Apostle Islands

August 16
We hitched up the trailer in drizzling rain. Patrick and I were both soaked. The fog rolled in.

We stopped for the night at Thompson's West End Park. It was right on the lake. It was time to do laundry and the only place close was down the road in Ashland. Becky and I went do and ran our clothes through the beaters. We put all of our pants into a washer and Becky loaded the quarters and started it running. A few minutes later she checked on the progress and found that the washer never started. I tried to get it unlocked but the electronic lock wouldn't budge. I called the emergency number three times over the next hour getting only voice mail. A woman came in and suggested we call the number for the tanning salon also in the laundromat. She promised to come straight away and help us out. A half hour later, we had our clothes out, our money back and some extra for the dryers. We still had to spend another hour washing the pants but disaster averted.

August 17
Apostle Island Cruises runs out of Bayfield, WI. We took the grand tour, about three and a half hours worth.  The islands are called the Apostles because from land, they could only see twelve islands.

The boat captain/guide has lived in the area all his life and had some interesting stories from when he was a boy traveling around the islands with his father. Most of the islands were heavily logged for the white pine and then the hardwoods. Some were scalped bald and left to regrow. Now the islands are a National Lake Shore. The coolest island by far was Devil's Island.

  The guide said that in the winter, the whole island is covered in ice from the spray of the waves crashing on the rocks. I wouldn't mind seeing the pictures but not the real thing. Sounds cold to me.
I took a nap on the way back to the dock. We walked around Bayfield after eating our lunch and then went back to the campsite. I drove Becky back to Ashland where she went into several yarn shops.