Wannaskan Almanac for Tuesday, July 23, 2024 Island Life

So...I did not set up an independent country on my island vacation in June.  It was always a possibility, but in the end sanity, somehow, reigned.  Perhaps the amazing beauty of Voyageur's National Park soothed my troubled soul and kept me preoccupied.  

Approaching our temporary home for the first time

As soon as we launched the boat to head over to our island, it started to rain.  Some people might consider that a premonition of sorts, but not me.  It is hard to see the dark side of things when you have a beautiful lady who always seems to look at the bright side of things by your side.  Partly due to the rain and partly due to the fact that the only map we had was from the back of the brochure we managed to get lost for a bit.  Eventually we did find our little non-tropical paradise and parked our vessel in the protected cove that God had provided.

Ah, green blueberries!

There was an abundance of fruit on the island, however none of it was ready to eat yet.  There were wild strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry plants.  If we had been able to stay for a couple of weeks we might have enjoyed some of the north's most delicious desserts.  Unfortunately we were not able to do that!  There was another activity that northerners enjoy that I was interested in...fishing!  I went fishing about a dozen times during our stay.  Sad to say, all I caught was one bass.  Still, fishing when you aren't catching fish is far better than work!  Which leads me to the most peculiar chapter of our trip.  I was keeping my wallet in my pocket since it had my fishing license stored in it.  I was walking on the rocks near our camp looking for a safe place to enter the water...if the weather warmed up and the sun came out!  The rocks were slippery, and my nice grippy shoes were unable to overcome them.  Like a cartoon coyote I was unable to keep from falling, and I tumbled into about six feet of water.  My lovely bride was disappointed because she wasn't filming the whole ordeal, but she did assist me with getting all the wet items out of my wallet and drying them on our picnic table.  

Anyway, after all that I put on some dry clothes and decided to go fishing.  I took off for a little spot that I wanted to try near our camp.  It was then that a boat pulled up next to mine, and I quickly noticed the garb of a DNR officer.  He asked if he could see my fishing license.  I reached for my wallet and then remembered that I had taken my wallet out to dry.  I recounted the story of falling in the water and how I had to dry out the items, and pointed out the camp that I was staying at.  I invited the DNR officer to go back to the camp with me and view the license, but he assured me it wasn't necessary.  He just wrote down my name and laughed a little at my story.  Then he asked me about my life jackets.  I showed him the stash of life jackets in one of my boat's cubbies.  Then he said, "I suppose your throwable device is under those life jackets?"  

My first thought was...why would one person in a boat need a throwable device?  If I fell in, who was going to throw it to me?  Then I remembered that I had taken my throwable devices out to sit on at the camp.  I have to admit...I figured my only recourse was to agree with him.  "Yeah, I can dig it out for you if you want," I said.

"No, that's okay." he replied.  Just make sure you stay off those slippery rocks and have your license on you from now on.  Then he took off to check on other boaters.  I hustled back to camp and rectified everything before venturing out again!

Sunshine!

The sun did come out eventually.  My clothes and wallet dried and my wife and I were able to go fishing.  We also ate a bunch of campfire cooked foods (especially toasted marshmallows) and, even though I like fishing, the best part was sitting around the fire and just talking.  There weren't any distractions and we were really blessed to be able to just enjoy each other's company.

This last picture was from our last evening on the island.  We sat on a rock ledge and watched the sunset and then battled mosquitoes in order to view the stars.  All in all, it was an amazing experience.  It was sad to leave but we do have hopes to return next year.  As we left the island the next morning I was careful to not say goodbye to it, just see you later!