July 23, 2013 Day fourteen

--> A fond goodbye to Patti’s parents in the morning put up on the road to Northern Wisconsin to visit Patti’s sister and her family.  The drive was an easy 4 hours, with small towns and wooded views as we went.

We checked into our hotel and arrived at their lake cabin just outside of Hayward WI at about 12:30.  The four kids were excited to see us and had quite an agenda planned out. The first event was a ride around the lake on their pontoon boat.  What a lovely setting for their cabin.  After lunch we then spent a couple of hours playing killer volleyball.

Once we played three games of volleyball it was time to go for a six mile ride on tandem bicycles.  We had each ridden tandems but never together.  It went very well as we rode along on beautiful country roads, up and down manageable hills. 

The lake cabin has been their wonderful rustic getaway place for the place 14 years.  What a wonderful sanctuary to get out of the city and into a lifestyle of swimming (the kids keep a record book of how many times they swim across the lake. 

This summer, Anna has completed 100 trips across the the 1/4 mile wide lake.  We were there to witness the final four laps of this achievement.  Really an ideal kind of place as a child to grow up knowing about nature and a slower way to live.

We saw a number of deer and turtles in the vicinity of the lake but did not catch them with a camera.  This chipmunk was willing to pose for a number of photos.

The evening brought a beautiful sunset than some very competitive board and card game play with lots of fun had by all.

What a pleasure to get to have some special time with Paula and Tom, and their kids: Anna, Jackson, Isaac, and Maria.

“The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life. ”
― Agnes Repplier