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A Smoky Weekend at the Cottage and a Stop at Ladysmith's Northland Mardi Gras

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This summer we decided to go to the cottage any weekend we had nothing else going on. This week, due to fires in the Boundary Waters and Canada, the air quality was pretty terrible. We debated if we should still go, but it looked like it would clear up by Saturday. So we took the chance.

And by terrible, we mean the worst air quality we'd ever seen.

Along the way we decided to stop at John and Heidi's Happy Daze. We've passed this place probably 100 times. It was about time to stop by.

I ordered the prime rib sandwich special. 

Yummy. The sandwich that is.

Everybody's food was really good, but Brooke's was the star of the show.


 I want to get back here asap.

Now if only this pesky smoke would go away.

The smoke had changed where instead today it was going to clear up then come back again tomorrow. 

Hour by hour it was looking better. 

We did some indoor activities while we waited for it to clear up. 

Theo and I played some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch. Sadly our Switch 2 can't use our mini dock. Someday we'll upgarde to the Covert Dock 3.

Much better.

We picked up some Nueske's summer sausage at the town market. Not quite as good as Trig's Smokehouse, but it would do.

Finally, a nice day.

Over the 4th of July weekend the kids were playing with my dads nice fishing net and lost it in the water. Leave it to my dad to build a contraption to find it. 

Typical Gostisha boys.


He got some driftwood and seaweed, but no net. 


We've been hearing great things about the Nutty Squirrel up in Eagle River for years.

We've been told by multiple people to check out their fish fry.

This time we showed up after 7 pm in hopes that it wouldn't be busy. We still had a small wait. Thankfully the smoke had cleared up so we could wait outside. 

This place was packed to the gills.


Lucky us, we got sat right next to the game shelf.

Pitlik's is still my favorite fish fry.

That or Moondance. RIP Twelve Pines. That place was the GOAT.

By next morning the smoke had rolled back in.

Yuck.

I needed to get a birthday gift and since it was smoky again we took a trip to Eagle River.

There are lots of new shops since I've been down here last. 


A craft fair was going on, which I was honestly surprised was still happening. And that so many people came out for.


I kind of wish I had got this. You add a state to every place you've been. There was also a Minnesota State Park map.


The next morning we cleaned up and headed out. 

In what became the theme of the weekend, we stopped at another restaurant long on our list, yet never checked off.

JaeDee's was just OK. No wonder it was for sale.

This place is so 90s.

As we were driving through Ladysmith we saw they were having their Mardi Gras of the North Festival.

That's Northland Mardi Gras to you. But I feel like I've seen both on their signage.

Theo really wanted to go on some rides, but Meadow wasn't interested. 

The little runt got me to go on one with him.


Theo was all about all the rides.

A rare Brooke sighting on fair rides.

We got some extra tickets from another festival-goer and got on a few more rides.


Could've spent the whole day here, tbh. Too bad we had just ate.

We had just missed the Bingo, dang it.

We did get to watch a few rounds of the speed boat races. 

We'll have to come back to this next year and spend a whole afternoon.

You'd think we'd be done with treats, but we were not. We stopped at Kurschner's Super Premium Ice Cream. 

They had an appropriately named ice cream flavor of Boundary Waters burning or something like that.

That seemed a bit too soon, but their ice cream was dang good. Slightly out of the way, but it was worth the detour.


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