Mother's Day spent "Up North"

Aahhhhh, the Lake Superior beckons me......

I know lots of you consider the Homestead Cabin Retreat as coming 'Up North' but when you live where we live, we have to go a bit further for our "Up North". For me, it happens at about 125 miles from here due north on Hwy 13, which almost divides the state in half vertically. I love traveling this desolate two lane road which passes through many villages on my way to my Up North.

It all starts when the tall pine trees become pointy at the tops. It is here when I can exhale and leave the cares of my world behind. Then for the next 113 miles, I relax and take in the scenery. I visited my northern grown son and daughter over this Mother's Day. Luckily they both live in the same town so I can do this. We went out for the traditional Mom's Day cuisine at the Chinese restaurant :) Then we went out to the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center just outside of Ashland, Wisconsin. Here is where I fell in love with their wood floor many years ago upon seeing it for the first time. Take a look.

Ain't it grand? I know I will do this somewhere along the way someday. It is tucked in my mind's "to do list".

These goslings were appropriately swimming outside the Visitor's Center greeting all us Mothers today.
This visitor's center has a fantastic gift shop with wonderful books of anything Wisconsin. Lumberjacks, ship wrecks in the great lakes, mining, birds, nature, etc. I could spend hours in here. Fortunately we came to see the featured photos of the month. And this month I got lucky. The historical society put on a wonderful display of the Great Northern Lodges of Wisconsin. It goes on to tell about the gangsters hideouts who came up from Chicago. There are only two remaining family owned lodges in the Hayward area today. I plan to visit these soon. I am fascinated with this era and of course lodging houses. (the retreat is a lodging house) Sometimes, I think I lived another lifetime years ago. Perhaps I did.

This cabin was the typical 'cabins' many years ago that folks came to stay at. This one looked inhabited yet. Ooops might have been trespassing.

Another road trip I took was past this post office.
Sorry, I cannot rearrange the photos like I want. Blogger not cooperating today.