Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2011-09-09 04:00 pm
edenfalling) wrote2011-09-09 04:00 pm
Entry tags:
Star Island, Days 7 & 8
(This is a record of Wednesday the 7th and Thursday the 8th, though I am writing and posting it a day late.)
On Wednesday the four of us (plus dog) went for a hike around Lake Windigo. It's been a high water year and the lakeshore path was quite soggy in several places -- this is inevitable given that Star Island is basically several giant intersecting sand piles with bog and marsh in between the bluffs, and Windigo, being, you know, a lake, obviously sits down in the middle of the low bits. We had Tuesday's leftovers for lunch. They were still delicious. *grin*
In the afternoon Dad and I took the boat in to the mainland and visited Forestedge Winery, whose tagline is, "Specialty wines made from the fruits and berries that survive the northern winters." In other words, fruit wine. But they don't make sweet wines; they are attempting to make serious, dry wines that just happen to not be made from grapes. I bought a bottle of white cranberry wine, a bottle of rhubarb wine, and a bottle of, IIRC, an apple and black currant blend; my parents will bring them to me the next time they visit, because I neither had room in my suitcase to pack them nor a desire to check my suitcase instead of bringing it through security as a carryon.
The reason I had no room in my suitcase, incidentally, is that I acquired two mock-turtlenecks my Aunt Jan had left in case they fit me, plus five t-shirts and two long-sleeved shirts my Aunt Cara had brought. She's been fighting a nasty moth infestation for over a year now, and keeps having to wash and dry clothes at very high temperatures to kill any moths or moth eggs, which means she can't wear them anymore and has to give them away. Since she is taller and heavier than I am, things that are too small for her sometimes fit me... and occasionally our fashion tastes also coincide. *wry* (By that I mean that she is fashion-conscious, while I am mostly interested in "Does it look tidy?" and "Is it comfortable?")
In the early evening, Dad decided he wanted to waterski; it was both warm and dead calm. I was too tired to trust myself driving the boat, so Mom was designated as the driver and I spotted, i.e., translated Dad's hand signals to verbal instructions for Mom, and occasionally gestured to him to warn of impending turns. We had a bunch of false starts -- either Mom goofed on the driving or Dad tipped sideways or something -- but he got two good runs in. The second time he wasn't able to get up starting with his single ski, so he started with two and ditched the extra once he had his balance on the water. This meant Mom, Aunt Cara, and I had to putz out and retrieve the ski once we dropped Dad off at our dock. The correct way to do this is to essentially run the ski over at low speed, so it gets pushed aside and scrapes back along the boat for easy pickup, but Mom kept aiming just a bit to the side and thus putting the ski out of my reach as we turned in fruitless circles. Fortunately we had an oar, and I was eventually able to snag the upturned tip and pull the ski in to where I could get my hands on it.
For Wednesday dinner we had broiled walleye. Walleye is called "walleye pike," but it's really a kind of perch, notable mostly for being plentiful in Minnesota and less bony than perch tend to be. Ours was quite tasty. :-)
Thursday morning I got up early to do laundry, because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of keeping dirty clothes separate from clean ones in my suitcase and backpack. My parents and Aunt Cara also had a bunch of stuff to pack and bring to the mainland, since they were planning to run some errands in Bemidji and then play tourists at the shops in Walker. We took a few pictures in front of the cabin to record the visit and then headed in.
The Bemidji airport is currently under construction, and they don't seem to have a bathroom or a water fountain in their secure waiting area anyway, but fortunately I wasn't stuck there long and the flight down to the Twin Cities is awfully short. I had a relatively tight connection, but the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport has a tram from Terminals A and B up to the main shopping mall area just past the security checkpoints, so I got to Terminal F with no trouble. The flight to Detroit was also smooth, and my 3.5 hour wait was uneventful.
The flight to Ithaca seemed smooth, until we suddenly discovered we were landing in Elmira on account of heavy fog at the Ithaca airport, with no chance of wind to dissipate it any time soon. There was some confusion over how we were getting our bags and when and whether a bus would be arranged, but that got sorted out within half an hour after we landed, and the majority of the passengers -- it was a full flight at, I think, 48 seats -- piled into the bus and rode north to Ithaca. So I got home at about 1:00am rather than about 11:30pm, but I got home nonetheless.
And that was my vacation for 2011.
On Wednesday the four of us (plus dog) went for a hike around Lake Windigo. It's been a high water year and the lakeshore path was quite soggy in several places -- this is inevitable given that Star Island is basically several giant intersecting sand piles with bog and marsh in between the bluffs, and Windigo, being, you know, a lake, obviously sits down in the middle of the low bits. We had Tuesday's leftovers for lunch. They were still delicious. *grin*
In the afternoon Dad and I took the boat in to the mainland and visited Forestedge Winery, whose tagline is, "Specialty wines made from the fruits and berries that survive the northern winters." In other words, fruit wine. But they don't make sweet wines; they are attempting to make serious, dry wines that just happen to not be made from grapes. I bought a bottle of white cranberry wine, a bottle of rhubarb wine, and a bottle of, IIRC, an apple and black currant blend; my parents will bring them to me the next time they visit, because I neither had room in my suitcase to pack them nor a desire to check my suitcase instead of bringing it through security as a carryon.
The reason I had no room in my suitcase, incidentally, is that I acquired two mock-turtlenecks my Aunt Jan had left in case they fit me, plus five t-shirts and two long-sleeved shirts my Aunt Cara had brought. She's been fighting a nasty moth infestation for over a year now, and keeps having to wash and dry clothes at very high temperatures to kill any moths or moth eggs, which means she can't wear them anymore and has to give them away. Since she is taller and heavier than I am, things that are too small for her sometimes fit me... and occasionally our fashion tastes also coincide. *wry* (By that I mean that she is fashion-conscious, while I am mostly interested in "Does it look tidy?" and "Is it comfortable?")
In the early evening, Dad decided he wanted to waterski; it was both warm and dead calm. I was too tired to trust myself driving the boat, so Mom was designated as the driver and I spotted, i.e., translated Dad's hand signals to verbal instructions for Mom, and occasionally gestured to him to warn of impending turns. We had a bunch of false starts -- either Mom goofed on the driving or Dad tipped sideways or something -- but he got two good runs in. The second time he wasn't able to get up starting with his single ski, so he started with two and ditched the extra once he had his balance on the water. This meant Mom, Aunt Cara, and I had to putz out and retrieve the ski once we dropped Dad off at our dock. The correct way to do this is to essentially run the ski over at low speed, so it gets pushed aside and scrapes back along the boat for easy pickup, but Mom kept aiming just a bit to the side and thus putting the ski out of my reach as we turned in fruitless circles. Fortunately we had an oar, and I was eventually able to snag the upturned tip and pull the ski in to where I could get my hands on it.
For Wednesday dinner we had broiled walleye. Walleye is called "walleye pike," but it's really a kind of perch, notable mostly for being plentiful in Minnesota and less bony than perch tend to be. Ours was quite tasty. :-)
Thursday morning I got up early to do laundry, because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of keeping dirty clothes separate from clean ones in my suitcase and backpack. My parents and Aunt Cara also had a bunch of stuff to pack and bring to the mainland, since they were planning to run some errands in Bemidji and then play tourists at the shops in Walker. We took a few pictures in front of the cabin to record the visit and then headed in.
The Bemidji airport is currently under construction, and they don't seem to have a bathroom or a water fountain in their secure waiting area anyway, but fortunately I wasn't stuck there long and the flight down to the Twin Cities is awfully short. I had a relatively tight connection, but the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport has a tram from Terminals A and B up to the main shopping mall area just past the security checkpoints, so I got to Terminal F with no trouble. The flight to Detroit was also smooth, and my 3.5 hour wait was uneventful.
The flight to Ithaca seemed smooth, until we suddenly discovered we were landing in Elmira on account of heavy fog at the Ithaca airport, with no chance of wind to dissipate it any time soon. There was some confusion over how we were getting our bags and when and whether a bus would be arranged, but that got sorted out within half an hour after we landed, and the majority of the passengers -- it was a full flight at, I think, 48 seats -- piled into the bus and rode north to Ithaca. So I got home at about 1:00am rather than about 11:30pm, but I got home nonetheless.
And that was my vacation for 2011.
no subject
What was the weather like? Was it cool?
Cool sounds like a myth to me now.
C
no subject
no subject
I would love it if the air conditioner could just be off for hours at a time, instead of
for minutes.
C