Final days of fun and sun!

Saturday, July 21: Homeward Bound! We left Birch Villa at 8:07 a.m. We had eaten a very light breakfast of leftover scraps of food. We hit the mall in Duluth at about 10:30 MN time and our first stop was Barnes & Noble where Seth purchased the 7th and final Harry Potter book. (We knew this routine well, as we had to do the same thing 2 years ago for the 6th book.) We ate brunch/lunch in the food court and then did a little more shopping for school uniforms for the girls (clothing is tax-free in MN!). We hit the road again at 12:30. The ride home was pretty uneventful. We luckily found our little bike on top of the car to be slipping off while at a gas station and tied it back on before we lost it completely on the road. We stopped at Culver's for supper, and arrived home at 12:45 a.m. (MI time, 11:45 MN time), making the trip, with shopping, in about 15:45. We were tired, but thankful to be home and looking forward to sleeping in our own beds again. We were also thankful for another great vacation at Cass Lake and can't wait til next year!

Friday, July 20: We woke up to another gorgeous day--sunshine and a gentle breeze blowing over the lake. Tom, Seth & I headed over to the Potato Islands area to fish (we decided the last day was a good time to try something new). Things were rather slow-going until about 11:45 when suddenly we were reeling them in "left and right" (although really it was "center and right" as Tom, on the left side of the boat just couldn't seem to get as much action). We ended up with our biggest catch of the vacation, with 21 nice-sized perch and 3 rock bass.

We spent the afternoon cleaning fish (Tom), needle-felting (Linda), swimming and playing (the kids). We also started taking the boat apart and packing. Friday evening we took a quick trip over to the Canal House for dinner. It was all-you-can-eat fish night, but since the fish was "Alaskan pollack" it didn't seem too exciting. We decided the salad bar was good, but next year will either opt for the Wednesday night all-you-can-eat chicken or the Casino instead. We came home and played a few games of pool, checked out with Karrie, did some laundry and then packed until about midnight.