Pontoon Boat Ride in Minocqua

Sorry that I didn't blog yesterday - by the time I could, my computer decided to update my web browser, so I just went to bed. I am blogging this morning in our hotel room before we check out. Yesterday we went into Minocqua to find coffee, but that was an adventure because one place was a sit-down restaurant, another only sold coffee beans, and we couldn't find the third one. We finally got coffee at the ice cream place, then we checked out a couple of antique stores but didn't find anything interesting.

Then Travalon wanted to check out the Bittersweet Wild Lakes State Recreation Area, so we followed a very scary gravel road forever, until we got to a place where we could turn around, then we went back to the "parking lot" (grassy field) at the start of the scary road and took a rosary walk along an ATV trail.

Then we went to a wonderful pizza place overlooking a lake for lunch, and after that we went to yet another antiques store, where Travalon found a book and a magazine, and I found so many beautiful rosaries that it was hard to choose just a few.

Then we took a pontoon boat ride on the lakes in Minocqua. Here we are on the boat.

We saw lots of great stuff (I could do a whole post of just the cool boat houses), but the internet is slow here so I will only post a few photos. This is Beer Can Island, which has a sandbar to the left where people park their boats and party in the shallow water. The local legend is that it started out just a sandbar, but all the beer cans built it up into an island.

This is the cottage where Travalon stayed with his buddy from Japan a couple of summers ago.

And we saw plenty of what we came for - loons!

We saw a bald eagle too! Travalon took the first shot, and then I took the picture of the eagle flying away.

We also saw a great blue heron.

And a duck having the best time playing in a sprinkler!

Then we had a really good fish fry at Sisters Bar, which was in our book of historic taverns, and then I talked to Tiffy while Travalon went fishing. He saw another bald eagle!

And here is the spot where he went fishing. Isn't it beautiful?

After that, we swam again in our wonderful hotel pool. The walls and ceiling are hardwood, like a sauna or a North Woods lodge. And that is why I didn't blog last night.

Famous Hat