We spent a week in Wisconsin visiting family. My sister, her husband and children live in Wisconsin so my mom and stepdad visit every year right around the time that the kids get out of school. My track record is to visit about every other year, typically for about 4 days or so. This year we extended our trip because our orginal return date fell on Madeline's 8th grade graduation day. We got a better deal delaying our flight two days and we had the bonus of being able to go to Casey's graduation ceremony from 5th grade into middle school.
Mom and Sid rended a cottage on Lake Pokegama (pronounced Poh-KEG-uh-muh), which is in the town of Chetek. Randy and stayed in the spare bedroom. The entire family gathered for dinner at the cottage every night. Sid cooked a feast each time and the rest of us cleaned up.
The weather was rather windy and occasionally rainy so we spent a lot of time fishing. Randy caught a few but I mostly fished. I read two books and played lots of solitaire while chatting. We went to Rice Lake to see "Kung Fu Panda 2", which was fun on a very windy day. Randy and Rick opted to take the boat around a sheltered bend in the lake and fish.
Chris, Rick, and Frank took us up to Lake Superior, which was a fun day trip. Bayfield is a beautiful little town with old architecture and a fun little cafe called Maggies. There is also a great little spot known for being the northern most village in Wisconsin. It also has a spring where you can fill water bottles with really good water. I think the name of that village was Cornucopia. From there we drove to Duluth, MN but didn't get to spend much time even though the water front area looks interesting. It was time to get back home to one of Sid's feasts.
It was a good time and I was sorry to leave. Next time we may bring bike helmets and pedals so we can rent mountain bikes in Hayward and try out the trails. The local mountain bike club has built approximately 70 miles of trails in the area. And also I'd like to ski the Birkie so some day I'll have to come in February.
Here are the pictures. Some background: Madeline is 14 and somehow I missed taking any pictures of her. Perhaps because she spent as much time as possible in her room. Casey is 12 and still pretty fun. Frank is 5 and will get more fun.