More Photos of Up North

 

Today I worked on campus, and you know school is back in session when there's just so much more sugar around. All of us in the ARTs were assigned name tags, and I had to go pick mine up in another building, and on the way someone gave me a free granola bar. Then in the office where I picked it up, there were mini chocolate bars, so I took one. A coworker gave me a mini candy bar, and two colleagues came to my office to tell me that five floors above me were a bunch of treats. I took two kinds of cookies and an apple for later, and I also still have the granola bar, plus someone brought in pears, so I ate one. Oh, and our new chair gave me a biscotti (biscotto?). Just one.

Here are some more photos from our trip up North. First, a rock formation on top of Rib Mountain.

And the view from Rib Mountain.

A view from the Bearskin Trail.

The bridge on the Heart of Vilas County Bike Trail before the traffic jam started.

And the views from the bridge in either direction.

Moss and mushrooms on the Trout Lake Trail.

One sign we saw at the Trout Lake Station. Established 1925!

Another sign we saw: no Quinn on the beach! This means you, Quinn!

Another view of Firefly Lake.

Travalon's mocha at the Breakfast Bear.

Here's the logo for the Breakfast Bear - his nose is fried egg!

And Mr. Fat's cousin seems to live there.

A view of the Wisconsin River from Rib Mountain.

This is out of order, but here's a photo of Rest Lake (the one we stayed on) that Travalon took with his cell phone.

At Pauquette Park in Portage, we saw a couple of turtles.

More views of the park.

It has several bridges that lead to small islands. It's a very pretty park, and much closer by than most of the things in these photos. We could easily go visit on a Saturday.

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Photos from Our Road Trip Up North

 

Today I worked from home, and at lunch Travalon and I took a walk on Governor's Island, where we saw the big party boat Midnight Splash full of people. First we heard it - the music was LOUD! We wondered who got Tuesday off to go on a boat, and I wondered if a restaurant was taking their workers for a boat ride, since some of them are closed on Tuesdays. That's kind of a wonderful thought. When I worked in the private sector, literally everyone but me who had worked on a project was invited to go on a Betty Lou Cruise, and working for the university, we don't go on corporate boat rides. I didn't mind just going with Travalon and/or a friend or two, so hopefully they start back up again.

Here are some photos from our trip up North. First, here we are on Rib Mountain.

Here's the beach at our resort.

In this photo you can see the peddle boat we used.

Here we are on the Trout Lake Trail.

Some mushrooms on the trail.

Here is one of the swans at Presque Isle.

And their Veterans' Memorial with an eternal flame.

Their big excitement in town seems to be this floating stage.

We also saw this cute turtle there.

Here are a couple of shots of Firefly Lake.

Here I am re-enacting the photo on the main page of this blog. I thought I took one of Travalon also imitating this pose, but apparently his camera didn't actually take the photo.

Here is Mosinee Hill, aka. Baby Back Rib Mountain.

This is only a sampling. I will post more photos tomorrow.

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Baby Back Rib Mountain

 

Today we got going much earlier and were out of our cabin well before the checkout time of ten. We went to Dixie's Coffee again, and today there were only a few people there, unlike yesterday, when the line almost went out the door. Then Travalon suggested that we check out the Trout Lake Limnology Station. As longtime readers may remember, years ago our boat motor died way back in the marsh, and the Limnology boat gave us a tow back to our dock, so I gave them a donation to thank them. Now I get their newsletter, and they are always talking about the Trout Lake Station, and I imagined it as being way "up north" somewhere, but only when Travalon said he read about a grad student at the station did I realize it was the same Trout Lake we had hiked by two years in a row. We found the station, and of course it was closed for the holiday, but a guy did appear and stare at me for a moment. Apparently with my outdoorsy hat I looked like I belonged there, because he didn't say anything to me and disappeared again. We went down to their dock, where it looks like they have some epic parties.

You can't really see the fire pit and beach chairs in this photo, but believe me, they're there. You can see their yellow swimming dock. I had my university ID with me and was all ready to show it to this guy, but it seems my appearance caused him no concern. 

Our next stop was a trail around Firefly Lake further down the same road, but first we went to the Firefly Lake campground, and then we found the nameless gravel road the trail is on, but there was a yellow arrow indicating we should go to the right, so we ended up hiking for a bit on what appeared to be a snowmobile trail that went by Emerald Lake. We did hear a pileated woodpecker but unfortunately never saw it. We took the road back and went left instead, and indeed there was a trail around Firefly Lake, so we took it. The hiking website said it took seventeen minutes to complete, but it took us three times that long. I guess we are really slow. Photos soon!

We never saw the loon on Rest Lake, the one we sang a duet with on Saturday night, and on Sunday not long before sunset it was swimming around doing its laughing call. Last year we saw one in Minocqua, but this year we weren't hungry yet by the time we got to Minocqua, so we didn't stop for lunch. Not only did we see the people waving goodbye to all the tourists, we also saw a small anti-Trump protest. (There was a big one in Madison, but we didn't know about it until after we'd made plans to go up North.) The Cedar Creek Grill in Wausau wasn't open today, but the Breakfast Bear was, so we went there and got enormous portions. Of course we'd forgotten to bring any of our five coolers with us, so we bought a cheap styrofoam cooler at a nearby gas station to bring our leftovers home. Then we took a quick swing up Rib Mountain, where I re-enacted the photo on this blog, and so did Travalon. Will post them soon! We also tried to find a road to the top of Rib Mountain Jr. nearby, which is actually called Mosinee Hill, but Travalon called it Baby Back Rib Mountain and said that should be this blog post's title. Photos soon! We also saw a small protest on a bridge over the highway as we approached Wausau, but we couldn't find any information about an actual protest in Wausau itself. They might have been done by then anyway.

Then we drove until Pauquette Park in Portage.

The sun created quite a rainbow on the fountain there.

We saw a bald eagle there, and as we were driving we saw a huge nest on a utility pole with two owls sitting beside it. Travalon also saw a black squirrel run across the road. As always, it has gotten too late to post a lot of photos, but tomorrow I anticipate a quiet day of working from home and going to Adoration, so I expect to post a lot of photos then. Stay tuned!

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