Shopping at the Port Wing Christmas Bazaar

The shopping place to be today was not at Target, Walmart or some other "box," but at the annual Christmas Bazaar at the Port Wing Town Hall.  Sponsored by the Monday Evening Club, the hall was full of arts and crafts vendors, bake sale tables from the First Lutheran Church and 4H, raffles for prizes, and lunch, of course.  My favorite stop is the wreath lady. We usually buy two, but I almost missed out this year.  Only one little wreath was left when I got there, and I was happy to give it a home!  

And...later this afternoon I learned that my name was called for the raffle and I won a nice spruce-scented candle.  The season has begun!  Don't forget the Lutheran Church lutefisk dinner on Saturday, December 13th.  Lutefisk, potatoes, cream sauce and/or melted butter (depending on whether your background is Swedish or Norwegian), lefse...and Swedish meatballs for the lutefisk-phobic!  I really like it but I also grew up having it every Christmas.

And speaking of lutefisk, during Older Daughter's phone call home on Thanksgiving, she asked if we could try making lutefisk while she and her husband are here during Christmas.  I again will attempt to channel my mother and other relatives who have passed on and see what we can turn out!

It was a pretty bleak scene down at The Lake this morning.  The sun tried to shine from time to time, but these pictures are pretty gray.  

 That larger speck out there is one of the commercial fishing boats coming.  It was much warmer today, so it was no problem standing on the pier watching it come in.

 Getting closer.

 And there's the Judy.

I'd probably regret it if it ever happened, but I'd love to go out on one of these boats and see what it's like out there "in the middle" of The Lake.  What could happen?

Thanksgiving 2014 - Winter comes early to Lake Superior

After a quiet Thanksgiving Day today, we got out this afternoon to enjoy the last of a beautiful day of sunshine.  The temperature was down around 10˚ F or below so it was pretty chilly on my walk out on the pier to check out the ice situation.  To see this much ice in November, even at the end of November, is very strange.  

Both commercial fishing boats had been out today, so the ice in the channel was stirred up enough to create these ice circles in the marina channel.  I should have taken a video of this because they kind of jostle around, bump into each other, and form rounded circles.  Pretty cool.

 That layer of clouds out there is most likely lake effect snow.   We've had a dusting of lake effect for the last few days after an actual snowfall of a couple of inches.  The town plow came through again and we're all cleared off until the next batch of snow.

Looking to the east we can see that the ice is already building up in the bay and along the shore.  

On Tuesday my neighbor, David, took this picture of the ice caves along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore.  Looks like conditions are already forming for possible treks to the ice caves later this winter.  Usually he is on his standup paddle board, but this time I think he got this shot while on his snowshoes.  

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!  

Seeing the Presque Isle entering the Port of Duluth

Yesterday, under a cloud of more lake effect snow (but not like Buffalo!) and some icy roads, we made a quick trip to Duluth for a probably unnecessary doctor's appointment.  Turns out I really did break my toe on the second day of our October trip out to Boston to see Ellen.  I "played through the pain" at the time but made a trip to "Ortho" now for them to tell me that, yes, it was broken, but there was nothing to be done for it except wait for it to heal.  So, back home again.

But...as we were leaving the hospital, there was a GIANT ship out in the Duluth bay and it was heading for the entrance to the harbor.  Time to speed up the car and get down to Canal Park to see it up close!

It was the Presque Isle and it was steaming straight into the opening between the two piers leading into the harbor.  There is a lighthouse at the end of each pier.  The ship/freighter doesn't look very big from here, but she is 1000' long!  That big cloud behind the lighthouse?  That's lake effect snow falling on Port Wing!

Getting closer.  See the ice?

Starting to see the length of the ship.  Almost as long as the pier!

One lighthouse is at the far left at the back of the ship and it's almost up to the one on the right.

Seeing ice so high on that top deck makes you wonder about the waves out in the middle of Lake Superior.  Reminds me of Deadliest Catch?

The wind was blowing so hard and cold so I took this picture below from inside our car.  It's passing between the piers and was almost to the Lift Bridge.  Several people were out watching it and Leann wondered if some of the crew would be out waving like they usually do in better weather.  And they were there!  See the little figures standing on the deck?

And, NO, I didn't get it actually going under the bridge!  I guess the cold froze my photographer instincts, because I never even thought about it.  So...no bridge!  Sorry.

But, back here in Port Wing today, we have this beautiful sunset.  Looking to the southwest, the channel is full of ice chunks again (seems like yesterday that I was rejoicing that all the ice was finally gone!).

And to the northwest the horizon is glowing.  Look at those beautiful pastels!

And the marina at sunset.  I love it here!

Another first! Snowshoes in November!

Come on up and bring your snowshoes!

It's just the right amount of snow, so we celebrated the beautiful day by snowshoeing up to the meadow.  It really is a mind warp to think that it's only the 16th of November and we have all this snow and cold.  I mean, really cold!  I think it's supposed to be single digits tonight.  That's January weather!

But, as they say--and I HATE this expression--"it is what it is" and here's what we found today.

Just follow the trail up to the meadow:

I'm still enthralled with all the apples hanging on the trees.  Most are getting pretty frozen and misshapen by now.

Yellow apples in the midst of the snow.

Red AND yellow apples, white snow, green trees and blue sky!  Cool or what?

At first glance I thought these were tire tracks on our trail, but no.  Animal tracks, two sets.  Maybe they were walking down the trail together?

And we have benches!  I won't guarantee it will always be brushed off, but if you get up there soon...

We liked all the different tracks in this view.  Some were definitely deer but some sets were from creatures lower to the ground...we could see they were dragging through the snow.

And this one MIGHT be this year's Christmas tree!  Close enough to pull it on the sled.

After the hike, always nice to have home in sight.

And back down by The Lake late this afternoon, those lumps out there that look like ice chunks are really fluffed-out seagulls basking in the sun...and most of them are facing the sun while they are out there.  Smart!

Well, that was fun today.  We'll have to do it again tomorrow!