Month: September 2017

We left Ironwood, Michigan at 830 am headed for the 3pm Pictured Rocks cruise at Musining, Michigan. An hour later the time zone changed and we "lost" an hour. I got a little concerned because the road was slow as we drove along a picturesque Lake Superior seafront…. But we arrived at Musining in plenty of time but the 2pm and 3pm cruises were cancelled due to wind and waves. OH darn! So I rescheduled for tomorrow Tuesday 12 noon. We figure we can eat a good breakfast and then cruise for 3 hours… we made rservations at a new recommended restaurant named Tracys at 4pm so our bellies ought not to be too far between meals … Meanwhile, Rain might cancel tomorrow… but I’m not worried. We have the luxury to stay another day if we want. We got a room with TV, wi fi, refrig, microwave, king sized bed overlooking the water!!!! We step outside and walk to the seawall which has benches, barbeque… waves… I could stay here a week. Its a bit blustery albeit the sun is shining!!!! Time for a walkabout along the shore! God bless You.

Yesterday might have dawned cold and misty, but we dutifully got on the road and as we crossed the border into Wisconsin just after Duluth and the day began to change. By the time we got to Bayfield, the sun came out and we began to feel better about cruising on Lake Superior. We were about to go on the ferry to Madeline island but there was no long term parking! So we went to lunch instead opposite the Apostles cruises office….. Chuck said, "What’s the 2pm cruise?" He wasn’t sure about driving out of town for our hotel and then driving back in the morning and making the 10am cruise…. So I trotted across the street and exchanged our 10am "tomorrow" tickets for 2pm "today". We then ate lunch and got on the 2pm cruise. When we cruised into the wind on Lake Superior it was windy and chilly!!! People began to put on jackets and I put on jacket and scarf!!! We cruised past the 12 Apostles (12 islands out in the bay from Bayfield,) we drove past amazing rock formations and caves and generally enjoyed almost 3 hours cruising the largest freshwater lake in the world (I think)…. Coming back into Bayfield at 5pm it was sunny and warm! We had a drink up at the Bayfield Inn overlooking the harbor, basked in the setting sun and then headed out for our hotel. Turns out the nearest place I could get Labor Day weekend was 1 1/2 hours east! When we got into Ironwood, and checked into our hotel, we both agreed we were grateful that we took the cruise already rather than try to get up and rush over to the 10am cruise on Sunday morning. As it turns out I got to go to 8am Mass at Our Lady of Peace with a wonderful priest who gave a good homily and prayed a long and beautiful Eucharistic prayer. I told him after Mass that the church is a very peaceful place; it could be that Our Lady really does protect her people and helps them to find peace. We went out to explore and found a sale at a sporting goods store… and are now going out to a restaurant that has music on the patio from 2 to 8. Ironwood is a beautiful hilly town with a ski lift for ski fying! They call this the Northland! Snow is very important to these people!!!! Have a wonderful Labor Day! God bless you.

We spent a whole week in bliss at Clear Lake and I didn’t write anything! The Grotto of the Redemption was about an hour drive west of Clear Lake past corn fields. A tiny town with a beautiful church where a priest from Germany (trained in the Seminary in the US from the age of 20) built over about 14 years a big series of grottos depicting Adam and Eve in Paradise, the birth of Christ, the time in Nazareth, the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection among other events. The priest went all over the world using his own money to find rock (agates and other fine rocks…) and just built what was in his head. I caught a tour and enjoyed about 2 quiet hours and finished in the church with a tiny grotto of the Nativity. It was beautiful. We spent every sunny day on the lake, caught a beautiful sunset, and I got one day in the pool. I just don’t like to go into a cold pool and I need a hot sun shining to go in! We worked on the puzzle, ate out a lot, visited new friends at the VFW, and I got to go to daily Mass on Wednesday and Thursday at St Patrick’s. All in all it was Idyllic! We left Friday morning and drove north through St Paul and Minneapolis, cut in half by the Mississippi River. So we said a final hello and goodbye to our river that we visited for about 2 weeks solid on this trip. Today, Saturday, dawned muzzy, cloudy, foggy and rainy; chilly too!!! So we will go out bravely on route 35, cross into Wisconsin, and I hope, drive along a tiny route 13 which skirts the shore of Lake Superior to the town called Bayfield where we will catch the cruise to the Apostle Islands tomorrow. Then we will go to our hotel which I took for 2 nights. OK! It’s not clearing up, and we can’t stay here forever, so up and out. God bless you!!!