Boundary Waters Trip - Day 4

Here's our campsite from a distance.

Dave and Ellie's canoe sitting beside our campsite.

Ellie is rehydrate the the shrimp she dehydrated and brought from home.

Here's the gang building something out of those shrimp.

It turned out really good!  Nummy in my tummy shrimp.

Yes, that's UNO.  Makita struggles with any game that you have to strategize, count cards or think about in any capacity.  So Ellie and Makita teamed up to kick mine and Dave's butt's in Uno.  Our card playing table doubles as a fish cleaning surface.

Boundary Waters Trip - Day 3

The morning starts out with Ellie and Dave bringing down the bear bag to retrieve the makings for a nice steaming cup coffee.

It's a hazy morning.  You can see we're right on the edge of the Cavity Lake fire of 2006.

Three loons pop up behind Makita.  That would make a grand total of 4 loons in a small area of the lake.

After a morning on the lake the guys clean our catch.

A fire is built in preparation for a nummy fish fry.

More firewood is needed.

But finally the fish fry begins.  Ellie is the fish frying expert!

Nice full moon that evening.

Boundary Waters Trip - Day Two - Going In

Saturday morning we loaded the canoes and headed out on Sea Gull Lake (4032 acres).

The wind was down and paddling was good.  We paddled and portaged (4 portages) for about 5 and a half hours for a total of somewhere between 10 and 11 miles. 

On our last portage we ran into two groups of people that may not have watched the video.  They were pushy and rude and broke a rule or two.  It was unfortunate.  On a different portage, another horrible thing happened.  We met a girl with an Obama hat on.  :(

We got lucky again and found a great campsite right after entering Lake Ogishemuncie. 

 

We kicked back the rest of the afternoon in our rock living room (which we grew very fond of over then next week).  Nature's chairs, made from volcanic lava from over a million years ago.

A chimpmunk loved the leftover Cheeto we had for lunch.

The fella's hung the bear bag.

Ellie and I made something for dinner.... I don't recall now.

Makita makes himself a Wang.

Boundary Waters Trip - Day 1 "Getting There"

Friday August 20, 2010 we left Brainerd at 9:00 am.  We went to Deerwood and collected Dave, Ellie, their canoe and gear.  We left Deerwood around 10:00am.  We stopped at Betty's Pies by Two Harbors for lunch.  http://www.bettyspies.com/  When we got to Grand Marais we wanted to make sure we got a Puff taco but we were still full from Betty's.  So we each got them to go and ate them later that night and they were still as good, if not better, then we remembered them.

We drove down the Gunflint Trail and stopped at Chik-Wauk Museum but it was already closed for the day.

We had a site reserved at the Trails End Campground.  Here's the outlook from it.  You can see it was involved in the Cavity Lake Fire of 2006.

We settled in for the night with a campfire, a cocktail and a Puff taco.  Life is good.

Farewell to Uncle Irv

Irvin O. Rood Jan. 28, 1925 - Aug. 21, 2010

While I was gone to the Boundary Waters my Uncle Irv.

passed away.  I was a saddened that I missed the funeral.

Last week the city of Brainerd tagged Mike's huge Elm tree for removal due to the fact it had Dutch Elm Disease (DED.... yep she's dead).

Mike had til Sept 3rd to get the tree completely removed or the city would have it done for big bucks (added to your taxes).  So for much less than the city would have charged, Speedy Tree Service to the rescue.  Speedy himself climbs up there and starts cutting. 

Some 8 hours later.......

 Wow that roof came in handy.

Saws and Wedges and Hammers...oh my!

 After the tree is down there's the limbs to chip.

 And more chipping.....

 The trunk was a booger.  It was huge and the boys saws weren't "cutting" it.  But they remained persistent.

Some dumb ass thought he could help with the chipper.  I think he should have left it to the professionals.  He had to go in the house and get the grand kids to administer first aid.

 I may have mentioned that the saws just didn't cut it.  Had to turn the trunk to cut from the other side.

Mike's magic gloves helped get the job done.

Whew... it's been a long day.

Today's Birthdays

Today is my grandaughter Kiehra's 10th birthday.

Today is also my friend Marcia Chase's 50th birthday.  She's pictured here a couple years ago when we visited Idaho.  It was the last of the 50 states she had not been in until that day.

Jim's 70th

This past weekend we went to Minneapolis to celebrate Dave's dad, Jim's 70th.  Here we are at the Local (Irish pub).  I'm having a black and tan the others are all into the Big Gingers - a Local specialty.  From left to right: Ed and Rose Simpson, who flew in from Phoenix, myself, Makita and Jim.

You can't come to Minneapolis from another part of the country without going to the Mall of America.  Rose and I did some shopping and the fellas found this bar.  Then the shark found them. 

During Jim's birthday celebration.  Cheers!

More cheers......

Liquor kicks in.... not sure if Makita is dancing or ducking.

And it was Roses birthday just a few days before.  There was lots of birthday singing.