Our First Hike

We’ve had a lovely day here in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin. Jerry, Kathy, and all five Gowmans went on our first hike of the trip this morning… it was a wonderful three-mile round trip out to the Mink River. It was nice and flat (excellent for the flats as well as both Jerry and Mark whose wee knees were injured 2 months ago and are on the mend) but through beautiful woods. We saw ladyslippers (flowers), birch trees and a birch bark mask, a snail (Kieran spotted it, even though it was perfectly camouflaged), a beautiful dragonfly that looked like a butterfly, wild irises and wild strawberries.

Izzie didn’t exactly start out at the top of her game… enjoy the video:



Kieran says, "Three words: It [pause] was [pause] cool."

It’s been mostly cool, cloudy, windy, and rainy, but we’re loving it here. Lake Michigan was very choppy this evening, and the rapid change in weather made it easy to understand why there have been so many shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.

We had a great dinner tonight at Wilson’s in the town of Ephraim. It’s a 1940’s/50’s-style ice cream parlor and burger joint that I’d say is retro, except it’s been like that since the 40’s and 50’s.

On the way there, we passed another restaurant with a grass roof… and goats grazing on top of it!