Busy Wednesday

We woke to a beautiful morning and headed into town for breakfast at the Egg Toss, which had been recommended to us by the owner of the place where we ate dinner last night. They basically serve breakfast in many forms from 6:00 a.m. until they close at 1:00 p.m. We were told that during the busy season, you have to wait but we lucked out and got served immediately. The food was good as advertised and we were happy.

We took the 8:45 ferry over to Madeline Island. This is the view of Bayfield from the ferry as we pulled away. It is beautiful, and reminds me of a New England port.

It is about a twenty minute ride to the island, meaning we arrived at La Pointe a little after nine. Since the historical site was not opening until ten, we took the time to walk around and see some of the town. In the process we ran into a woman who was wandering around the Catholic cemetery trying to locate markers for some ancestors. We chatted with her and the woman who was helping her and did some looking at old tombstones to see if we had any luck. They finally gave up and headed to the cemetery across town. 

Tom and I then hiked through a wilderness preserve, where I tried to take pictures of him crossing a wooden boardwalk bridge; but he insisted on clowning and they did not come out well. That stretch of walking was a bit over a mile, and I think by the time I took the photos he was tired. Once we got through the preseve, we had almost another mile to walk to get back to town. Needless to say, I had no trouble getting my 10,000 steps in today.

Just as we finally got to the museum, Tom got a call on his cellphone and decided that he would skip the museum and take the call, which was from someone he has been helping. So I wandered around, enjoying some excellent exhibits on Native American culture -- especially Ojibwe -- as well as relics from the days of the fur trade in the area. When I came out of the museum, Tom had just finished his call but was not interested in going back inside.

We caught the ferry back to Bayfield, had lunch at a local inn and headed to the Apostle Island National Lakeshore Visitors Center, located in the old county courthouse. A friendly young ranger talked to us and showed an interesting video. The center is small, nothing like the expansive Northern Great Lakes Visitors Center we saw yesterday. But we enjoyed it anyway. I think the ranger was so friendly in part because there were not very many visitors.

Then back into town to visit shops, look at local artisan's work and watch other tourists look at things. By the middle of the afternoon, we decided to go back to the cabin and take advantage of the peace and the view. We sat on the upper deck, Tom reading and me listening to an audiobook. It had clouded up and we had a very brief spell of rain, hardly enough drive us inside.

As expected, Tom wanted to go back to Ethel's for dinner and try their regular menu, which turned out to be as satisfying as last night's meal. We took a short walk after that, I bought some Greek yogurt, Tom had an ice cream and we headed back. 

Tomorrow morning we plan to have breakfast in town again, pack our bags and head home. We may stop a couple of times along the way to visit a state park and another historical site, and that will help break up the long drive. I wish we had one more day to spend here, but despite being retired, we both have commitments that made that impossible. 

Finally, I cannot leave Bayfield without sharing this:

Yes, whitefish liver, apparently a local treat. (We drove by that pinkish-red building in the photo as we went in and out of town. It is an old fish market.) We managed to get through our entire trip without trying them. According to Wisconsin foodies, "They are about the size of a chicken liver and are a true delicacy. The fish come in at the piers in Bayfield and the livers are separated and served in restaurants in the area, sautéed with mushrooms and onions. There probably are other areas where whitefish are as popular, but for some reason their livers aren't."

What can I say?