tuesday, august 15th...we set out for little saganaga lake (little sag, for short) from maqua and paddled around to look at various potential campsites, to check out some of burn area left by this summer's forest fire (see will's blog for more about that), and to find the site where the decker boys had stayed with their dad on some of their first BWCA expeditions. that campsite has been closed since the fire, but we decided to make a quick stop there for lunch, keeping close to the canoes just in case any forest service folks stopped by. our stay on little sag was marked by a lot of fly-overs by small aircraft (otherwise forbidden in the boundary waters) that were ostensibly doing surveillance of the fire remains, and also a wonderfully cloudless sky with a ton of stars (some shooting). here's the view. it wasn't the prettiest site, but the look out over the lake was lovely... 
hiding out from the sun's hot rays under the tarp.
wednesday, august 16th...from little sag, we set out for mesaba lake where we spent our last night out on the water. after setting up, i found this butterfly flitting around. thinking i had a limited window of opportunity to snap its photo, i grabbed the camera and stealthily snuck over to it. i was so pleased when it landed on sandy's shoe--she's taken an interest in identifying butterflies and will bought her a field guide for their anniversary. we later discovered, with the book's help, that this is a mourning cloak. i kept snapping photos and it was more or less staying put. it hung around our site for a good long while and when sandy came over, she was able to coax it off of her shoe and onto her finger, where we got an even better look. she suspected that it might be dying and, therefore less wary of us and eager to fly away. it was a beautiful creature and i felt lucky that it was letting us check it out so intently, up close.
lucy found a good hiding spot under one of the makeshift benches around the fire grate. 
making dinner as the sun set over mesaba.
thursday, august 17th...the day started out rainy. we ate breakfast under the tarp and donned our rain gear, but shortly after we started paddling, the rain stopped and the clouds parted. by the time we paddled across alton lake, a nice headwind had whipped up, which made the waters choppy and the paddle a bit more taxing. on our final portage from alton to sawbill we stopped for a snack--the remaining skittles, peanut m&ms, fruit leather and granola bars. from there, it was a quick trip to the outfitters, where we met up with betsy, pete and henry.
on thursday night, we all stayed in a suite at thomsonite beach resort, right on lake superior. we enjoyed nice and much needed warm showers, and relaxed with some cold beer that afternoon.
we went to dinner at the naniboujou restaurant (see betsy's blog for some pics of the impressive dining room) and i was happy to see henry wear the madras pants i couldn't help picking up for him at the gap outlet. if a 21-month old wants to play golf or pretend he's actually 65, he needs the appropriate clothes, right? i've learned that this is henry's 'someone's taking a picture of me!' face...
(more to come on our stay at kemo lake before returning to the twin cities...)
the reception was held at fulton's on the river which, as you might guess, is right on the chicago river and affords great skyline view. we sat at a great table full of chicago friends and had a lot of laughs. 
one advantage of sitting at a table close to the kitchen was being able to snag the big platter of rice krispie treats before they got to the dessert buffet! 
speaking of marriages, this weekend, rob and i celebrated our first wedding anniversary. newlywed erin left a phone message wishing us a happy anniversary and she said that it was hard to believe that a year had gone by already. our first year together as husband and wife has passed so quickly, as good times tend to do, and it's certainly been full of great memories. here's to many more happy years together...
