Northwoods

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Minocqua - 1st Day

Yikes!
4 am alarm time! Surprisingly the drive to the airport was hassle free
and so was our pre flight experience. Usually we get stuck in traffic,
red flagged and searched by the genius TSA flunkies, etc. This time
nothing got in the way of us boarding on time, John fell asleep on
schedule and a couple hours later we landed at the dilapidated
Minneapolis airport. The rudest Budget employee explained how expensive
it is to rent one way, we hopped in the weird car and drove through surprisingly cool looking St. Paul on our way to nowhere north woods.
The drive through Wisconsin farmland was really pretty to look at when
we could keep our eyes open. Thankfully Marleah's mom Laurie loves to
drive and we love to sleep so that's what we did for the four hour drive
to Minocqua.

Our balcony at the hotel overlooks sparkly Minocqua lake. Quick
unpack/relax time and we're off to Auntie Helen's house. Dinner, family
catch up time, screaming kids, chain smoking, tons of laughing and then
back to the room because we're soooooo tired!

Minocqua - 2nd Day

First adventure today, horseback riding! John, Marleah, Laurie and little
cousin Alex (she's 10). 45 minutes through the woods with eagles flying
overhead and deer in the trees. John's horse was stubborn and naughty and fittingly named Rebel (just like John)!

Oooo we're gonna be sore!!

The afternoon was spent shopping with our family in teeny tiny
downtown Minocqua, it's about 2 blocks. Lunch at Minocqua Brewing Co,
brats and beer.

A quick stop at Brandy lake to reminisce about swimming there when
Marleah was little, then back to auntie Helen's for more family time.

We snuck away for a bit to explore the woods and take pictures before resuming the late night chain smoking session....

Minocqua - 3rd Day

When you're "Up North" you have to spend some time fishing. Mostly because
there's nothing else to do but also because it's known as Lakeland and
has more than 3,200 lakes, streams and ponds. John and Laurie got
fishing licenses at Walmart then Buddy took us to a dam between two
lakes . Laurie caught a sun fish and a bunch of little fish, John caught
some bass and a bunch of little fish, Alex fished and waded in the lake,
Buddy kept bait on everybody's hooks and threw back the small fish,
Marleah took pictures and Helen kept us company.

When everyone had enough fishing and standing in the hot sunburny
sun we went back to Brandy lake for swimming/wading and sandwiches. Then
a quick change of clothes and we all went to the Ojibwe Indian
Reservation/Lac Du Flambeau for a pow wow. We sat outside under a
beautiful sunset by a lake an watched the traditional dancing, saw
really amazing costumes, learned about the tribe, ate fry bread and Alex
participated in the feather dance. It was amazing and super cool and
super fun!!

Minocqua - 4th Day

We wanted a day to relax and do things on our own so Laurie went fishing with Buddy and we slept in. After lounging around the room until 1pm we
took the short walk across the bridge to main street Minocqua. We
shopped at an antique mall and had food and beer at a German
bar/restaurant. We ate a hot dog, a salty soft pretzel with mustard and
beer cheese soup. Yum!

Oh wow!! We are crazy maniacs!! We went to the super crappy tiny
Minocqua tattoo shop and got super crappy tiny matching travel tattoos.

Axes!! Wisconsin!! Lumberjack!!

We kept making eye contact during the tattoos and had to smother our
laughter because they were sooo bad, not one straight line. Hahaha!!

Later we met up with Laurie, Helen and Buddy and went out for Friday
fish fry. We went to what was apparently a fancy place. The appetizer
was pimento cream cheese with crackers. When the salad (Caesar=Italian
bottled dressing) and soup came, they took away the crackers! John ate
steak (with mushrooms out of a can).

We had to hurry back to the house after dinner because the Green Bay Packers game was on. And also...chain smoking!

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