Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

I wrote a couple of short posts about certain days during our two-week stay in Iron River, WI but I feel impelled to reflect on that time. It was exquisitely vacation-like and it will make me happy in the future to remember the things that created this. Let's do this Letterman style: #10: Hayward, WI Sometimes you need something to do. The kids are getting rammy. The house is feeling small. The weather isn't what you hoped. So we hopped in the car and drove about an hour to Hayward to see the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and a small-town amusement center. We skipped the latter and instead spent quite a bit of time on main street shopping, eating ice cream, eating dinner and also enjoying a small little city park along the river. Elise, Ali, Cate and Henry in the mouth of the worlds largest Muskie. This gave us the chance to see the banner advertising the lumberjack world championships later that week. This was an unexpected highlight of the trip so far. Hayward...

On the same day in 2002 that Elise read Dan Brown's Davinci Code (in one day, of course), I learned about the Brule River. It's the kind of river you can miss easily as you drive east from Duluth on US-2 toward Washburn, Ashland and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Just a little green roadside sign near a crossroads town. I remember that Elise mentioned something about a former president loving the Brule and it being a favorite for paddling and fishing. (This is a nontrivial aside. Calvin Coolidge had a summer White House on the Brule and, as we learned , converted a local high school into a base of political operations.). But as soon as we booked this cabin, just east in the town of Iron River, it became apparent that a canoeing adventure on the Brule was in my future. With help from the good folks at Brule River Canoe Rental , we were delivered to the Stone Bridge Canoe Ramp at about 1:45pm. One adult, one twin and one big in each canoe. We had a nice breeze at our bac...