Anniversary Celebration

To celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary, Brad and I spent the weekend up at the incredible 2nd Wind Bed & Breakfast up in Ashland, WI. While "normal" B&Bs are victorian, this one broke the mold and is a Northwoods retreat. A beautiful one at that! They have 2 normal sized suites and one large suite with a loft. The hosts, Kelly & Mark, along with their 5 kids are fantastic. We met three if the kids...Elizabeth (I think she goes by Lizzy), the youngest girl...she's a doll! She showed me her first knitted scarf...she did a great job...then the oldest daughter is Rebecca (Becca)...a very driven, funny, beautiful girl with a huge heart and a knack for making these adorable knitted hats...she just learned 3 weeks ago and she's made nearly 20 of them...she made two the night before we left to come home! Then there is Levi...a very cute, polite, and pretty quiet (from what we saw!) young man...he is an incredible drummer, cross country skier, and friend. Kelly and Mark are fabulous parents and were a great sounding board for Brad and I when it came to talking about teenage boys! This family loves the Lord and it was evident the minute we walked into the house...by the way their house was decorated, the music that was playing in the gathering room, to the way in which we were treated all weekend. They have definitely found their calling...they were great hosts and I hope we touched each others lives enough to call them friends. Did I mention she is a GREAT cook??!!! Here is their web site if you should be up around the Ashland/Bayfield area...trust me...it would be a treat for you to stay with them! http://www.secondwindcountryinn.com/

In addition to the incredible people, we had a great weekend. Saturday, on our way to Bayfield, Brad let me open the little wrapped box that contained my anniversary present. The traditional anniversary gift for 5 years is wood...well, it was a product of wood...it was a piece of paper. On the paper was a familiar logo...eBay...much to my shock and amazement (and squealing pleasure!) it was a bit more than wood/paper...it was the confirmation that he won 2 - row 14 center floor tickets to the Bon Jovi concert in St. Paul. OMG! OMG! OMG! I was going to be within 14 rows of the Jon Bon Jovi!!! I cried...how in the world did I get so lucky to deserve this incredible man? He couldn't have purchased a more wonderful gift for me.

After all the excitement in the car, we arrived in Bayfield and decided to drive across the "ice road" from Bayfield to Madeline Island (one of the Apostle Islands). What an experience...we were driving ON Lake Superior. Hokey smokes! In our new Pathfinder, no less...what the heck were we thinking? It was really cool!!! Brad was nervous, I wouldn't let myself be. We wanted to do it so we could say we did...doubt our little Pathy will navigate that trip again! We drove around the Island and went to the park...beautiful...as we were driving along the lakeshore back to leave the island, at the same time we both saw an animal running across the ice...it was fairly large...we had no binoculars with us so I used my camera with the big lens to see if I could identify the animal...it was a WOLF! That was a first for me! Moments later another one was seen running after the first. They were a long way off...and they were running away from the shoreline...but they were definitely wolves. How incredibly COOL!!!

We then drove up to the Ice Caves on the Lake Superior lakeshore. Here's what their website says about it: "Centuries of wave action, freezing, and thawing have sculpted shorelines throughout Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Some of the Great Lakes' most spectacular scenery occurs where these forces interact with sandstone to create extensive sea caves. Nature has carved delicate arches, vaulted chambers, and honeycombed passageways into cliffs along the mainland near the Lakeshore's western boundary North of Meyers Beach. People come to Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in winter to visit the sea caves and witness Lake Superior's ever-changing handiwork." We had to walk about a mile on ice...it was pretty cold...and we weren't dressed to do so. It was also late enough in the day that the sun was setting. We were out there long enough to see how cool they were...and take a few photos (my battery died while out there - I had put what I thought was a new fully charged battery in as we left the car...but apparently it was a fully depleted battery that needed to be charged!). In any case, the caves were cool...we were cold...so we didn't spend much time out there other than walking!!!

We capped off the weekend with an indirect drive home...went to check out the ski resorts up in the area...info for Brad and Robby next season. They had a little more snow than us and the slopes were only going to be open for another couple weeks. Eventually we wound our way back home after an incredible weekend.

What a great anniversary celebration weekend we have...and Oh, did I mention I received tickets to go see Bon Jovi?