A Perfect Day

Waking up was another wonder today: a delicate fog clung to everything, the tips of the trees, the wild rice reeds, the cabin awnings, the very surface of the lake as if it were dry ice. As we marveled at the site over steaming coffee, we took many cool photos as the fog then descended heavier on the landscape and made it difficult to see past the grassy marsh at the waters edge. The moisture in the fog seemed to start dripping over the campsite as if it were rain, and the eery sounds of blurping fish, dragonflies and the calls of loons across the lake unseen were a bit unnerving, but short-lived, as the sun rose above and seemed to simply wave the fog away with a majestic sweep of his arm.

There are some things up here that have been a little...disturbing, and though I don't want to linger enough to speculate too much, I feel the need to record it because this is, after all, our travel blog of experiences, and where I believe the small details of our trips belong. As I sat on the dock, there was a long while where the peace here was filled with some sort of animal distress. What sounded like a duck or bird of some sort, its calls coming from across the lake somewhere were mixed with what sounded like terrible suffering. I can only assume that a hawk or some other predator had found its prey that morning, and I shudder to imagine that horrible end, regardless the details. We've also heard a number of dogs getting into some sort of scrap, and at one point, among the snarling, growling and ferocious barking, another animals' noises could be heard in the scuffle, and it weren't a pleasant sound, either. Again, I assume a fox or some other poor thing lost its battle that day to its enemies. Anyway, there that is, and moving on.

Off to Itasca State Park once again to do some exploring in what we'd hoped would be a day filled with satisfyingly exhausting hikes. Well, it turned out we spent more time in the car on the 10 mile scenic wilderness drive than hiking because after a .5 mile hike and 50 mosquito bites later, we decided that humid end-of-summer days aren't that hospitable to hikes in a dense forest. We literally couldn't walk an inch without frantically swatting at the blood-suckers. It was quickly agreed upon that hiking in these conditions is horribly unpleasant at best, so we jumped back in the vehicle and had a very lovely cruise around the entire park. We did stop off at a creek and a couple of lake areas that weren't nearly as buggy, and frankly more spectacular than the forest. We took loads of photos and stretched our legs, enjoying the afternoon breeze mosquito-free! Stopping off at a couple of gift shops (there are several in the park), checking out the Douglas Lodges and the boat cruise schedule for the next day, we picked up a few things, then headed home for more pleasant recreation. After a leisurely nap, we used the cabin's paddle boat for a short excursion around our little corner of the lake. Though I'm well accustomed to swimming as its my exercise of choice, I've never been one for natural bodies of water. I'd like to say I'm not afraid and that swimming is swimming, and being in a lake should feel more natural to me than a pool and not completely foreign and frightening, but that's not the case. I'm actually quite terrified of natural bodies of water, and I've had several panic attacks in lakes and the ocean. John has only recently begun to really learn to swim, and so the two of us boating alone for the first time was kind of a big step. We were originally going to try the canoe, but after hauling the thing into the water and getting into it, we realized that might be above and beyond what we can realistically handle. The thought of that thing tipping us over was enough to squash our hopes of a romantic river "stroll" in an instant. After some debate, we opted to try the paddle boat (which also scared me because, let's face it, anything that floats on the water can also sink) for a quick jaunt. It was actually super fun, and only a little scary, although we stayed distinctly on our side of the lake. After a mere 20 minutes, we decided that was enough adventure so we made our way back to the dock. We had to make an awkward rescue of the other paddle boat which somehow got untied from the dock, and other than my khaki's being completely soaked in the butt, and poor John being soaked from the waist down, we returned unscathed. After the embarrassment of everyone at the resort witnessing our clumsy water antics, it was time for another cookout!

So this day was an adventure all around: we decided to cook directly on a campfire. I prepared some tilapia fillets with butter and lemon slices, skewered tomatoes, buttered apples and the leftover broccoli and cauliflower, all in foil packets as John readied the campfire. He had an awesome fire ready for the food in no time, and the food turned out better than fantastic. The fish was perfectly cooked (Brownie, to his delight, agreed, and sat with us for the rest of the night by the campfire), the tomatoes were again so juicy and delectable I ate them right off the skewers, and the apples with butter were like apple pie without the crust. S'mores were last on the menu, a campfire must!! We talked philosophically all the rest of the night and gazed at the stars through the telescope (we could see the swirls of Jupiter!) until the coals died out. This was my favorite day :)

Oh, and we saw a turtle making his way to the lake!! We even got video!