HEY! New school year!---- you're on deck

Holy smokes I am exhausted right now...  It isn't so much the fact that I hauled myself out of bed indeed before 5 am (because I am crazy, that is why) but the fact that I ended up with 2 kayak sessions yesterday for a grand total of 9.3 miles or something to that effect....

Clouds began to breakup and the sun did indeed come out!

While I am certainly capable of going 9 plus miles in a kayak, I had also done a nice little weight lifting session on Saturday and concentrated on my shoulders, abs and arms. So, yeah, I feel MY triceps this morning.  And when I do fairly heavy workouts like that, I do not sleep well.  Because I wake up all the time and rearrange myself and fall fitfully back to sleep and then rinse and repeat.  I believe I got up at 1:30 and took ibu- evidence left on the kitchen counter points to that conclusion.  Lol.

This blue heron proved to be a little sneaky, but Lisa spotted him in a tree

It was a GORGEOUS day for kayaking though.  Both times!  I went on Butternut Lake with the Mad-Lisa friend in the morning.  We didn't see the eagle, as per usual, in the tree of choice- but we did scare up a blue heron and then followed the thing over to the other side of the lake.  And we founded him!!  YAY!  While there were a lot of fishing boats on the lake, it was pretty peaceful and nice.  Perfect temps, only light breezes- water therapy at its best.

The clouds were quite amazing- I was wishing for my wide-angle lens

Last night, the MA sprung it on me that he wanted to kayak with me--- so I am INCAPABLE of saying no to that, so off we went to Smith Lake.  I found some ducks and a loon and some fishermen- but only one boat full.  It was super nice last night and the river was like glass.  And then we got back in time to FaceTime with the Mad-Oldest son and his lovely family.  With those two girls, that can be quite the entertaining event.  Ava is starting to crawl around and Ella gets increasingly silly as she gets more tired....  It is quite enjoyable.  hehehe

Young mergansers

Anyway, I do realize the post title says something about school- so yeah, we have full-fledged, sitting-all-day, summer-ending meetings..... today and tomorrow.  And then there is Open House on Wednesday with school beginning on Sept.1.  I've just resigned myself to the meetings, as they must be morally obligated to "improving our teaching" or some such thing.  There is a session this morning that seems will be pertinent and sometime in the next 2 days I get to collaborate on curriculum with my compadre from the Glidden school- so there is that!!  I just hope that I have enough breathing room to keep working on my lesson plans.  I used to be able to have a semester worth of plans ready- but that was when I only taught elementary school.  So I retain that panic of not having more than the first 3 weeks pencilled in.  Though I know that is ridiculous and no one has a whole semester ready, unless they do the same thing all the time.  Which I am incapable of doing.  Which reminds me, I have a brand new first day of art for the elementary school in the works (I always love finding new stuff like this) and I have a HUGE amount of paper cutting that needs to be done- any volunteers???  Lol, just asking'!

This guy showed up unexpectedly right in front of me!  The light last night was lovely

Hey, when did it occur that it is so dark at 5am??  I know that there are clouds and an impending Thunderstorm, but wth is with that??  I think I am in seasonal denial.

A pair of fishermen were spotted- I have other photos- I just found this one interesting how the people pop out and the rest is sort of hazy-- and I see its a touch crooked.  oops.

Anyway, I have to finish this up and go do a few things- at least I do not have to dress up today.  That will be coming soon enough!

So, make this day a joyful one.  I, for one, will be avoiding the joy-stealers that lurk about the area.... I am going to make the best of the day if I possibly can.  Happy Monday!

25 days and feeling on course

I feel a little more grounded this morning, while I did not get the ordering done I had planned, I did get a main list of things to do started....

Playing with a loon

Hello I am the Mad-Artteacher and I am obsessively blogging about my trip to Italy!  :)  In case I have a new blog reader??  Anyway, after a nice long talk with my always calming little seester Rose, we have a plan of attack for what we are taking along. I really do feel a lot better about every thing.

Other than that, I - sort of against my better judgement- went for another kayak in the morning.  I say that because my hand and arm is a bit sore today. I have a little issue with a carpal tunnel sort of thing, and for the first 45 min. I had to stop occasionally to let my hand stop tingling.  However,
 I was lured by the water and the wildlife and the sky and the warmth further and further downstream until I decided to turn around when I got about as far as I originally planned.  After a very cool spring, the sun was just such an amazing thing to feel on my face.

Turtle on one of the stumps in the flowage

I previously wrote that I had some issues with the pictures I took on my Saturday kayak, and so I partially auto and partially manual for this trip.  And I ended up with some pretty decent shots!  There was literally no one on the water all morning, except for the flying or four-legged kind.  It was exhilarating and meditative all at the same time.

LOVELY morning

Other than that the MA and I did some gardening things and I did a lot of rearranging and repotting of plant life and things like that.  And again, against my better judgement, I did some weeding and my hand is not happy with me this morning. But it does make the flower gardens look better, and I will persist a half hour at a time.

Hello little bug

So, there is 8.5 days left at school and I need to start getting my rooms cleaned.  And I need to get my grading done.  This is the last week of school for the seniors and I am not sure they will accomplish much.  They will clean their untidy little areas of my room, and I will get back all of their art work, and finish off their final grades- hopefully tomorrow.  Today is my last Monday!  WOW, and Friday is the last regular Friday, so this is big stuff.  Any one out there want to help straighten up an art room or 3??

I better get off of here and get ready for school.  I will be wishing my Monday children a happy farewell today, and I will get leg hugs and love you from a whole lot of little kiddos and that definitely will give me joy.

 *I will be including a link to some art in Italy every day.  :)  It isn't hard to find.

A Mind Full of random- 26 days

Yesterday was indeed a lovely day in northern Wisconsin....  I got a walk and a kayak in and then a little gardening.  So, I did indeed sleep a bit last night.  Good news, for those of you who care or are keeping track.

NOT what you would expect to be seeing in the river  :)

I experienced a bit of frustration yesterday when I got home from said kayak and found that many of my photos were blurry.  **insert cursing**  WHY??  Well I'll tell you, I tried using a different setting(TV mode, or shutter preferred) and I didn't have my shutter speed set high enough.  MASSIVE SIGHS.  I keep feeling like I should have this all down pat, but it is all just practice and its all ok.  I had massive anxiety last night over the whole thing, though.  Thank heaven I had my Twitter friend, the Mad-O'sFan, to keep me occupied because I think everyone else was out having a night-life or sleeping or something.  Which is what I should have done- the sleeping part.  

So this morning I am thinking I should hop in the kayak and just go for a paddle and calm myself, but I am not sure.  When I get like this I am not sure of anything.  Now I am thinking obsessively about what I need for clothes for this trip and also shoes....  Really I should just be contacting my doctor and asking for sedatives at this point, because none of this is going to get easier.  However, if I walk or kayak by myself it is like meditation, so this is the thing I must do.

It was a gorgeous day out on the river, so nice to sit in the warmth of the day and when one forgets to sunscreen one's legs, you might even end up with a minor sunburn.  I had taken off my t-shirt in favor of my tank top, so I was able to cover my legs with the shirt for the second half of the event.  The river was just lovely, there was a little bit of activity in the animal world, and then there was the boat that ran into a rock or stump that gave us some entertainment.  

We were paddling along and were quite a distance, and saw this boat coming down the flowage.  While it was not going fast, someone was not watching for the serious plethora of rocks and stumps that are under the surface of this body of water.  The boat went UP over the rock at a minimum of 45 degrees, then of course started to level out a bit as it went ONTO the stump and tipped way over to one side.  I thought they were going over for sure.  Then they revved their engines with the prop pretty much out of the water so you can imagine how well that worked.  Eventually they pushed them selves off because it appeared he had a random 2x4 in his boat.... why?  We paddled way off to the side as there certainly was nothing we could do in kayaks....  and maybe we wanted to quietly mock them for trying to get into a place where a speed boat sort of had no business going.  But that could be just a rumor.

Otherwise,  it was a busy day full of gardening and animal care and trying to make sure the MA doesn't "use up" his spray paint of any of my stuff.  The man is a nut job sometimes. One time several years ago, he "used up" my cobalt blue enamel paint on the window sills on the back side of the garage.  No one sees this but holy crap that still gives me eye twitches.  I have been getting statements referring to me being gone all summer.... as in- why don't you get me such and such since you will be gone all summer?  Or I guess I won't plant such and such this year since you will be gone all summer.  All in jest of course.  Ha- what that says is I think someone is slightly worried about being by himself for 2 weeks.  And since he has no cell phone, unless I can figure out when to get in a quick FaceTime, communication could be limited.  But I'm working on figuring that one out. Poor baby.  Fortunately he is capable of taking care of himself of course.

A pile of painted turtles, who did  not move when I got within 10 feet of them- not typical

I am seriously cringing over having to back to school tomorrow.  These last couple weeks are brutal.  Fortunately, the hs kids all have projects.  I just have to get thing cleaned up with their help at the end of the week.... 

Oh the mad rush to clean all those art rooms up.... I think I will return to stressing out what to wear in Italy- that is a lot more fun.

Not sure what the day is going to bring today, but I am hoping for a little joy giving and I hope a little joy receiving.  And perhaps a little conference call with my seester-Rose to discuss life.

Have a lovely, joyful day.

27 days- A few pictures and such

Now, it is seeming like I am setting myself up for a daily count down to the trip, doesn't it?  The thing about me is that I really DO want to do that.....  how evah! We all know that could quickly go awry depending on a multitude of things including my particular sleep quality on any given day and my ability to get distracted by the least little..... oh shoot I have to do some shopping online- like TODAY!!!  You get the picture.

Isn't he an impressive guy? or girl?

I get to kayaking today with my newest kayak buddy, Lisa.  I have to figure out a Mad name for her, as I have a Mad English teacher already, but this will come to me.  Maybe I need to check with her before calling her the Mad-Lisa, ya know?  But on the other hand I have checked with no one else concerning their names, sooooo......  Focus, Debi, focus.

Gorgeous calm night

Mad-Lisa and I are going to go for a paddle today on Smith Lake, which I am looking forward to.  I very much enjoy the river, and I think we should go up to the Pixley dam.  I will let the wind and the river decide- and also my companion.  ONE OF THESE DAYS, people, I am going to get the MA out there, and it could be tomorrow morning.  We shall see.

YAY for summer (ish) weather

These pictures that I am posting are from my last journey in a kayak.  After a minor kerfuffle on a certain silly Facebook page, I have discovered that changing lenses frequently in the great outdoors can make ones camera sensor dirty.  Which (shhhhhh, I just didn't know) apparently happens to everyone.... why is it I didn't know this?  Because the camera I had didn't have as many pixels, because the lenses don't rock my socks like these do???  Because I didn't do a ton of outdoor wildlife photography before and didn't change lenses 55 times in 2 hours because I have a sick need to take cloud and landscape photos, even though I am supposedly out to photograph birds???  You choose.  Idk, but I have a specialized can of air being ordered as we speak and last night I did some interesting maneuvers that involved no lens and rapid-fire shooting at the floor to try to dislodge the dust.  It actually worked well but after taking pictures of a plain wall and scrupulously searching every centimeter of that image on my camera, there is a little left.  Did you know that there is such a thing as a pixel peeper??  HAHAHA  people who will enlarge other peoples photos and look at them like up  super CLOSE???  Who has the time to do things like that?  I have my own pixels to peep at and that my dears, is a never ending chore.  And then to rudely comment on some innocent art teacher's photo that she was so proud of for the perfect- if I do say so myself- exposure after fighting with it for several months now??  The things you find out at 11:30 at night.

FIERCE eyes

Anywho, my sleep quality last night was REALLY bad, so I need to wear myself out today.  Kayaking and a reasonable, say an hour, walk should do the trick.  Besides perhaps some weeding and the normal stuff that happens on a day.  So that is the plan!

Back to Italy, which you may as well get used to the fact that this will be a focus of this for a while,  I am starting a pile- a stack if you will- of things that I will be taking.**  And a list of the things I need to get online.  And I am definitely thinking about my footwear, as if you want to try out a few things you have to have lead time up here.

My kind of evening

And because this is VERY important to me- I figure that I have 31 days until I get to see Michelangelo's  David.  And THAT will give me a whole lot of joy!

But first its a lovely sunny day here, going to be in the 70's, no rain, not a lot of wind....  perfect for the kayaker types.  Weather we have been waiting for for about 6 months. Ready, set, get going on your day!!

**You would not believe the amount of time I spent on this sentence and trying to decide what exact punctuation to use.  This is a combination of the fact I like to be fairly accurate and also the thought of certain English teacher types that may or may not be reading this.  HAHAHA  Not that I am really all that worried about it, but I like to be in the ball park.  Don't judge me ;)

Saturday on the river and Sunday inside

 As I write this it is raining like crazy outside.  We haven't had a lot of rain lately and with all the dry grass and the windy days, the fire danger has been way up.  So it is really a good thing - and it gives one an excuse to rest inside.

It is a different Sunday from last week when the MA was frantically filing returns and mostly extensions, and was gone for 10 hours I think.  He is now doing Fred things that involve trucks and crowbars and wagons and possibly a chain saw.....  In other words, he is in his own personal heaven.  I have a little project to do myself that I have been putting off (um, blogging to procrastinate??) and probably should be reading my book for bookclub, but that will be later.

Yesterday I had lots of little plans, some of them were changed but the essence stays the same.  I went to a baby shower in the morning, after fiddling around outside for a while and then made an early exit to get in a kayak before the clouds (and rain) came in.

I miss my kayak buddy!  This is our dock and text and selfie spot (I do selfies- not him)  

I put on my wet suit thing and my splash jacket with a t-shirt underneath, because it was in the 60's.  Nice and warm for this time of the year.... the water is still REALLY cold though- hence said wet suit.  Anyway, now that I have this amazing lens and camera body (seriously - forgive me you guys for repeating myself.  I can't believe how much better this camera is than my other one.  My photos are still composed the same, but the increased ability for this equipment to pick up details and the exposure is just so different.....  I am constantly blown away by the whole thing.)  I take it everywhere.  And it is a "thing" to keep it covered and protected and tucked away under my knees, and it is another "thing" to change the lenses and keep them safe while trying to hurry to not miss a shot- ahem- you will understand this in a moment.  I am so torn between doing the kayaking thing to get activity (which I LOVE) and the whole wildlife photography thing. So I am trying to dovetail them with pretty good results.  I am going to do some pure photo shoot kayaks soon, though.  Where I sit and wait- which may outright kill me dead- but I can do it.

THIS is my place- the water in Wisconsin

So I had the MA and the Barber (the Barber was important, as he is the one with the cell phone)  take me down to the boat landing as they had something to do with the truck, and I took off.  I had to show them kayaking tricks first (lol- they are so goofy) which involved turning and paddling backwards and me generally showing off- the MA asked me to, so...   I think that someone is trying to brace himself for a paddle in his future.  Fred is not a big fan of water- when you come right down to it- but he is willing to go kayaking.  It will not be windy that day... long story.

Buffleheads- I didn't consider this the best picture, but it ended up being kind of interesting

I had started out my trip thinking that this was going to be mostly an exercise/fun trip down the river but within about 100 yards there was the first group of ducks - which I just looked up and it is something called a Bufflehead- huh.  Who knew. Followed quickly by Mallards and others that I couldn't see well enough to identify.  Then I saw a swan floating up river a bit.  So- ok- not just an exercise trip.  I kept feeling rushed as I wanted to get to the Lower Dam before it totally clouded up and try to get a good picture of the barn that belongs to Fred's aunt- used to be his Grandparents farm. The pic I got was fine, but I know that mornings are better, so I will be doing that trip again.  

The Farm

It was a fun paddle up that river- I stopped and changed lenses a badillion times.  Each time I switched to my landscape lens, I would see another animal....  I am SO grateful I thought to bring a little chocolate with me for a snack- I didn't have any other portable foods that wouldn't make a mess in my dry bag- and of course water.  It was tough paddling in some places, the river was going faster than it usually is and then on the way back there was the wind. All this is stuff I love, so don't feel bad for me.  :)  Anyway, I shed my splash jacket in favor of a t-shirt eventually and it was a comfy 2.5 hours.

One of my favorite shots so far this year.  Tundra Swan.

I caught up with the swan a couple times that trip, trying to get a little bit close to it, but not pushing it's personal space too much.  Obviously since I have lots of flight photos, I spooked it a bit.  Sorry swan.  But wow some great shots.  I have learned from a photog friend how to set my camera up for bird action shots, which I am really starting to understand.  Some of my  pix were a little out of focus yet, but that I imagine is the relative newness of my Canon 100-400 lens.  He's heavy and also the kayak seemed to always turn in the direction counter to the flight of the birds.  But cool to know I am getting the hang of panning the camera and all.  I do need to set up my camera body for multiple shots instead of single....  I am a slow learner I guess.  

Lift off!

So the annoying part of this trip was I had once again- in anticipation of said barn- switched to my landscape lens, which was a trick to stay heading in the right direction and not end up on a rock or whatever.  So I am almost there and I spot on a rock the biggest Snapping Turtle I have EVER seen or imagined.  Holy crap.  It's shell looked too small for its body- I can't even describe how massive this thing is.  Bigger than the one I saw last year way up by the other dam.  I guess it is possible that it is the same one, but jeez.  It seemed bigger.  So yeah- frantic switching of lenses almost commenced and then I decided to shoot the pic with the lens that was attached and as I floated even with him he bailed.  ARGH.  Oh well.  I will say that later, while practically zooming downstream (there was a current- lol) I saw this kind big thing poke its head out of the water- of course the turtle in question- he was checking me out.  LOL- keep your dogs and small children away from the water people.  A dinosaur lives in the Flambeau.

However these adorable little painted turtles gladly posed.  

Anyway, 6 miles is a long way for your second kayak of the season.  LOOOONG.  The last mile was tough going, but I just set my mind to it and dug down and went.  Didn't see quite as many things coming back, which was fine.  I was no longer in the photo taking mood.  I just wanted to get back so I could 1.) get to my bathroom 2.) take that wet suit off and 3.) quit paddling.  My shoulders were tired and my hands were getting sore.  Thank you to weight lifting for my endurance- and I know where I have to add to my routine- traps and the top of my shoulder.  Dumbbell shrugs are in my future.  I texted the Barber, who was with the MA, that they needed to drop what they were doing and get me.  They were waiting and I was grateful to let them load the 'yak and I babbled on about turtles and swans.

I was later treated to a trip to the Mad-Middle Son's house and I got to see Greg and Sarah and the babies and the doggies....  SO nice.  Then Mikey came over and ended up having steak for supper with his dad.  I of course did not have steak...  But the grill has gotten a good work out the last 24 hours.

Peaceful - it makes me sad, though.  I thought swans mated for life.  Poor thing.  Hope it finds one when it gets to the tundra

It was a long tiring day, but in a totally good way.  And last night I fell asleep to the spring peepers calling and the rain falling and I passed out until almost 7 this morning.  THAT is sleeping in for the Mad-Artteacher.  Haha, I am pathetic.  But always joyful!  Hope you are having a lovely relaxing Sunday all of you lovely peeps! 

Photo-drive!

This past Sunday found me waking up feeling sulky over the cold and nasty (read: snowy) weather that had occurred over the previous 2 days.  Friday afternoon had us all giddy from the early release from school: a half snow-day. Saturday, I was in a fine mood- though it was cold- it was sunny and man, I needed that.  Got a walk in, and planned to drive back to the stone house  to take some nice sunny afternoon pictures.  I was a little miffed when it clouded up  by the time I got home and so much for sunny pictures.  Ugh.  So Sunday I woke up sort of sad, which has been characteristic of my Sundays lately.  Weird, as I don't really dread Mondays, but oh well.  Anyway, I had made pancakes and was cleaning up and saying "see ya" to the MA, when I noticed patches of blue skies to the north and west!!!! Oh. Yeah. Baby.

The boat landing, you can see the ice and the ducks and geese

I am always on the look out for interesting clouds/landscapes so I grabbed my camera and headed out the door to the field.  Well, that was all fine, but I decided instead of sitting in the house and pouting, I would go for a drive.... since my chauffeur was otherwise occupied at the office.  I had only my camera and my regular lens, but had the conscious conversation with myself about how angry I would be if I had the chance to grab my long lens and didn't..... so I did!

Receding clouds 

Here comes the sun... 

I began in the yard, actually, but started the road trip down at Smith Lake.  Those were some tough shooting conditions- the sun is directly in front of you at this time of the year at 8:15.  I got a few pretty acceptable shots, and I took my self into the car and went over to the stone house to grab some shots over there.  In my usual optimistic way, I was thinking how nice it was to walk around in the grass that was slightly covered with snow- a. the tall grass was beaten down and b. no ticks!!  Combine the snow with the fact that it was close to 0 the night before and the ticks are temporarily suppressed.

Yes, I would like to kayaking in you by the weekend, thank you.

Though the highlights are blown out, I do love this picture I think.  :)

Moody back view of the stone house

The stone house has some challenges as well- there is this amazing stone foundation that is left over from an old barn.  It is really hard to get that foundation in any recognizable form, as it is long and narrow and there is so much vegetation.  Even at this time of the year, a lot is obscured by the branches.  I have an idea for the next time I get there, so I'll take another crack at it.  Otherwise, I was so happy walking around and finding other angles to shoot.  I had the MA's voice in my head warning me about where to step, as you never know where there might be an abandoned well.

Part of the foundation and an apparent silo

It was fun to shoot there and at the quickly degrading house across the street, and so where to go next?  I had seen in one of the many snowfalls this past week a little pond that is up the road towards town.  I had seen the boy who lives in the house next to it fiddling around with a canoe in that pond during the week (this water will dry up later in the spring), and he left it on the shore.  I noticed this picture as I was driving past to go to work several mornings in a row, so I parked and got that shot too.  I am not 100% happy with this, but it will do.

The canoe is waiting

So after a quick stop at the grocery store, I decided that maybe I should drive up to Butternut Lake and see if I could get some cloud shots over the lake. The clouds were sort of cooperating and I thought of a few places that I could try out.  Since I was on the highway I drove up to the boat landing on the far end of the lake.  I have no idea if you would consider that the north side or the east side or what the hell ever... but I went to the little boat landing - Koch's landing- for those of you in the know.  I was scoping out the state of the blue sky and where the sun was as I was driving into the area and was stunned by the sight that greeted me.  There was open water by the shore, ice after that and a bunch of waterfowl!!  Probably 10 swans (tundra swans) and a bunch of geese and ducks as well.  **I would like to thank my intuition for insisting on taking along the telephoto lens**  Anyway, I quietly exited the car and avoided actually getting knee deep in the swampy margins of the lake, and found a frozen path out past much of the brush that was obstructing my view.  I realized about 30 min. later that I was seriously underdressed and had inadequate footwear! Oh well, feet can be warmed and car seat heaters can be turned up. I do get myself into places I don't expect, lol.  Even with the size of my new lens, I was still a bit far away, but the quality of my camera allowed some serious cropping of the photos of these birds.

Tundra swan

Beautiful in flight

Oh, and I stopped at the big boat landing on the west side of the lake too!  

I learned a lot about my camera on this trip, and from some photography discussions I learned what I REALLY should have set my camera setting to.  Lol.  I was so happy with this day!  In spite of not being able to get out to kayak yet, and the cold, and the snow, I did use some of these conditions to my advantage!

I admittedly slapped a preset on this one!  :) Its a bit bright.  haha

Of course part of learning new things is being frustrated with not knowing instantly how to do everything, if that makes sense?!  So even after successfully solving a few issues with the camera, the editing program offers its own array of bang-your-head-on-the-table moments.  Thank heaven for YouTube.  I found one guy, who I LOVE listening to (Swiss accent- I am a sucker for an accent) but he sort of over-edits.  But I have found so much technique that I can use and I needed to start somewhere. So I am loving the way most of these pictures are turning out, but there are flaws in all of them.  And they make my eye twitch.  But, I am showing you the ones that don't make me slam my computer shut in irritation, so there is that!! Lol

Anyway, I am finding my way around this new technology and feel like I am making some progress.  I sort of thrive on these sorts of challenges and am looking forward to more.  I am itching to get some portraits now, I wonder if I have any grandchildren available for practice??  :D That will certainly be a joy!

Weekend day trips to the north

It snowed this past week, and though everyone said it would be gone by Saturday, it was indeed NOT gone.  But that did not stop the Mad-missing-English teacher and I from striking out on both Saturday AND Sunday for points north! 

Now living where we (I guess, I, now) do, one wouldn't think that we would need to strike out farther north, and yet we do.  There are waterfalls to be found, and lakes to be listened to, coffee to be consumed, and breakfast to be enjoyed.  Among other things, you know.

A slam on the brakes moment that needed to be captured

The Chippewa River north of Glidden

 We set off bright and early to head north to our favorite place to eat- possibly in the world- Coco's in Washburn.  After the proper amount of nourishment, we set off on Hwy C towards Cornucopia to a water cascade area called Siskiwit Falls.  We'd never been there, and we are always up for something new- Always.
There was a lot of water in this river and it was quite exciting to be so close to it.  We had done a little research and we knew that there were several areas that could be looked at.  We went as far as we could, slipping a little on the leaves and pine needles- and the afore mentioned snow, but the problem was, for this location,  a gigantic tree had gone down effectively stopping us from getting over to the best vantage point for both our viewing pleasure and for photos.  Sort of a bummer, but you so couldn't get there, so....  on to the next place.

Part of Siskiwit Falls

Our next stop was a planned trip to Lost Creek Falls.  We had been there last spring right around the spring thaw- but there was not nearly as much water then as there was Saturday!  All the rain and snow we have gotten filled the creeks and made a really great show for waterfallers such as ourselves.

The path to Lost Creek Falls

Lost Creek

Through the trees 

The Falls- a lot of water here!

As we needed to ponder our next move, we decided to go to Meyers Beach, as we were very close anyway!  Wow was this ever a great idea.  The pictures don't really show the amazing waves that were occurring- they were huge and rolling.  When you looked out at the lake, it didn't look that rough, but as the waves came to shore they broke in beautiful rolls spreading along the shore.  wow!  The cool thing was that every point that we saw the lake during the day had a different look.  It was so interesting.

again, these photos can't show the power, rhythm and sounds that were present Saturday.  

Flotsam and jetsam on shore

Looking towards the sea caves

lovely driftwood pieces artfully arranged by Mother Nature and Lake Superior

 We decided that we wanted to explore a few places that we had seen signage for, but had never ventured off to look at ..... so off we drove to the north.  Our first stop was Little Sand Bay Campground waaaaaaay up to the north, but there really wasn't too much to see there.  So we decided to try to find a "rustic campground" called Point Detour.  Apparently Point Detour is the farthest point north in Wisconsin, which we decided was worth getting out of the car to investigate.  Rustic it certainly was, by the way, we can't even comprehend how anyone in a camper could possibly even get their camper in that place. But maybe this is a campground that people don't drag more than a tent.

The lake definitely had a different look here.

We had to stop at the top of these stairs as there was a board across them- because there were about 8 steps out in the middle.....  and upon further investigation from the bottom, the entire thing is more than a bit rickety.  We had to shimmy down the side of the stairs, which was quite an adventure to say the least.  Leaves and pine needles and snow added up to some interesting footing this entire weekend.

After hanging out on this rocky landing for a while, and you will notice that the lake has a totally different look than at the beach, we decided to head on over to Bayfield.  We of course landed in the coffee shop for a while, and then walked on down to the docks, where our favorite ferry the Madeline was coming into town.

We ended up in Ashland at supper time, and I had one of those (almost) tire screech moments where I had to pull off the road to one of the lakeside parks to take some sunset photos.  The colors were just too compelling and the lake was so gorgeous and calm.

The Mad-English teacher and I went waterfalling Sunday as well.  After a nice pancake Sunday breakfast we headed on up to Iron County and visited Potato River Falls.  We had also been there earlier this year, but it was nothing like what we saw that day.  It is unfortunate for the picture taking that we had to be there in the morning, as the sun was really difficult.  But oh well.  The fall were STUNNING.  So much water, so loud, so fun to see.  The footing here and at Copper Falls was terrorizing in many places.  The wooden stairs and boardwalks were very slippery in spots and I had some really bad flashbacks.  I will over come this I promise!

Potato River Falls- Upper Falls

We decided to head to Copper Falls as well, which I have to say people around here take this for granted.  It is a gorgeous place and the falls are just spectacular.  It was fun to be there during the off season where there were no other visitors....  However, I did miss the concession stand's ice cream cones.  haha.

Brownstone Falls I think.

Interesting patterns on the ground

We had a nice time climbing around and investigating the various places around the park.  Again, the Falls were spectacular.

This was a great GREAT way to spend a weekend!  Seeing the glory of the scenery that is northern WI gave me more than my share of joy, and spending it with my partner in all things adventure completed the experience.