Vacation, Day 8: A beautiful farewell

 Alas, we lost our bet that it would not be raining in the morning. I loaded the car, trying not to get too much water on the luggage or too much mud in the cabin. We were on the road a little after 7:00.

We saw the trumpeter swans again at Swamper Lake. I couldn’t find a place to pull over other than at the information kiosk at the end of the lake. I grabbed my camera and walked back to where the swans were visible.

I took the first picture at 8:10.

First view of the swans

The swans saw me. They swam together and headed straight for me. I thought of three hypotheses that might explain this behavior: 1) they were curious about me; 2) some idiot had been feeding them, and they thought I had food, or 3) they were defending their territory and were intent on pecking my eyes out.

The swans met up

And headed straight for me

Whatever their intentions, it was pure magic to me. It was so quiet that morning—no wind, no cars, no bird song. I stood silently with the misty rain coming down and watched the swans glide toward me, propelled by the unseen force of their legs underwater. I didn’t want to breathe for fear of breaking the spell.

They looked at each other.

They looked to the left,

And to the right,

And away from each other.

They posed for a final shot, their bodies reflected in the still water.

I pulled myself away then. We had a long drive ahead of us, and I felt like I had been standing there a long time. I will try to hold the tranquility of those moments until we come back next year. The swans gave me a beautiful farewell. It was 8:15.

Vacation, Day 7: Last Day in the Cabin

 Friday morning began with a steady rain that kept up most of the day. As dry as it’s been all summer at home, I enjoyed it. I wished we could hook it to the bumper and drag it back with us.

We had pancakes again for breakfast. It was the last real cooking I did, and apparently the last meal that I deemed photo-worthy.

Last pancakes, last peach, last bacon

Jane packed while I journaled. At 11:00, we returned to Swamper Lake, but there were no swans. It being a chilly, wet day, we stopped at the repurposed Loon’s Nest, once a gift store, now a coffee shop. It was similar to Starbucks—each cup made individually, and not very fast. They had a selection of pastries. I could not pass up a day-old pain au chocolat, a chocolate-filled croissant. Jane had a blueberry cream cheese croissant. The shop was crowded, it being a chilly, wet day. After we ate our croissants, we took our coffee to the car to let someone else have our seats.

Readers with exceptional memories will recall that last year I saw tiny green blobs floating in the lake and wished I had a microscope. Janice Y., upon reading the letter, promised she would get me a microscope before my trip this year, which she did. It was a simple design, similar to the picture of Robert Hooke’s microscope in the textbook. On the plus side, it was small and easy to pack. On the minus side, it took a steadier hand than mine to focus it by moving the body up and down. An improvement over Hooke’s original was that a fiber-optic tube rather than a mirror furnished the light. I used my cell phone flashlight as a light source.

Adjusting focus by moving microscope body while holding cell phone flashlight. Jane's empty yogurt cups hold lake water samples.

I was able to confirm that the green blobs were not Volvox. They were spherical collections of multicellular green strands. I had never seen anything like it, and the Golden Guide to Pond Life was no help.

Green blobs on low power

Another drawback of the microscope, or perhaps of my lack of skill, is that I could not focus on high power without squishing the sample. So it goes. The squished spheres show the cells of the strands better.

Green blobs on high power

I saw Daphnia and several species of ciliates that I didn’t recognize. I was able to get a pretty good picture of everyone’s favorite alga, Spirogyra, which is not only cool to look at but has a fun name.

Spirogyra

The rest of the day was spent doing the sad but necessary things the last day of vacation requires: paying the bill, packing, taking showers, eating the rest of the food, drinking the rest of the liquor. We had a salad with some of the leftover chicken and the rest of the lettuce for lunch and a chicken casserole with the remainder of the pasta for supper. There were two ears of corn left. One was way too mature, so we split the edible one. Too bad we had no chickens at had to feed the old corn to.

The loons came around to say goodbye in the late afternoon. I realize I have posted loon pictures before, but I chose these four out of 60+ pictures, so you should appreciate my restraint.

Chick waiting for parent to surface with food

Seriously? That tiny fish is the best you can do?

Off to try again.

Me and my shadow

I didn’t have the moral fortitude to pack the car after supper. We hoped it wouldn’t be raining in the morning. We set alarms for the first time in a week and went to bed.

Vacation, Day 6: the Gunflint Trail

 We slept until 7:45. Why not? It’s vacation! We had scrambled eggs, bacon and fried corn and potatoes for breakfast.

Breakfast

Jane played solitaire with a real deck of cards while I caught up on my journal. At 11:30, Jane suggested that we drive down the Gunflint Trail to the Chik-Wauk Nature Center (a traditional activity) so we could have a late lunch and go directly to Grand Marais to give Sydney’s one last chance.

On our way up the Gunflint, three otters emerged from the brush and ran across the road right in front of us. It was our only megafauna sighting of the day.

The Chic-Wauk was much the same. They had added a section on Native Americans to their previous display on dendrochronology, explaining how indigenous peoples used and managed the forests. I learned that the black growths that I saw on one of the birches near our cabin’s deck was a parasitic fungus called Chaga. Then it talked about harvesting it by sawing it from the tree, drying, and grinding for medicinal uses. It is high in antioxidants. Here’s a picture of the tree by the cabin. It doesn’t look very appetizing to me.

Chaga growing on a birch tree

As is our custom, we drove through Trail’s End Campground. Alas, campsite 19 was occupied, so I was not able to climb the rocks to the middle of the cascade. I followed a trail from vacant campsite 15, where I saw three canoes setting off on a trip.

Three canoes starting or continuing a trip

I could see the mouth of the cascade, but the rocks I would have to climb over bordered a steep drop off. Breaking a hip would ruin my whole day.

The mouth of the cascade in the distance

I made a quick lunch of the remaining green pepper, onion, and fajita meat. We each had two mini-tacos, and there was a bit more space in the small refrigerator.  

Alas, Sydney’s still had no Dutch chocolate custard. We settled for the more expensive turtle sundaes. Totally worth it. It really is the best custard in the world. So smooth!

Sydney's in shipping containers. A phoenix is painted on the left side.

We were so eager to eat our custard that I forgot to take a picture.

On our way back to the cabin, we saw two large white birds on Swamper Lake. I guessed pelicans, based on knowing they summer in North Dakota. I took a bad picture which was still good enough to see that they were swans.

A pair of swans with pinkish rocks masquerading as flamingoes

For supper, I rubbed two boneless, skinless chicken breasts in garlic and salt and braised them in wine. Our side was macaroni with a quick sauce of fresh tomatoes, garlic, and butter.

Supper

We had cobbler again for dessert. It seemed like we had done nothing but eat all day. I love vacation.

Vacation, Day 5, Road trip

 Today was our road trip day. We got up early, packed our lunch in a cooler, and headed out. We headed south from Grand Marais to do a loop from Lutsen to Honeymoon Mountain to Tofte. Our first side trip was an attempt to see Christine Lake from a “non-Forest Service” boat landing. As soon as we turned off the highway, we were on An Adventure. The road was two rocky and pot-holed ruts through the forest. There was nowhere to turn around, so we had to go forward. I was not going to try to retrace our path in reverse.

Ruts through the forest

I turned the car around when we finally came to a spot that could be construed as a side road, if we used our imaginations.

Onward. We stopped for lunch at a “rustic” campground near Poplar River. As far as we could determine, “rustic” meant “no water.” There were latrines, as with non-rustic campgrounds. We ate lunch in the car because it was buggy. Afterward, I followed a trail down to the river, and I do mean down. There were ties dug in to create steps, but the going was steep.

The stairs from the bottom

After all that, I couldn’t see much of the river. The trail came out at a bend. The dense forest blocked the view up- and downstream.

Not much of a view of the Poplar River

Returning to the top, I followed another trail along a ridge, but that too led to a steep path down to the water with no view from the top. I saw some bluebeads in fruit.

Bluebeads

I went back to the car. As soon as we got out of the campground, we went over a bridge with a lovely view of the river.

Mountains in this part of the world are not like the Rockies, where a tree line allows for spectacular views. The forest goes right to the top, which means you can’t see anything from the road except that the ground slopes up or down. I enjoyed the drive nevertheless. The forest was mostly maple, and it reminded me of the deciduous forests of childhood.

Honeymoon Trail

Deciduous forest

 We went south from Tofte to Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center. We visited the building but were not up for hiking any of the trails. Another time perhaps.

Entry sign to Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center

 A pretty little creek near the Nature Center building

All these years, we have been driving past the Father Baraga’s Cross and never stopped. Today was the day. A wild rose was still in bloom by the trail.

Wild rose

The landing spot was rocky and beautiful.

Vista on Lake Superior, Father Baraga's cross at right

The original cross, which Father Baraga put up in thanks for a safe landing after a rough crossing from Madeleine Island, has been replaced by a more durable cross of stone. They still do services here sometimes.

Father Baraga's cross

This is the mouth of Cross River. I presume it was named for Father Baraga’s cross.

Mouth of the Cross River

So we have seen Father Baraga’s cross--“cross” that off the list. Ha ha.

Back in Grand Marais, Sydney’s still didn’t have any Dutch chocolate custard, so we opted to try a new place, Superior Creamery. The trouble with names here is that “superior” could be quality of the product or location on the Great Lake.

There was a line. Good sign. There were a lot of weird “new-age” flavors (e.g. Matcha tea). They had chocolate though. No cake cones. Waffle cones were $1. The cups were earth-friendly, biodegradable cardboard, so we got that. I spent 50 cents for “sprinkles,” which those in the know will recognize immediately as jimmies. (Sprinkles are spherical.)

Superior Creamery ice cream

The ice cream seemed a little icy, like ice milk instead of ice cream. Trying to be healthier, perhaps? As the Chocolate Shoppe says, you want nutrition, eat a carrot. We were disappointed. The wooden eating utensils were a step ahead of the curve, so to speak, as they were square, which was way better and getting the ice cream out of the cup.

An improved design on on ice cream spoons

Back at the cabin, we consoled ourselves on the money spent on inadequate ice cream treats with Cheetos and margaritas. I made chef salads for dinner with leftover steak and fajita meat.

Chef salad for supper

We spent a long time on a 500-piece puzzle of “The Quiltmakers.”

The Quiltmakers

And had peach/blueberry/cream scone cobbler for dessert.

Peach/blueberry/cream scone cobbler

 

Vacation, Day 4: Hanging out

 We spent the morning hanging around the cabin. Breakfast was late because we were busy taking pictures of loons from 7:45 to 8:30. Lots of pictures of loons.

Loon parent

Wait for me!

Breakfast

Stretch!

When it was time to start cooking, I washed my new angel food cake pan and tried it out as a corn cutter. I got the idea from a video on the internet.

The pan, the corn

I put the ear in the hole in the middle,

Starting position

Pushed down,

Pushed down

And pulled up the ear with only the middle kernels cut off and caught in the cake pan. Hmm. Our ears must be smaller than the ones in the video. You just can’t believe everything you see on YouTube.

Perhaps the middle third was stripped of kernels. Oh well.

I cut off the rest of the kernels with a knife and proceeded to make corn and potatoes. Jane played with my camera, capturing this shot of me in the tiny kitchen. The only things not in this picture are the dwarf refrigerator and a table just large enough to hold a microwave on a shelf underneath.

Prepping in the tiny kitchen

Here is our breakfast cooking. Fried corn and potatoes is on the left, the stuff for eggs ‘n’ stuff is sauteing on the right.

Fried corn and potatoes, left; green pepper, onion, cherry tomatoes, grilled zucchini, right.

Here’s the final product.

Eggs 'n' stuff, corn and potatoes, bacon

We foraged among the leftovers for lunch. Jane wanted to take a drive around Hungry Jack Lake. We didn’t see any wildlife. The road on the south side of the lake looked like it went around the end of the lake to the north road, but it did not. Still, we’d never been down that road, and it was interesting to see what the other side of the houses we could see across the bay looked like.

At happy hour, we discovered that we had gotten corn “street” tortillas instead of flour. That was a disappointment, but I buttered both sides and fried them up in the skillet. What’s not to like? We had margarita, tortillas and salsa before dinner

Happy hour

And beef fajitas with green pepper and onions for dinner. And more margaritas.

Beef fajita for supper

It was a lazy summer day, just what vacation should be.