vacation report

I am back in Ithaca!

It was a great vacation. On Monday we lost power from 7pm to 10:30pm, but that was okay because we'd already filled several containers with water (our pump is electric) and we ate smoked salmon and crackers for dinner because we couldn't cook (our stove is also electric; there are no gas lines on the island).

On Tuesday we hiked down to the east portage in to Lake Windigo and discovered that people have been hard at work improving the Windigo path; there are very nice log-and-board walkways over the really swampy bits of ground.

On Wednesday, we hiked north to O'Neil Point, past Unistar, and built a little monument of sticks and stones out on the sandy spit beyond the hard ground. It's a low water year, or that sandbar would have been underwater. In the afternoon, we swam and sunbathed; I turned bright pink, which I knew would happen, but I timed it right so I didn't actually burn. :-) At night we star-gazed for a while. We found Casseiopia, the Big and Little Dippers, the Summer Triangle, and Cygnus the Swan. We failed to find Pegasus, however, or to figure out how Vega and Altair fit into Lyra and Aquila. The Milky Way was bright and hundreds of dim stars were visible, which did make picking out constellations a bit trickier than usual -- there were so many stars to choose from!

On Thursday, Vicky and I defrosted the freezer and cleaned the refrigerator, which was a mess, but it's nice to feel useful. :-) Later that day we went into Bemidji and I finally got to see The Bourne Ultimatum while Vicky saw Hairspray. (Reactions possibly to follow, possibly not; it depends on how lazy I feel.) I drove us back out to the island in the dark, which was a little nerve-wracking -- it's hard to see the buoy marking safe water depth out from Ah-Nung Point in the dark -- but pretty cool.

On Friday we took the fishing boat out for a spin and found the mouth of the Mississippi River, after a few minutes of getting lost in Buck Lake because we picked the wrong set of reeds to drive through. We went home down the west shore so as to circumnavigate the island.

And on Saturday we drove down to the Twin Cities, where we discovered Ardis having a bad day, but Vicky says she was better this morning so with any luck that will be all right.

(Side note: I have now been chased through the woods by flies TWICE. *sigh* I don't know why I seem to be so attractive to Minnesota flies, but I am, and it's a blasted nuisance.)

I did, in fact, write a story by the 15th (as well as three more false starts and one mini-start that might go somewhere interesting), but it's currently trapped on Vicky's laptop until she gets to a place with internet access, which won't be until Thursday or Friday. If she's feeling kind, she'll edit it for me as well, which may add another day or two to the process. So we'll see how that goes. It's called "Along the Way" and is about Hermione, post-DH, and I'm blithely take advantage of my ignorance of whatever nonsense JKR has been saying in interviews, except having Ron and Harry be Aurors and Hermione be working for the Ministry in some capacity. It's so much more fun to make things up on my own. :-)

Now I have to catch up on a week's worth of lost internet. Oy vey!

vacation report

I am back in Ithaca!

It was a great vacation. On Monday we lost power from 7pm to 10:30pm, but that was okay because we'd already filled several containers with water (our pump is electric) and we ate smoked salmon and crackers for dinner because we couldn't cook (our stove is also electric; there are no gas lines on the island).

On Tuesday we hiked down to the east portage in to Lake Windigo and discovered that people have been hard at work improving the Windigo path; there are very nice log-and-board walkways over the really swampy bits of ground.

On Wednesday, we hiked north to O'Neil Point, past Unistar, and built a little monument of sticks and stones out on the sandy spit beyond the hard ground. It's a low water year, or that sandbar would have been underwater. In the afternoon, we swam and sunbathed; I turned bright pink, which I knew would happen, but I timed it right so I didn't actually burn. :-) At night we star-gazed for a while. We found Casseiopia, the Big and Little Dippers, the Summer Triangle, and Cygnus the Swan. We failed to find Pegasus, however, or to figure out how Vega and Altair fit into Lyra and Aquila. The Milky Way was bright and hundreds of dim stars were visible, which did make picking out constellations a bit trickier than usual -- there were so many stars to choose from!

On Thursday, Vicky and I defrosted the freezer and cleaned the refrigerator, which was a mess, but it's nice to feel useful. :-) Later that day we went into Bemidji and I finally got to see The Bourne Ultimatum while Vicky saw Hairspray. (Reactions possibly to follow, possibly not; it depends on how lazy I feel.) I drove us back out to the island in the dark, which was a little nerve-wracking -- it's hard to see the buoy marking safe water depth out from Ah-Nung Point in the dark -- but pretty cool.

On Friday we took the fishing boat out for a spin and found the mouth of the Mississippi River, after a few minutes of getting lost in Buck Lake because we picked the wrong set of reeds to drive through. We went home down the west shore so as to circumnavigate the island.

And on Saturday we drove down to the Twin Cities, where we discovered Ardis having a bad day, but Vicky says she was better this morning so with any luck that will be all right.

(Side note: I have now been chased through the woods by flies TWICE. *sigh* I don't know why I seem to be so attractive to Minnesota flies, but I am, and it's a blasted nuisance.)

I did, in fact, write a story by the 15th (as well as three more false starts and one mini-start that might go somewhere interesting), but it's currently trapped on Vicky's laptop until she gets to a place with internet access, which won't be until Thursday or Friday. If she's feeling kind, she'll edit it for me as well, which may add another day or two to the process. So we'll see how that goes. It's called "Along the Way" and is about Hermione, post-DH, and I'm blithely take advantage of my ignorance of whatever nonsense JKR has been saying in interviews, except having Ron and Harry be Aurors and Hermione be working for the Ministry in some capacity. It's so much more fun to make things up on my own. :-)

Now I have to catch up on a week's worth of lost internet. Oy vey!