I survived a week in the wilderness!

I spent seven days in the north woods of Wisconsin and two in the Twin Cities and managed to do very little of what I thought I would. I only read two books, I didn’t really do any writing, I let my work sit unfinished, I rarely even turned on my computer. It was kind of nice to unplug for a week and I wasn’t really that excited to come back, but alas, things were waiting for me.

I saw a lot of wildlife on my trip, including a pair of bear cubs (no idea where Mama Bear was), a few bald eagles, a ton of loons and hummingbirds and other indigenous animals. I stayed at my family’s property with my immediate family—dad, stepmother, both brothers, and my sister-in-law—and we kept ourselves busy. (I think this is the first vacation we’ve managed with all of us in almost a decade; it’s certainly the first big family trip with my SIL. We don’t all end up in the same place that often.) I did some kayaking, we had one night where we cooked dinner over a fire, I saw some of my very extended family, I tasted wine at a winery, I went window shopping in a tourist-trap area.

On Thursday, my dad hauled me out of bed at 5:30am and we went fishing with a guide. My dad is an avid fisherman, and I agreed to go along on this outing because I have a really great memory of a fishing trip the two of us took when I was a teenager. (I’m apparently the good luck charm; I don’t dislike fishing, but I don’t like touching fish, so I’m not usually the first one to volunteer to go on these outings. Still, I caught a few big ones.) So off we went, and we literally caught our dinner, enough fish to feed the twelve people who came to the house where we were staying (we invited everyone we knew in the area). My brother S loves to cook, so he put together a pretty nice meal. (I don’t want to see any more fish for a while, though.)

That’s about as rustic as I get. I am definitely a city girl at heart. It was nice to unplug, but it’s also nice to be back in the land of noise and people and concrete.

And now I’m catching up—I missed a lot last week! And I got an idea for a book that I’m really excited about. I think my next project is going to be a historical either way, so you all have that to look forward to.