A lovely misty morning on Poplar Lake. I always have to enjoy these by myself, as the other two sleepyheads miss the best part of the day by sleeping in. Anna has a tradition of needing a cup of hot chocolate as soon as she awakens in the canoe country; if I call her early, I have it already waiting. Otherwise, in a cabin like #4 with a loft bedroom, she will call down when she awakens and let me know to get it ready for her. But I enjoyed this lovely view accompanied by a daisy and a marsh marigold, and the beautiful silence of the canoe country. And, actually, I didn't mind a bit.

Today we were taking a day trip on Poplar Lake.

Paddling on Poplar Lake on a beautiful day was a delight. Paddling has been a tradition that we have passed on to both of our grandchildren from a very early age.

This is Anna paddling on Poplar Lake in August of 2007:

And again in August of 2017:

We used the aluminum canoe that had been provided with the cabin, and we packed a light lunch. We paddled down to the boat landing at the west end of the lake, and ate our lunch there. We saw a loon on our way down, took lots of photos, and then saw another loon (or perhaps the same loon?) on our way back and took a bunch more photos! Way too many photos, of course, but another tradition of our vacations is far too many photos! Anna is following in the footsteps of her grandparents, and enjoys photographing all sorts of events on her vacation. A loon is an exciting event, to be sure!

Here are a few of our loon photos. First, Anna's:

And these are some of mine:

I know! TOO MANY LOON PHOTOS! Anna and I are just nuts for loon photos! One year we even made a book of our loon photos!

Spartan1 didn't take any loon photos. (He was busy paddling the canoe.)

Anna also took this nice shot of a butterfly while we were enjoying our lunch on the landing.