Day 6: Aug. 1, 2008

The day began with Blueberry pancakes with honey. Today the relatives arrived! Roger, Dianne and Aunt Janet were greeted with great anticipation by Hannah. Grandpa was whisked out to go fishing with Paul within min. of arriving. Grandpa started the trip with a little northern that his grandson Paul took off for him. We then made our way back to old faithful Dog Island and were taunted with little nibbled and one or two walleyes with no size. Upon the return of the fruitless fishing trip, Paul and Hannah knee boarded and tubed behind Grandpa’s boat. After a dinner of chill and salad Grandpa was woke up from his 15 min. nap to, yes you guessed it, to go Muskieing with Grandson Paul.-Alan
Dad pretty much summed up the day. After the rest of our party arrived, we ate lunch and then went out fishing. We caught nothing for about three hours and finally decided to come in. When we got back grandpa wanted to ride bikes so we rode down past deer trail and onto the road. Then I knee boarded and Hannah tubed behind the boat.-Paul

Day 5: July 31, 2008

The day started out kind of slow and it was noon before we had gotten gas and picked a few blueberries. After lunch Paul, Hannah, and I went out fishing to the mouth of the Portage bay. The only thing we saw was the Rock art. We then moved back to Dog Island, had a few bites, Paul caught his northern again and came back empty handed. After a meal of stuffed pepper mix, baked potatoes, baked beans, peas, and blueberry muffins we headed out to pull Paul & Hannah on the kneeboard and tube. A small shower was building in the north so we quickly got the boat put away and Paul and I took our baths in the lake, not too bad. Hannah of course takes hers in her 8 in of water; you can’t say she’s not taking a bath in the lake though. We finished the day with another electrifying game of Clue, of course I won again.-Alan

Day 4: July 30, 2008

We went fishing in the morning out to Dog Island. Alan caught a small walleye and Paul a really small Northern. --Alan

After we ate lunch, nothing really happened in the afternoon. Dad read some of his new book, the rest of us laid around. Later in the evening, while mom prepared dinner, Dad pulled me on the wakeboard behind the boat. I wasn’t sure if I was feeling up to it because last night when I was making a domino effect, Hannah “accidently” pulled my chair out when I went to sit down in it. I fell on my tail bone pretty hard and it really hurt. I iced it all night and it felt better by the time that it was time to wakeboard. I still can’t stoop over without it hurting though. After I was done wakeboarding, Hannah wanted to tube, so I knee boarded beside her to keep her company. We had a lot of fun together as we sang Randy Travis’s Ants on a Log while cruising at 15mph. The reason we picked this song was that we felt like ants on a log as we couldn’t really move off of our inner tube and kneeboard until our ride was over. I suppose we could’ve sang Redneck Yacht Club but we had been through the Randy Travis playlist a couple times today on my iPod, so that song unsurprisingly came to our minds. It must have been funny to watch us trying to drowned out the boat’s motor with our singing while trying to control our respective watercraft. At one point a loon surfaced between Hannah and I and the boat, scaring the heck out of all of us. (Including the loon) After that slightly insane experience we all went in to enjoy a dinner of potatoes, broccoli and trader Joe’s chicken sausages. After dinner, we took a ride around Boat Island Entering through the Back Channel and coming out again through Canoe Narrows. When we got back we enjoyed a slice of blueberry-peach pie that mom made while she read the first two chapters of the last installment of the Little Britches series, Horse of a Different Color. Then we read till about 10:00 and went to bed. --Paul

Day 3: July 29, 2008

Rained all night, the kids and Mom slept till 8:30. What a lazy and relaxing morning. The kids laid in bed and read till 10:00 am, they got up to homemade blueberry pancakes by Bridget. The pump on the boat seemed to run forever. There were lots of rumble of thunder, not much lightning or wind, just Paul. Blueberry picking with the family is always interesting, so we tried it again! Little& Big waves of shower came through today also. The rest of the day was spent reading and resting. We finished the night with a game of dominos.--Alan

Day 2: July 28, 2008

Today started at about 7:30, we all slept very well. After breakfast Hannah and Dad when to get water, but came back with some blueberries. Bridget unpacked and organized the cabin, while Paul went to investigate the boat. Paul and Dad launched the boat while Mom made Cheese sandwiches and soup. We took a boat ride over to the church camp and then to Dog Island to find out where the fish were biting. We all so were blessed with seeing 3 eagles very close on Paradise Island. On the way home Bridget and Paul got out and brought the canoe home from Cameron’s, beings they were leaving tomorrow. We plan on borrowing it for the trip up Piskegomang Brook. To this point Hannah is the only one to bath in the lake, we will overlook the fact it was in 8in of water. Paul wake boarded and got up the second time off the dock, but when he wiped out in the lake he had trouble starting out of the water. Bridget made quesadillas for dinner along with corn and potatoes. We ended the day per Hannah’s request by playing Clue for the first time. With everyone being a little tired it was a loopy experience. Alan pulled out the win at the end with the help of the kids not using their poker faces. --Alan

Something dad forgot to mention was that Chippie became a burglar and ate two of our ears of sweet corn that we brought from home. We kind of held it against him at the time, but pronounced it as a good riddance after we tasted it ourselves. It was so tough I couldn’t even finish mine!!! I really feel sorry for the Cameron’s and Grove’s as we gave them a lot of corn. (They said that they enjoyed it) --Paul

Day One: July 27, 2008

We left at four thirty in the morning, a half an hour late, but made good time from the beginning until we stopped for lunch at Superior, Mn. Then we wasted about an hour and a half eating, and shopping at Gander Mountain. Everyone got life is good shirts, except me. Then Hannah fell in love with a pink ocean kayak like Auntie Ann’s, and dad bought a new pole for his ultra light reel. The second half of the trip was a little bit more exciting. First we listened to and laughed at some Hank the Cowdog CD’s that mom had brought, then once we got onto highway 502 we looked for wildlife. At the beginning I thought that I saw a moose, but soon all thoughts of wild animals were driven from my mind as we crazily careened down the little two lane highway. As cars zoomed past us in the opposite lane, we came up on a very skinny wolf. He did not move, just stood in the road and gazed at us. He looked as if had not had a good meal in weeks.
--Paul

Canada pics

We had a great time. Thanks to everyone for making another special trip! JJL