I went to Madeline Island when I was little and I still remember riding the ferry over and the captain letting me look in the wheel house. I remember my parents telling me and my sister that the water was too cold to swim in but we did get to feed the ducks. We fed them Cheetos, actually, and one of the ducks bit my sister’s finger. It’s funny the things we remember from our childhood.
Last year we went to Duluth and loved it but this year we wanted to go a bit more off the beaten path. We decided on Madeline Island this spring and started exploring our housing options. At first we thought we wanted to rent a house but we procrastinated and the only homes left when we were ready to book were for 8 or more people. We settled on Lakeside Condominiums and couldn’t have been happier. You can see the view from the living room below. We also had a quiet beach just steps away and I’m sure we walked the short half mile in to town a dozen times during our stay.
When we made our summer bucket list we made sure to include things we planned on doing on the island. As much as we love a laid back vacation, it was nice to have some focus when it came to things we wanted to get done. Some items were gimmies like ride a ferry and visit an island but they are items that the boys got very excited for. Hudson talked about riding the “tooth fairy boat” almost daily throughout the summer. We also wanted to explore the sea caves, go hiking, visit a new beach, go star gazing, swim in a lagoon, and ride a glass-bottomed boat. The hiking and new beach were things we could have done around Minneapolis but on our last free weekend of the summer I was hospitalized with meningitis. We had big plans for that weekend, hoping to cross off several items from our bucket list, but I am thankful that I’m healthy again and that Hurlburt Baby #3 seemed totally unfazed by the baby momma health drama.
We rented kayaks from Apostle Island Kayaks. Now, I will say that I was skeptical because there were some less-than-stellar reviews online. We did not book until we got to the island for that reason. However, Ed, the owner, was fabulous. He was kind, great with the boys and told us exactly what we needed to know to have our kayak adventure. We will absolutely return to him until the boys are old enough to do some overnight kayak adventures with Living Adventure. You must remember when traveling here that almost all the businesses run on “island time.” If island time isn’t your expectation, you may find yourself irritated and frustrated. While we were told to be at Apostle Island Kayaks at 9:15am we then ended up needing to wait because the ferry was bringing more kayakers. By the time we got to the lake, got our instruction and hopped in our kayaks it was nearly 10. “Don’t worry about being back by 1. 1:30 is fine,” Ed told us as we headed out. I didn’t take my camera. It was just too new of an experience and I wasn’t sure how we’d do and if we’d all stay dry. Also, Ed said if it’s in the kayak it will get wet, so while kayaking and visiting the sea caves we just had my i-Phone. I was nervous to even take it but knew I needed to document our adventure. I’m glad I didn’t bring the camera. Everything did get wet and once we got out of the bay, I realized why they called it sea kayaking. We were in, what I felt were, some pretty intense waters. I didn’t expect kayaking on whitecaps and I did panic a little bit but luckily I hid it from my kids and my lovely husband helped reassure me we were fine. We couldn’t get as far into the sea caves as I thought but I guess the deeper ones are on other islands. We’ll have to check those out another year.
Kayaking was our big adventure. The rest of the time we spent hiking and the boys spent a ridiculous amount of time in the cold water. They’d come in with blue lips and shivering but these fish can’t pass up an opportunity to get in the water. They had fun playing in the waves and searching for rocks. Corbin skipped his first rocks on the island; a feat he’s been trying to accomplish all summer. We came upon a bear in the road and watched some amazing sunsets. We even woke the boys up for the meteor shower but only saw a few. We visited Grampa Tony’s for ice cream nearly every night and Hudson cried when he realized he probably wouldn’t be able to eat Superman ice cream when we left the island. We canoed and swam in a beautiful lagoon. We learned about all the great shipwrecks of Lake Superior despite bailing on the glass-bottomed boat adventure because we were told you couldn’t really see any shipwrecks. We had mornings of sleeping in and I had evenings post-bedtime relaxing in a huge Jacuzzi tub. I miss that tub. We were cut off from technology a lot of the time and we made some awesome memories. We fed the ducks – Goldfish for this generation. My boys want to look at the pictures over and over again. It was an amazing vacation and we are excited to go back again.
the cave is cool.