We were up early on Friday, and had our breakfast of pancakes and sausage so that we could go to Bill and David’s. We planned to launch from their dock on East Twin Lake, and take a canoe trip on the Dead River. It would be another adventure!

Piwi didn’t know what to think about Robert.

It was a beautiful day for our Dead River excursion. For this trip we were paddling in the Bell Northwind canoe. We started out on East Twin Lake,

and then entered the river.

We had learned that the pink flower we had seen earlier in the week is bog laurel. There was lots of it blooming along the shores of the river.

There was bog rosemary, too.

And this is cottongrass:

This turtle stuck around to have his photograph made,

but this one slithered down the bank.

Then we had the very special experience of interacting with a newly hatched dragonfly, one of several that we saw along the bank. Robert held it in his hand, and then he tried to pass it to Grandma, but she dropped it in the water. She was afraid that it would drown, but she scooped it up and put it on the grass to dry out, and we think it was fine. They are quite fragile when they first hatch out, before their wings are dry and firm enough for flight.

This is the Forest Service campsite on West Twin Lake where we stopped to have a snack break.

It even had a biffy.

Just pretending!

Looking for ??

Applesauce was a favorite snack.

There’s a real fascination with sticks and water for little boys.

Time to get going again.

Grandma snapped this photo of the campsite as we were paddling away. It looks like an inviting place to spend the night on a canoe trip, doesn’t it?

On our way back in East Twin Lake we saw this deer up on the big rocky cliff. Grandpa said, “There’s a chair up on top of the cliff.” Grandma said, “No, it’s a deer!” That was sort of funny! It definitely wasn’t a chair.

We also saw a pair of loons.

Grandma calls this picture “the sinking loon.”

David got Piwi to be a little nicer to Robert. Bill was out of town, so we didn’t get to see him this time. David gave us OJ and coffee before we headed back to our cabin.

And Robert helped with the gate.

So. . .we went back to Spruce Cabin and ate up all of our leftovers. The smoke alarm was talking to us in a very loud voice, telling us it needed new batteries. It became VERY annoying! Grandpa and Robert went to find Laurie to tell her about it, and we played Mille Bournes to finish our game. Do I even need to tell you who won??

Robert saw a bunny outside and tried, not successfully, to get a picture of it. We were all getting grumpy about the smoke alarm. (A trip to Ely for batteries was causing the delay.) Robert was bored with us and wanted his computer game. We were out of food, so we planned to go to town for a nice supper. Robert said his favorite food was “tacos”, and that sounded good.

Grandma tried to check online for restaurants and found out that her iPad wasn’t working. That was a new crisis. Everyone was getting really crabby! We piled in the car and headed for town. Grandpa took Robert over to the Goodwill Store to do some shopping (they bought Grandma some really pretty champagne flutes that she had admired last week) while Grandma called Aunt Mary Helen, who helped her out with her iPad crisis. Hooray!

The Boathouse Pub had tacos! But they ended up being a bit too spicy for Robert, so that didn’t work out well. But at least Grandma and Grandpa liked their dinner, and when we got back to the cabin the smoke alarm had shut up from its constant talking! Yea!!

Grandma got busy packing up the suitcases and Robert soaked in the bubble tub. Life was good again. :-)