We randomly discovered Meadow was off school on a Friday and the weather was supposed to be unseasonably warm. An impromptu trip to the cottage it was. Gotta get those cottage visits in. It's just about the best way to have fun and avoid COVID. We passed the 200,000 mileage mark on our car this week. Luckily this little hybrid is still going strong. I had brought in the car because of noise and it ended up just being a damaged tire. After I got the car I noticed it was just over 200,000 miles. The mechanic took away the joy of the speedometer rolling over. Since there are many more waterfalls to see in the U.P. we headed back up. Our first stop was Ajibikoka Falls . Google maps took us down this unpaved road to a dead end.

  Day 2 Meadow had a few days off from school and I have a few days of PTO to use so we took a fall trip to the cottage. We arrived on Tuesday evening. Wednesday happened to be our 9th Anniversary. It's tradition to have crepes for breakfast but we didn't have any milk. Waffle mix it is. Though we've only been married nine years we've actually been together for almost 15 years. I think that number matters a lot more than a legal document celebrating a party we had six years after meeting. We went from summer weather the week before to winter this week. Today called for on and off rain. Eventually we made it outside. My dad had apparently already brought in the docks and boat for the winter. With the weather we had this weekend, it was probably for the best.

As soon as we made it up Bayfield's relatively steep hill we put the gear in the car and I put the bikes back on the rack.  I don't think our car is meant to have a bike rack like this. The hatchback window is bolted into steel, but you're actually tethering the bike rack to the glass. Every time I heard a creaking noise along the highway I was nerve-wracked.