North Woods Vacay

Part two of our Fourth of July vacation was spent at the family place in Wisconsin. Chris's family owns a number of acres on a small private lake about 2 hours from Minneapolis. There are only 4 other homes on the lake. Its very deep- over a 100 feet in someplace, is a loon hang-out and has some pretty nice size bass swimming around in it.

The week was filled with family including Chris's brother James, his fiance Jamie and her 2 daughters, Amber and Aleah (not sure I'm spelling that right) who are 4 and 3.

Upon arriving at the cabin, I took a nap. Shortly after I got up, the girls also got up from their nap. We all sat outside and the girls were kind enough to let me take their photo:

That's Aleah on the left.
















Our weekend plans included fireworks both on the ground:


and in the sky
.


Seems in the sky were more interesting to both Amber and Aleah.

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On Friday, Chris and I went for a drive (in search of vodka, as it happens) and visited Crex Meadows where wild rice grows, well wild!




This is also a good place to bird watch and we did seem some geese and small birds but no swans or loons. We also came upon some deer. Deer that did not care how close we were. This photo was from about 10 feet away.



And this one, about 5 feet away (different deer):

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On Saturday, we kayaked the St. Croix river. No pictures though- the waterproof case for my camera costs more than all my existing equipment.

After kayaking, we did some sailing:







In case you are wondering, its a model. Chris's dad built this over 20 years ago. It hadn't been sailed in at least 10 years. James took out the old servos and replaced them.