Trip to Apostle Islands

So, before school started Miriam and I went on a four day kayaking trip up to the Apostle Islands. We had some pretty rough seas one of the four days and barely missed being caught in a squall, but it was mostly great. Actually, even the bad weather was kind of fun. The water was surprisingly warm. There were bald eagles everywhere. We even saw a few little black bears on the last island we camped on. Miriam was a great sport and helped paddle maybe a third of the time. Her only moment of grumpiness was when she was asleep and a wave came over the bow and splashed her in the face. Anyway, here are some pictures.

These were really cool sea caves, but none of the pictures really came out. It's hard to get a sense of perspective from inside one kayak.




This was our campsite on day one, York island. There was a nice beach.




Rasberry Island on the way out to Rocky. There was a cool lighthouse. We got there just before a crazy squall with 30+mph winds. Then it was a long paddle (8 miles) out to Rocky island with 3-4 ft waves. Kind of crazy, but fun. I kind of love the folding kayak in that kind of weather. Appreciated it's stability and flexibility.



Campsite day 2, on Rocky Island. The south end of the island had a really cool bog. There was also a yacht anchored offshore. That would be fun too.







Sea caves on the north side of Oak Island. Kind of an accidental find, but very cool. There was a more extensive one a little further down we swam in, but no pictures.


Campsite at Oak Island. We did a death march (4 miles each way) across the island and swam on the other side. When we got back to our campsite on the far side we were starving and exhausted.



Had an incredible sunset. This is where we saw the bears. One was ambling down the beach at dusk. And the other was on the point above our campsite the next morning when I went on a hike and let Miriam sleep in.











Back past Rasberry Island on the way home. So tired. The kayak is kind of a beast to paddle by oneself. It was pretty hammered by the end too. The skin needs to be retired, or needs a lot of work.

National Popular Vote

Is anyone else interested in this? Vermont just passed the National Popular vote law, which brings us 29% of the way to 270 votes needed to make it work. (Hawaii was also one of the first to pass it.) I found out about it from Hendrick Hertzberg's blog at the New Yorker, where he has a great discussion about it here. So then I had to go check out the website and see how it was coming along in the rest of the states. And be mad at the Governator, again, for vetoing it in California when it was passed by both houses. Any chance this will happen before 2012?