There’s just something about the North Woods!

  Last Sunday, MacGyver and I drove 6 1/2 hours to Hayward, Wisconsin to “play” with our family.  We are now back home and ready to check into “detox” for a day or two ..JUST KIDDING!  Terrie, Tim and family, also Chris, John and family went up for one week.  I must preface this by saying that our family (or some portion of our family) has been vacationing in Hayward for at least 30 years or more.  It just so happens that MY family also vacationed there back in the 1950’s…My Grandma and Grandpa had a cabin there…but that is another whole story which I will tell in the next blog….

  There are also some extended family that go to Hayward..Tom and Leanne, (my hubby’s niece and nephew), Mark and Brenda,(another nephew and his wife…and 2 kids), Big Fluffy (we call Den’s brother-in-law that), Steve and his fiancé, (another nephew).  Also a good family friend, Gene Frieders and his wife and 3 kids go too. Years ago Den’s Mom and Dad went also…(MAN, that took lots of time to get on paper!)

  Dennis and I took our kids up a couple times when they were little, but then we started to go to Disneyworld and that became our summer vaca.  The past couple years, Den and I have been going to Hayward for just 3 nights to be with the family.  As I stated before, it is all we can handle.  Those kids can hurt us in no time flat!!

To save space I will post a couple photos and then a couple collages…

Here are 3 ways to hurt yourself..Den and I stayed clear of all 3 ….Three of the families in our group have boats, so we can all pile in and go to dinner at one of the gazillion resorts or bars/eating establishments on the Chippewa Flowage!

Above, left pic is our 2 daughters…Then Dennis and his beautiful girls….and me with the same two beauties….I can NOT keep up with these two!! Where EVER did they learn to play this hard?

 

This is what it’s all about “Up North”…Getting “the big one”.. This huge musky is the world’s largest…a whopping 67 1/2 lbs and 60 1/2” long…It was caught on July 24th, 1949, which makes him 64 years dead..He is hanging in the Moccasin Bar, the oldest existing saloon in Hayward,  founded in 1900.

 

 

 

 

My family always went in this bar for burgers and beers..I was very young then, but can remember “going to town” and all 5 of us having lunch there..my brother, sis, mom, dad and me…It is nostalgia time whenever I go to Hayward, Wisconsin. This was a huge part of my very young childhood.

So….Dennis and I planned to leave very early Wednesday AM…and Tuesday evening about 8PM, we said our good-byes to all the kids, grands and friends.  Ter, Tim, Chris, John , Leanne and Tom were going to go out on the lake fishing that evening.  Our 2 son-in-laws had gotten fishing licenses and they wanted to try their hand at fishing in the boat..All 3 couples piled into Tom and Leanne’s boat and they waved good-bye as they motored away out onto the Chippewa Flowage…MacGyver and I stopped and picked up a pizza “to go”, headed back to our room and hit the sack about 10PM. 

We got up at 5:15AM on Wednesday and were on the road by 6AM…I have to add here that there is almost NO cell phone service up there…You are lucky to get any signal at all…So after about an hour on the road, we finally got into cell phone service and Den’s phone notification signal went off…He checked the message and it said…”John caught a 44” Musky last night…”

Yep….sure enough…John Wolff got himself a very nice Musky. I cannot imagine the bedlam that transpired in that boat of 6 people when that fish was landed…

They don’t let you keep the fish…It is “catch and release” only, so they took the photo and got the measurement…and let Mr. Musky live to swim onto another lure…

As you might imagine, this was a whirlwind trip for us..but what a great time with all those kids…Our son, Kelly and his wife couldn’t go this  year and we all missed them..Maybe next year..  Right now, it is cocktail hour..Let’ see…Do I think I dare drink a Rum and Coke again after Hayward??? Oh..What the Heck..My de-tox period is over…Let the good times roll!!!!