Apostle Islands, Wisconsin

    I will forever remember the Apostle Islands as the place where I was taught that, despite being thirty years old and married, we can still be scared like a little trembling children. There’s not much in this world that truly scares me. Apparently a violent thunderstorm while camping on a tiny island off the northern tip of Wisconsin is one of them.  The lightning flashed with such frequency that it created a strobe effect as Amanda and I peered through the tiny window on the roof of our tent at the trees above flashing and dancing in the storm. That wasn't the scary part. The rain came in spurts, sometimes heavy. That wasn’t the scary part. What truly made me fear my maker was the wind. The sound started with a whisper and steadily grew with every bolt of lightning above. Within twenty minutes we were certain there was a tornado. We heard the train roaring through. The sound was absolutely deafening. I was waiting for trees to start falling. It roared and howled for another twenty minutes and then it quickly dissipated.

    Amanda and I let out a sigh of relief and went back to worrying about the bear that paid our campsite a visit three hours earlier. 

 
    The Apostle Islands consist of 22 islands of similar shapes and sizes. We had chosen to explore them by sea kayak. It was a quick adventure. We spent only two nights on the islands. I would guess we kayaked about thirty miles in total. The islands were indeed beautiful. Each island boasted red rock cliffs the fell into Lake Superior forming caves and beautiful sculptures on their way to the water’s edge.

    The windy conditions and accompanying whitecaps made our crossing from island to island more harrowing and difficult than we would have hoped for. However, once we reached the leeward side of the islands we were greeted by beautiful and peaceful calm. We sat in our tandem kayak and watched the bald eagles skillfully hunt fish from the lake. We ended both days by eating our dinner on the west-facing beaches eating our pre-planned dinners. It was a memorable and sometimes scary adventure that we will always remember.