I met Roni in person way back in 2014. Our history went back a little before that, though. Years ago there was a forum called College Confidential before Facebook grew to what it is now. Eager parents would go online to find the best schools for their precious high school students. My son Matthew was a junior in high school at the time and I was determined to help him find the best college for him – best for his major, interests, and scholarships. So down the rabbit hole I went! Roni & I were both frequent posters on that forum. I read a lot of information on scholarships and came across this sweet deal at the University of Alabama. Matthew and I toured lots of schools and compared financial packages and he decided UA was for him. Roll Tide!
Then came the Facebook parent groups! Roni’s son was also a student at UA. He was a little older than Matthew, so she had a couple years experience and was a driving force behind getting the UA Parent Facebook Group started. And she also organized a wonderful tailgate party at the Ironbowl football game – the annual UA vs. Auburn match up. So that was probably the first time I met Roni in person. Over the years, we have enjoyed many tailgate parties and football games … and Bama Mom weekends with a great group of around 25 ladies. We also realized we had other things in common like traveling, hiking, and kayaking.
Roni texted me in July and asked if I wanted to join her on a trip to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore for some hiking and kayaking. I looked into it and it looked wonderful. The sea caves looked amazing. I started pricing flights – both $$ and points – from Fort Smith and XNA (Northwest Arkansas’ airport) into Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, Duluth … anywhere along the route from Roni’s home in Northeastern Illinois to the shores of Lake Superior. I settled on Fort Smith to Madison. I also needed to work around my work schedule. I had a trip to Seattle planned the weekend before this new trip. I’d have two days in the office before leaving out on the 6am Friday morning flight. We’d drive 5 hours to get to Bayfield, Wisconsin, where we would stay for 3 nights.
Roni took the lead on this trip and had a full itinerary for us. When we got to town, she had found a cute little place for drinks – Copper Crow Distillery. Then dinner at Many Penny Bistro. The town of Bayfield is a small walkable town. We were able to walk from the Greunke Inn to the restaurant, then back along the lakeshore back to the Inn.
Saturday morning was our kayak tour to the sea caves. We were fortunate that the weather was perfect! The lake was smooth, the sky was blue and the temperature was mild. We met our tour guide at Meyers Beach and loaded into tandem kayaks. It was a small group – us and two other boats plus the guide. That was the perfect size; some of the tours that were out when we were had so many boats that it would have been hard to get into the tiny crevices that we were able to explore. After the kayak tour, we did a hike on the Lakeshore Trail – that meandered through the woods before it finally popped out above the sea caves about 1.8 miles from the parking area.
Cornucopia is a cute little town just past Meyers Beach. We grabbed a sandwich at Ehlers General Store and Deli. Then off to the Lost Creek Falls trail. I wasn’t expecting much – I hadn’t looked for pictures beforehand and a man in the parking lot mentioned a 4 foot waterfall. I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the end of the trail. My guess would be around 15′ tall – well worth the hike! Back to town and we wandered down to the boat pier with some snacks to watch the sunset.
Sunday morning took us on a car ferry ride over to Madeline Island. We drove out to the State Park and took a nice hike along the lakeshore. Afterwards, we found ourselves at the Beach Club for lunch, then we had to check out Tom’s Burned Down Cafe for a margarita. I think we managed to drive all of the main roads of the island and had fun exploring.
The evening activity include a private trip with Lake Superior Tall Ships “Abbey Road”. Our captain Gordy and his first mate Ben gave us the option of sitting back and cruising or jumping in and helping. My experience in sailing came as a teenager when my parents had a sailboat on Lake Ouachita. My dad would take it out and we’d sail the lake and sleep in a cove at night – great memories! So I jumped in and helped bring in the bumpers and hoist the sails. It was a lot of fun when we had some wind. But then the wind died down to nothing. We sat in the middle of the lake for awhile and eventually enlisted the help of the engine on the boat. But it was still a wonderful evening with sunset on the lake.
And then Monday … time to head back toward the airport. We left out early so we could grab lunch in Madison. On our agenda was scoping out the university and take a peak at the layout of the football stadium…because after all, we have a Bama Mom weekend to watch the Crimson Tide beat the Badgers in just a few short weeks! Then on to the airport.
I had a couple hours layover at DFW so I snuck over to the Capital One lounge for dinner and a bloody mary. Then I got bumped up to first class for the flight home. Loving the perks of my travel credit cards!
Trip costs:
Airfare | 15,000 miles round trip | American Airlines |
Hotel – Bayfield WI | $500 for 3 nights / 2 people | Greunke’s First Street Inn |
Kayaking | $75 per person | Meyers Beach Kayaking |