I woke up to a full moon setting over the lake. Woke pretty early and showered before anyone else was up. Then went out to see the full moon setting on the west side of the lake....
... and the sun starting to come over the east side of the lake. It was pretty breath taking.
We made some breakfast and everyone worked to clean and pack up. It didn’t take long and we were all packed up by 8 am.
I drove the first length of the trip as I wanted Jean and I to be able to see the full fall colors from the front. One of the first things we saw around 8:15 am was two deer crossing the road in front of us. I was a little concerned we would see more…but we had no issues. Once the sun came up in full force, the color on the trees was really vibrant with many shade of red, yellow and green. It was truly lovely! I am so glad we had a few hours of full view.
Stopped at Trego Nature Trail near Spooner, Wisconsin for a hike. Again we have had remarkably warm and sunny weather on this trip and today was no exception. The trail was pretty easy to navigate especially compared to the types of trails we hiked in Pictured Rocks. The tall trees along the river created a lovely under brush that was soft and beautiful along the trail. Quite magical once again.
Had a picnic lunch in Spooner at the Spooner Railroad Park. It was a nice covered area with several picnic tables. We had to literally take everything out of the car in order to get to the picnic basket, but we had a nice lunch of turkey sandwiched an antipasto lunch meats. Also had an amazing pear! It was a little windy at first but it eventually settled down and we enjoyed our meal.
Next stop was Louie’s Finer Meats in Cumberland, Wisconsin. It is a must stop place for Jim and I as the brats from Louie’s are literally the best I have ever had. Both the Harmon and Jim and I bought lots of brats. The Harmons also bought lots of cheese since it was Wisconsin cheese! We again had to take everything out of the back of the car in order to get things into the coolers, but we made it all fit now it was time to make the final drive back home. It’s about a little under two Hours Dr. back to our house. It was uneventful except for it started to sprinkle rain around Taylor’s balls. This was the first rain. We’ve had the entire five days of the vacation. I see we’re pretty lucky.
Once we got home, we got everything out of the car and basically piled it in the living room. We wanted to make sure we got all the frozen foods into the freezer so it would stay good and frozen for the Harmon for their journey home tomorrow. Once we got in all unpacked, Jim and Clay settled in to watch the Iowa game, which had started about an hour before. It was an important Michigan game AT Michigan. While they were watching the game, Jean and I went to the grocery store so we could have all the fixings for Napa cabbage salad to accompany our brats for dinner. We went to CUB. We got everything but Napa cabbage because they didn’t have any. So I decided to try Empire Foods, the Asian market near Cub to see if they would have Napa cabbage. They did have bok choy so I bought that.
Once home, Jean chopped up everything for the salad while I stir fried the ramen and almonds for the salad. Once done, we sat down and enjoyed a glass of wine…the game was just coming to an end and it looked like Iowa would lose, Katie called via FaceTime just as Iowa threw a pass to win the game 20-19! So Jim and Clay were screaming for joy as I answered the call…and we saw Jack’s face on the screen, eating an apple. We tried to talk for a while, but there was so much screaming and yelling it was hard to understand everything, but Katie invited me to come over and help her with the boys. So I am going over to see them. Can’t wait.
All in all, it was a very nice road trip vacation. We all get along very well, we had marvelous weather and some really beautiful