My Fiery Little King: Anniversary Weekend

Bayfield, WI

Wow, what a great weekend! When it comes to making plans, I am generally the one to make them (per Chad's preference). For our 5th Anniversary, I decided Chad should take the lead, and I gave him pretty much free rein to plan our weekend. Aidan spent the weekend with his most wonderful parents, and off we went.First order of business was a big surprise for me: my first ever massage at Lori's in River Falls, WI. Next up, we pretended to be teenagers and saw Eclipse, which was essentially mindless fluff, but not bad (New Moon was still better, IMO). For dinner we had an excellent meal at Akita Sushi, in Woodbury (St. Paul?) MN before moving on to SOLO at the Southern Theatre. This was a special treat for me, as it's been years since I've seen a dance performance, and I quite enjoyed myself. By the time we got home, though, I was definitely ready for bed!

After sleeping in the next morning (thanks in no small part to the huge bowl of food we left out for the cats, so they wouldn't have to wake us up for their breakfast), we headed off to a VERY SECRET LOCATION. Secret, because I told Chad to surprise me. All I knew is we were driving north, so I assumed we'd end up somewhere on Lake Superior.

We ended up at a charming Bed & Breakfast called the Apple Grove Inn in Bayfield, WI. We stayed in the Studio room which had a beautiful view of the grounds and also of Lake Superior.

Dinner was at the Portside Bar & Restaurant, where I had the most divine pan-seared scallops, and Chad had, in his words, "the best" ravioli he's EVER had (stuffed with blue crab!). I should have taken photos of all these lovely dishes, but honestly we were so starving that by the time the thought occurred to me, we were already halfway through our meal. BTW, have I mentioned, how excited I am that Wisconsin has followed in the wake of Minnesota and NYC to go SMOKE FREE?!?!

After dinner we took a stroll around Port Superior marina, drove around Bayfield looking at pretty houses, and then took an evening walk on the beach.

The following morning, after an excellent breakfast at Apple Grove, we packed up and headed to Hauser's Bayfiend Winery before starting the long drive home.

We had lunch in Shell Lake, WI at a new place called Lakeside (sorry, no link). They're an awesome sports bar with, according to Chad, the "right" kind of Cheese Curds. When we arrived the bartender was watching some western, so I promptly switched to the FIFA World Cup Final during our meal. So yes, if you were there and you saw the TVs, you have US to thank for that. We stayed until time ran out and the score was still 0:0, but could wait no longer before continuing home. I was happy to hear, from my beautiful Aunt Dulce, that Spain did win! They were my favorites after Brasil and Portugal got the boot, so I was glad they won.

The last part of our trip involved a wicked cool storm just north of Hammond. I failed to get a picture of the lightening, but I did get a good shot of the rain moving over the fields.