2015 – Northern Loon Travelogue

Hawaii December 2015

Flew to Oahu on Dec 3: Madison to Denver, Denver to San Fran, San Fran to Honolulu . . . oh wait. The plane never took off from San Fran. 4pm flight, delayed an hour to 5pm. Delayed an hour to 6pm. Delayed an hour to 7pm. Delayed an hour to 8pm. Delayed an hour to 9pm. Delayed an hour to 10pm. At this point we calculated that we’d be arriving in Honolulu past 1:30am, the point at which car rentals close down. We bailed, booked a flight for the next day, found a close hotel, got the hell out of there. Bought a bottle of wine, watched TV, glad to not be in the airport any more.

We found out later our flight actually left at 11:30pm, which had it arriving in Honolulu at 3am. Nice!

Dec 4, day one (which should have been day two) in Honolulu. Checked into our Airbnb, walked to the beach, started the long and arduous process of unwinding.

(Click thumbnail for photo gallery, which should open in a separate tab. Photos can be view in various ways – default, full screen, slide show. You’ll figure it out.)

Dec 5, day two in Oahu/Honolulu. Hiked to Manoa Falls. This hike was actually difficult. It had rained heavily of late, it rained on the hike. The trail was steep, rocky, huge roots and rocks on the trail. We were thankful for our hiking shoes and poles. Still, the majority of hikers wore your basic thong flip-flops! This was a theme on every hike we were to do in Hawaii. Several women had children on their backs. Others had large dogs, yanking and pulling them as they tried to stay upright. Everyone seemed to manage. We didn’t see anyone fall. Most of them looked at us with pity.

After the hike, we drove a loop on Tantulus Drive that took us up high above town. A lookout was available at PuuUalakaa park, overlooking Diamond Head.

(Video at the end of this gallery.)

Dec 6, day three, Honolulu. Some tennis at the Diamond Head Tennis center. Nice facility, 10 courts, very friendly folks. There was a senior doubles tournament in progress for Senior Olympics. We still found a court and drilled for an hour. After that, a visit to the Punchbowl (National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific), where my eldest aunt Anabel Goode is interred.

Dec 7, day four Honolulu. Hanama Bay, first day of snorkeling. Hanama bay is a great swimming and snorkeling spot, but sadly it’s world famous. Asian tourists, every single one of them armed with a selfie stick, just pummel the place. We knew to get there early, barely got a parking spot. Long line to get in, then you have to watch an obligatory 10 minute film on the history of Hawaii, of the bay, of the sea life and coral, and are admonished not to touch the coral. Then there’s a long, steep walk down to the water. The Asians all walk. All the fat people from Wisconsin ride the tram. Then all the unwashed masses go out and stand on the coral.

After a couple of hours of this, we drove north, up the coast. Took pics at a very scenic lookout point. Ended up in Kailua, which we really liked. Almost a normal looking town, and the beach was sensational. Creamy soft sand, like Florida, and it went on and on. We were treated at the end with front row seats of the high school war canoe teams coming out for practice.

Click thumbnail for photos. Check out videos of the big canoes at the end.

Last day in Honolulu. We strolled Waikiki, downtown, crazy busy, big buildings, luxury shopping, big malls and hotels.

December 9, First day in Kaua’i: Airbnb digs, misc shots, a medium level hike.

Dec 10 – hit the beach at Poipu

Dec 11 – Hiking and sight seeing Waimea Canyon, the “Grand Canyon” of Hawaii. Took pictures at various lookout point, then hiked to the top of Wai’po falls, which we had seen at distance from several vantage points. Standing at the top of Wai’po falls offered no particular viewing point, rather an extreme desire to not fall in the water and get swept away.

Dec 12 – Drive to the North Shore of Kauai, and Hanalei. Got lucky with the weather – warm and sunny. The north side of Kauai is the cloudy, stormy side.We gandered about on the way up, then hit a beach at Hanalei Bay, a large bay with four named beaches on it. We dropped out blanket on Waikoko Beach. The beaches on this day were mostly empty. There’s a video at the end of this gallery where nothing goes on at all, except the beach, the surf, the sounds of the waves, the sunny skies.

Dec 13 – a low key day. Played tennis at the local community college in Lihu’e. Drove south to Poipu and Allerton Gardens, down that way. It was a “free day”, overrun, we couldn’t get in, walked over to Spouting Horn park for a picture, then beached it near there at Kukuilua Bay. Eileen reported the best fish of all her snorkels.

Dec 14 – last day. A drive to Wailua Falls, hike to a Ho’opi Falls, north of Kauai, and a stroll around Kauai, which seems to be the “tourist heart and soul” of Kauia. Has a lot of restaurants, bars, and hotels, even though it’s not the island’s largest city.

Michigan Vacation 2015

Michigan 2015 started with our second Door County Century ride. We again pulled our camper up there, camped in Potowatomi State campground, across the Bay from the main part of town. The ride went well, we did our 100 miles in about the same fashion as last year. Sharon and Ann rode with us the whole way. That may have been their first full century (?).

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Looking NW from Sturgeon Bay towards Green Bay.

Inside the main county fair building, where vendors set up.

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One of several draw bridges that go over Sturgeon Bay, in action. The town is cut in half by the bay. These bridges get a lot of action.

A lot of Madison riders rented a nice beachfront house in Door County. We had an apre’ ride party there.

Beautiful beach, strong wind, big waves.

More Sturgeon Bay pics are here:

We got up early the next morning and burned over to the Petosky State Campground, near it’s namesake in upper Michigan. It’s about 340 miles, and we didn’t want to pull in at night. The camp is right on the water, on the beautiful Little Traverse Bay. Harbor Springs is nearby to the north, Charlevoix 20 miles or so to the south. An off road bike path goes from Harbor Springs, through our camp, to Charlevoix.

The campground was lightly attended and partially closed off. Our site was very near the beach. Between that, and the bike path, we extended our stay from 3 to 4 days.

Charlevoix on bikes

Famous coffee joint in Petosky

Sunset on Little Traverse Bay

More pictures from the Petosky area are here:

One day we pedaled to Harbor Springs, on the bike path for the most part. Small, cute town. Reeks of money. Old money. Big money. The lineup on Mansion Row is how the Rockefellers and Fords lived, back in the day. It hasn’t changed.

Leland was the next stop. We crashed at Jim and Leslie’s for a few days. Parked our camper out on the road by the golf course. Strolled around town. Played some tennis on the clay. Got in a sweet group bike ride on the Heritage Trail.

Leslie, hanging at the clay courts

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Group bike ride. A rest stop in Empire. It’s worth noting that upper Michigan had recently suffered a straight line wind of hurricane force, 100mph or more. These intense winds came without warning, didn’t blow for all that long, and knocked down a million trees. The devestation was contained, and a bit random, but but where it was bad, it looked like an atom bomb had gone off. We pedaled through some of the worse areas in the Heritage Trail.

Another rest stop at Glen Lake

More pictures from Leland are here:

While we were there, the annual antique sports car show came to town. The lineup was fantastic, if you’re into that kind of thing. Here’s the entire shoot of this event, no editing. Don’t click this if old sports cars and wooden boats bore you.

Stayed in Traverse City with the Stubers. Mark Linder was there, having come out to fish with Bob, in Canada. They brought back a lot of fish. We ate a lot of fish. One sunny day Bob, Mark, Eileen and me (and Bela, the dog) walked downtown and hung out on a pier. Four miles round trip, which just about finished me and my still delicate hip. I could not keep up with the torrid pace set by Bob. Bela showed advanced heeling skills. Bob kept her on a short leash and she never left his hip, even when unruly dogs lunged and snarled at her. She made up for that later by rolling is something dead and disgusting, so she’s not completely perfect.

More photos here:

Our last Michigan State Park before heading home was in Grand Haven. Unusual setting, just a huge beach, a swath of sand that pushes hundreds of yards in. The park consists of paved roads and paved camping spots in a virtual desert of sand.

A very long, very old pier runs way out there. It’s comprised mostly of huge rocks, piled in the water, with a concrete layer over the top.

We figured this arial tram to be a man mover of sorts, to gain access to the lighthouse with water washing over the pier.

More pics of this campsite are here: (click)

Picture taking stopped right about here, when I slipped on a slimy spot wearing worn out crocs, fell backwards, cracked my head wide open, bled all over the pier and myself, and spent the rest of the day in the ER. I won a prize for taking the hardest head blow they’d ever seen without being knocked out cold.

We stuck around for another day or two, then that was all she wrote, we headed back to Madison.

Bayfield – Duluth Aug 5-8

Quick vacation to Bayfield, a spur of the moment trip. Neither of us had been there before. Our camper paid off big time, since on short notice there was zero housing to be had in the area. Perhaps it was because their Big Top Chautauqua was hosting the Wailin Jennys, for which we had tickets.

We researched local campgrounds, found a nice, large one in Washburn, 12 miles south of Bayfield. Memorial Park. Nothing fancy, clean showers (altho they were coin fed. That was a first. $0.25 for each five minutes, and you’d better have quarters.). First come first served, no reservations. We took off early on a Wednesday and burned up there, hoping to get lucky. And we did – we got the last spot in that campground.

One side of it was more open, had more big rigs. The other side was more wooded, mostly smaller rigs.

There’s a 2nd campground on the southern edge of Washburn called Thompson’s West End Park. No pictures of it. It’s more wide open, somewhat less appealing than Memorial, but still very serviceable. And to note: there is an overflow field made available if no campsites are to be had. We camp off grid all the time – this could be a lifesaver on a crowded weekend.

We headed to Bayfield the first evening to look around. Came back the next day, hopped on the ferry to Madeline Island, with our bikes. It ain’t cheap getting over there. They charged us for each body, and each bike. $42 for us both.

Many roads are paved on the island, many are not. An ideal bike would have fatter tires for some dirt, but we were on our fast road bikes. Still, there was enough mileage to make a decent day out of it. We pedaled through both the state campground, Big Bay State Park, and another camp site named Big Bay Town Park. It’s more of a “city level” park. Here’s its official description.

Big Bay Town Park:

No doubt Big Bay Beach at Town Park is the perfect spot to lull away the day on a hot summer afternoon. Walk the miles of sandy beach, hike the boardwalk, or canoe or kayak the inland lagoon. Fish the lake or lagoon – permit required. Picturesque views at every turn.

Campground features 61 campsites with 22 electric sites. New RV camp sites available and also 6 remote campsites which are located on the Lagoon Ridge Trail. New picnic structure with fireplace for picnics and campers. New restroom and shower facilities available. Firewood available.

~end~

Despite it’s exotic location in the island, Big Bay State Park had the total look and feel of any Wisconsin State Park. The water is not visible from the camping area. Because of the serious expense of ferrying a large camper over, we saw a lot more tents.

We would have liked to spend the whole day and into the evening on the island. They have a funky downtown area, a few bars (Tom’s Burned Down Tavern), but because of our tix for the Big Top, we had to get back early.

Click for pics:

Our first two days Up North were sunny. It started raining at the Wailin Jennys concert. We didn’t see the sun after that for many days. Our itinerary had us heading to the Superior/Duluth area. We drove the Bayfield Penninsula on Hwy 13 the next day, heading for our next campsite, Amnicon Fall. Our most interesting stop was in Cornacopia, where we bought incredibly fresh fish, practically off the boat. Whitefish and Salmon, smoked and fresh, great prices. We loaded up because we of course had our big camper refrigerator and freezer pulling along behind us.

Amnicon Falls was a nice campground. No electric sites, total off grid camping. It was unseasonably cool, very wet, gloomy. The Amnicon River flows right through the place.

Video of the Amnicon Falls can be seen by clicking below. It pans from upstream to downstream, following a sequence that goes something like “I could so float that”, to “that would be insanely wicked to float”, and finally “I would be dead, right about there”.

Atwood Fest 2015

This food and music fest has been going on for a long time. Most of my photos, and the video, were of Otimo Brazilian Dance group. They had the crowd going. The drumming troupe was good, and loud.

A video can be seen here:

Ominous storm clouds

The weather forcast was all agog about a big storm coming, rotating winds, high likelihood of tornados. It was quite ominous outside, dark, very calm, and with cloud shapes overhead that just aren’t seen every day. I was ready to head to the basement (right after I took these shots).

In the end, nothing much happened.