-prepared for a group of children. I was one of the younger persons in the dozen or so people in attendance, but she went ahead with her activity. I give her a lot of credit for engaging us in the program. Bears, like the moose Kate and I learned about in Alaska, hate surprises. Also, they eat 20,000 calories a day in the fall as they prepare for winter. Jane and I were doing pretty much the same thing on vacation, but I did wonder how a bear found that many calories in the wild. No margaritas there.

Speaking of, we had margaritas for happy hour when we returned to our beloved deck. 

Chicken quesadilla with grapefruit margarita

We had chicken quesadilla for supper and played Mexican train until bedtime. It was a theme.