Saturday, June 20, 2009

Alex reads a book

Here is some video of Alex "reading" one of his favorite books.




He didn't know I was filming him. I made some noise and he turned around:


Monday, June 15, 2009

Apostle Islands Kayaking

I spent the weekend kayaking with SKOAC up in the Apostle Islands. We drove up Friday night and paddled over to Oak island. Some folks were already there, but more showed up after we arrived (they scraped bottom around 10:45 or so - a very nice night crossing). Even though I normally am "out" by 9:30 or 10:00 at home, I stayed up until past midnight socializing with fellow kayakers around the campfire.

This was a mistake, which became clear at around 5:00 in the morning. A bird decided to serenade me. I am convinced he was mere inches from my tent, based on how loud the little fellow was. Having his various singing exercises, he eventually flew away.

Our group decided to break into two. I opted to join the crowd paddling over to Stockton island. We started off in very calm conditions, and were making good time. The picture below is our first snack stop - note how calm the water is:


We were soon on our way, and made it to Stockton with no problems. Looking behind us to the west, we saw a nasty squall line coming in. Leading front winds were reported to be gusting at 40 mph, so we ate quickly and watched the storm roll in. Dave and Sam made the best of in their chairs, as seen below. They are quite snug and cozy, and I do believe some napping was accomplished as the storm rolled through.



There were two nasty thunderstorms: one to the south, and one to the north. Checking the vectors on the weather radio, we decided to paddle between them and head back to Oak island. The sailboat in the picture below was a bit south of us, and looked pretty cool since he was lit up by the sun:



As we paddled along, we kept an eye on which way the storm was moving, but we stayed clear of any nastiness and arrived at camp without incident.



Excitement for that night was a "pot luck". In my case, I had brought my famous meatsauce, but quickly realized that the spaghetti was still at home. Thus, I was able to focus on the "luck" part of the evening, since I got lucky in spite of my mistakes and still enjoyed a very tasty dinner.

Sunday morning came quickly, and we were soon paddling back to Red Cliff. A nice surprise came when I looked over, and realized the guy unloading his boat ten feet away from me was Ron Steinwall (with whom I have done 2 circumnavigations of Isle Royale). It was nice catch up with him for a bit before getting into the truck for the drive home.

Done with School!

Well, after 5 years of part-time study I finally finished my MBA! The picture below is our last "night" of class. It was purely optional, since it was held during finals week. Nine (9) of us (out of around 45) showed up. After some discussion, we opted to head up to the Corner Bar to continue our case discussion for that evening. This was the final class of my MBA career, and I don't think I could think of a single way to improve upon the evening:

Two days later it was time for commencement. Since I didn't do the "walk" for my other Masters degree, I decided to go for the experience now. Glad I did - it was actually kind of fun.