That’s pretty much all we did today.  The day got off to an exciting start when we came upon this free outdoor scrap iron sculpture garden, Lakenenland Sculpture Park, just outside of Marquette! 

We drove along the eastern end of the south shore of Lake Superior which provided some beautiful scenery, and we saw another bald eagle sitting on the top of a tree, some cranes (sandhills?) hanging out in the middle of the freaking median, and lots and lots of sleeping deer on the side of the road… er something. 

We took a little side jaunt to Munising Falls in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  We had to dodge a disturbing amount of dog poo, but the waterfall was beautiful! 

We went through the town of Christmas, but did not see Santa, and we went through the supposed moose capital of Michigan, and saw no moose!  Things were starting to get a bit boring.  Then we crossed into Canada.  Even more boring.  And weirdly easy.  And then we drove, and drove, and drove…  Highlights since entering Canada include Nate and I doing an amazing "Fairytale of New York" duet, and watching "Survivorman" on Canadian cable. 

So here we are, post-massages, post- wine and cheese plate, feeling fine, fine, fine.  My massage was good, I mean I think she did a good job and all, but I had been working for like 2 or 3 hours right before it, so all I could think about the whole time was work stuff.  I totally couldn’t let it go no matter how hard I tried and couldn’t really relax, which has basically been my life for the past few weeks, so afterwards I just felt kind of sad and frustrated.  I know, boo freaking hoo.  Poor me and my sucky wine and cheese and massage filled day.  

Ok so anyway.  We missed the early ferry to Madeline Island because it was around the same time as breakfast here at the World’s Greatest Inn, and because of our serious need to catch up on the sleep we haven’t gotten for the past couple of months, and because of the aforementioned most comfortable bed we’ve ever experienced.  If we had taken the next ferry we wouldn’t have gotten back in time for our massages, so we opted instead for a nice, relaxing day in Bayfield. 

There were some shops and a restaurant/coffee shop I had found on travelgreenwisconsin.com, so we started off by getting some coffee and a scone at Burt & Francie’s and checking out the connected store, Inspire.  It turns out that Inspire carries a whole bunch of Global Mamas clothes, this awesome company we learned about while visiting my brother Steve in Ghana.  They are a fair trade organization, providing living wages and business development assistance to women in Ghana.  The owner told us that they are the biggest buyer of Global Mamas products in all of the US!  The tag on each garment tells you who made that specific piece, and he also told us that you can go to the company’s website and see photos, read the story and send an email to that woman.  Whoa.  What a great way to make you think about how the thing you bought actually came to be. 

Then we (and by we I mean I) went to check out some jewelry at a store called Water Music Jewelry and Art, which sells jewelry from local and regional artists, as well as their own handmade pieces.  These two ladies who were also staying at Pinehurst and who we met at breakfast this morning had participated in this arts & crafts workshop thingy this weekend, and their jewelry-making session was taught by the owner of this store.  Then it was back to Burt & Francie’s for a delicious lunch and some Farkel, our new favorite game.  We made sure to tell all of the people working at these stores that we found them through travelgreenwisconsin.com, because as Rick pointed out when we were eating lunch at a little diner in some little town in northern Minnesota where we went to see great grey owls a few years ago, if businesses know what brought their customers to them, they will hopefully care more about those things. 

We then headed back to the inn, where I did some work and Nate read by the fire.  We were also given a great tour by one of the owners, Steve. In the garage he showed us their biodiesel production system, and explained how the solar panels on the roof heat it with radiant heat in the floors.  Another huge set of solar panels heat all the water for the Garden House, the newer sustainably built building that houses a few guest rooms, a common room, and the massage room.  The wastewater from this building goes to an aerobic treatment tank, which saved them from having to install another septic tank, and leaves the water clean enough that it can go right into their drain field, which they didn’t have to expand.  Inside, they used sustainably harvested oak, no or low VOC paint, and had a high efficiency boiler, among many, many other things.  Nate then went to get his massage, and Steve and I headed outside, where we watched rain and snowmelt running off the roof of the building into a water garden featuring native water plants, ooh, me likey.  Drain tiles underground take water to another garden, and then off to another part of the yard, preventing all that water from just running off down the sidewalk into the street, and carrying all sorts of crap with it into our beautiful wonder of the world, Lake Superior.  Oooooh, me really likey!  Now he was really speaking my language.  Steve pointed out some of the other gardens around the grounds, all featuring native plants.  One garden was apparently planted 70 or 80 years ago.  When he and his wife Nancy bought the place it was overrun with weeds, so they dug up all the good things they wanted to keep, tilled the heck out of it, and replanted them, and it has been golden ever since. 

Tomorrow we leave this amazing little slice of heaven and head to the U.P. der hey.  Visits to several brewpubs will hopefully help dull the shock that will surely hit us when we arrive at tomorrow night’s lodging, a freaking Travelodge.

I totally loved the show MacGyver when I was little and had a monster crush on him (along with then Milwaukee Brewer Paul Molitor and our local news anchor, Mike Gousha).  So I couldn’t be more delighted that I am now married to the real-life version! 

I had set up a work station upstairs for my masters project awhile ago, and last weekend I actually started working on it again (and there was much rejoicing among parents).  I still have a bunch of interviews to transcribe, and that’s a great way to start since I need to refresh myself on the work I did before I can work on my paper.  So I sat down to start transcribing, and the power on the transcriber wouldn’t go on.  It worked fine the last time I used it and has just been sitting there ever since, and I mean I know it’s been awhile but it’s not like it’s been years! Or… uh… not more than 2 years…  anyway… whatever.  So I realized the whole electric outlet wasn’t working, and neither were any of the outlets upstairs.  It wasn’t a fuse, so I was stumped.  Nate came to the rescue of course and fixed it (and I still don’t quite get it).  But the power light on the transcriber still wouldn’t go on.  Nate pulled out his magic power senser thingy and determined that it was the power cord.  So I said ok, I would go buy another one.  But he informed me that I would not likely be able to find one because he had never seen one with an end like that (looked like any old power cord to me…).  Ok.  So he found another cord that had the same voltage, cut them both in half and rewired them back together.  Whoa.  And then it worked.  But the transcriber has a speed control, so you can slow the tapes way down or speed them way up, and now, even the slowest level was pretty fast.  So then Nate took the freaking thing apart, adjusted it, and put it back together!  All is now well in the world of tape transcribing.  But if it weren’t for him, I would still be trying to figure out how to make the outlets work!

Then last night we decided to participate in Earth Hour.  While I was pulling out candles, Nate decided to make his own.  It’s the one on the right, and involves a little bit of vegetable oil in a bowl, and a wick made from paper towel stuffed into a piece of pipe.  Nate decided to take it further than just turning off our lights and turned off his computer… and then he got a little lost and confused about his place in the world. So he helped me make another batch of Bruno biscuits by candlelight, how romantic.

On a non-MacGyver note, yesterday we also took Bruno for a hike at Crosby Park, where I will soon be spending quite a bit of time.  We decided it would be a good time to start getting him used to his doggy backpack.  We just got a new, bigger tent and can’t wait to take him camping, but dog friend’s gonna have to carry his own food.  Well I’m happy to report that it went quite well.  We put a water bottle in one side and some potatoes in the other, just to balance it out.  He definitely seemed a little extra tired afterwards, but I think he kind of liked having a job. 

And I leave you with a little old school MacGyver.  So dreamy… though I have to say, I selfishly prefer that my MacGyver’s mad skills are applied to household tasks rather than life-threatening confrontations with terrorists and corporate bad guys!

Growing up, my mom used to make cakes for every occasion, amazingly decorated with all these different colors and patterns.  But the best of all were these Sesame Street cupcakes that she made for me to take to school for my birthday when I was in first grade.  All the kids thought I was soooo cool.  So when my parents decided to make a trip up here for the weekend I asked my mom if she would teach me how to make them.  Here is the result:  cookie monster cupcakes.  While they completely pale in comparison with the ones she used to make, I have to say, I’m pretty psyched at how they turned out!  Severely lacking in patience and motor skills as I am, it’s pretty amazing that they look even remotely muppet-like!  She wanted to teach me to make Oscar the Grouches too, but he is more challenging, with the head popping out of the trash can and all, and I was pretty maxed out after these guys.  Someday maybe…