Yes, a bear. And not a small bear. No, it was quite a nice sized one, that just wandered out into the street from the side of the road. My mom, sister and I all had our heads turned, admiring the shooting range that they had on the right side of the road. And when we turn our heads straight, my sister slams on the breaks only about 8 feet from this bear. I get strangled by my seat belt, my mom is yelling for joy (she's wanted to see a bear up here for as long as I can remember), and the dog goes slamming into the back of my sister's seat. So naturally, my sister and I are having heart attacks and our mom is mad because we didn't have a camera.... sure mom, we're about to slam into a huge bear, I'll snap a picture or scream for my life. I chose to scream for my life.
I won't lie, my heartbeat didn't return normal for a few hours. Only because the roads up in Bayfield/Washburn area, have large wooded areas, perfect for willing bears to come walking out of them, and do it quite often. But we made it to our hotel without anymore visitors.
The weather was perfect every single day. No higher than 75 during the day, and close to 55 degrees at night. It was Heaven. All thanks to the wonder Lake Superior:
So anyways, we get to see our relatives, which are always a blast when we see them. My aunties are so much fun. And now that I am 21, I was welcomed into the bar and casino on the Res, without having to worry about someone IDing me. But half of my relatives work there and don't care. Besides, it was my aunt who wanted to sneak me into the casino last year, because I didn't look my age... :] But we won't discuss that.
Anyways, after the first night of losing 20 bucks, we found out my cousin Randy was working at a new job, a bar called Gill Net-Tug. It was located in the middle of Indian country (which means the middle of nowhere). So my cousin Michelle offered to drive my auntie fatso, my dad, my sister and I to the bar. My aunt geri was a speed demon and was already there when we arrived. So we all walked in and found a seat at the bar. Good thing there wasn't anyone there except the owner and some girl, because when we came in, we took over.
So my sister and I order cranberry and vodka, my dad has a screwdriver, auntie fatso had a bloody mary, and I have no idea what Geri had. I lost track of everything after a while. In the end, I believe I had 3 vodkas and cranberries, a shot of tequila (with training wheels, lmfao).. and that's it.
So my dad and sister weren't drunk, since they both had to operate vehicles later that night. So at midnight, after we all became pumpkins and embarrassed Randy like no other, he kicked us out and cut us off. On the way out of the door, my auntie fatso grabbed my butt.. So we all sardined ourselves back into Michelle's car, and headed back to the casino so the rest of us could get home.
Mom didn't care that I was drunk and almost picked flowers for her from the garden outside of the hotel. But I grabbed some crackers and forgot to put the rest of them away, and went to go pass out.
The rest of the trip was spent either at the hotel, with the relatives, and the casino with the relatives, or driving to Ashland to go gambling and do some shopping at Wal-Mart. And the 4th of July fireworks were amazing, right on Lake Superior. They were a great show.
We decided to have a cook out at our place on the Saturday (July 5) before we would head back to La Crosse. We had a huge deck and patio with our condo, so we invited the family over. Geri, Tracy, Bugger and their baby showed up, and dad did too. Once the watermelon was served, Auntie Fatso and Randy showed up before they had to go to work. It was a nice little meeting, except Mary Jane didn't seem to fond of Aunt Geri's puppy, Tischa. They were very territorial, haha.
The next day sucked, we packed and were early for once in our lives. We headed out to the Northern Edge, where Aunt Geri bought us breakfast. After saying goodbyes, we headed back into town and went up to the cemetary to see Grandma and Grandpa's gravestones. After that, we went down to Rita's store, which is down near the Pier Plaza and Madeline Island ferry landing. Such a near store, with many hand made things (by Rita, of course) and so many people seem to over look her shop. It's too bad, how many people can come home with hand made dreamcatchers, or birchwood paper baskets/ christmas ornaments?
With the touristy shopping out of the way, we began our trip home. And as usual, halfway home, I wanted to turn the van around and come right back. Bayfield is the place to be, minus the 'damn tourists' (as my late grandpa and uncle dale would say). But again, I will have to wait till next year to see the wonder sights that is Bayfield, WI.
