Retreat at Summer's End

This past week we were blessed with the opportunity to take a few days respite from the constancy of farm life and relax on the beautiful southern shore of Lake Superior in Bayfield, Wisonsin. Bayfield, like Mackinaw Island or Door County, is a typical midwestern vacation destination: a beautiful spot on the Great Lakes, artsy antique stores, some used book stores, good eating, and fairly small crowds. In other words, it has what most midwestern families are looking for: good food and scenery and peace enough to enjoy it with loved ones.

Leaving the farm in the competent hands of some kindly friends of the family -- who we are delighted to learn enjoyed a 'farm getaway' -- we left late Tuesday morning and got back shortly after noon on Friday.

The view from our patio.

Wednesday, after a hearty breakfast at the Egg Toss, we spent the day visiting shops, local farms and a regional fish hatchery. My biggest interest in the shopping was looking for a book on the early Jesuit missionaries in the region. While I never found a comprehensive edition -- perhaps it doesn't exist... -- I did get a long and scholarly account of Fr. Jacques Marquette, S.J.'s life. I've only finished the first few chapters, but may put up a post on my blog later on this summer about this and the other religious biographies I've recently read.

Thursday we ate a light breakfast on the mainland at Big Water Cafe, before booking passage on the ferry to Madeline Island. The ferry, reminiscent of the ferry trips to Mackinaw in my youth, was a thrill. It's only around 2 miles (or twenty minutes) from dock to dock, but it was a thrill nonetheless.

Once on the island we dithered a bit as to what to do, tired as we were from walking after a few days of taking it easy. So I decided to take charge and declared that we would rent mopeds on which to scoot around the island. At 13 miles long and several wide, Madeline Island is far too large to traverse on foot, and while bikes were another option, on a warm day it just didn't sound very appealing. So we stopped by Motion to Go, got a quick tutorial, strapped on our remarkably attractive bike helmets and hit the road!

Thanks to our trusty steeds, we were able to visit Big Bay State Park and tour the rest of the island in style!

Stephanie onboard ship.

The happy couple aboard ship.

Looking out on one of the 22 Apostle Islands.

A view of Bayfield from the ferry.

Big Bay State Park

Big Bay State Park

We spent Thursday evening on the deck of the Pier Plaza Restaurant, enjoying a delicious supper and the beautiful scene as the boats all came in and docked for the night.

On our way out of town on Friday morning we stopped by another farm to look for fresh berries and get ideas for lovely Magdalen Farm; the three farms we stopped by were all lovely and served to re-inspire and reinvigorate us at the end of a long season.

Thanks so much again to our farm-sitters, the Lundgren family, Trish and Charlie! We returned convinced that little getaways like this need to happen more often!