It was a lazy morning. We had breakfast about 9:30. There was a light rain all morning, so we played games: "Rummikub", which Grandpa won, and "Perquackey" which Anna won. After a rather forgettable lunch, we headed off around 2 PM under bright blue skies and increasing warmth, to explore Aspen Lake. This was fun, but nothing exceptional took place. No wildlife, unless you consider one loon and one small turtle.

Tiny purple asters, harbinger of autumn.

Anna took the bow this time, and I was back in the "duffer" seat. Neither of us liked this switch. The one advantage was that Anna was in a good position for photography as we paddled around the lake.

It had been a lovely afternoon. The only down side was that I had to have significant "help" in getting out of the canoe when we arrived back at the dock. Because the seats in the Bell are lower, it makes for a difficult stand-up after sitting for some time. My newly repaired hip replacement and my arthritic back screamed in protest. But mainly, I think the realization that canoeing is more challenging than I thought--that was hard to handle.

Grandpa gave Anna some lessons in how to tie knots in the ropes holding the canoe. She must have been a good student, as these knots held it in place until we arrived back in Michigan, several days and many miles later.

I announced, yet again, that I was not cooking supper at the cabin! We decided to just stop at Trail Center. They were very busy, and we ate at the bar. Grandpa and I enjoyed the Friday evening fish fry, and Anna opted for Swedish meatballs.

Marti had told us about a program at the Seagull Lake Community Center that sounded very interesting. It was called "Dark Sky Caravan". So about sunset we traveled almost to the end of the Gunflint Trail to check it out. It was a traveling exhibition run by staff and students from University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). There was a show in an inflatable planetarium.

Yes, we had to lie or sit on the floor! The pictures were stunning!

There was also a film about the Apollo 8 astronauts who took the famous "Earthrise" photo in 2008. There was a project for kids to make a moon phase calendar, and (best of all in Anna's opinion) they had big telescopes. Anna was thrilled to see views of the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's moons, and a "binary" star that turned out to be just two different-colored stars after all.

August 16th was one day after the full moon. When we were back at the cabin we walked out on the dock to look at the stars. Anna and I both regretted that we had forgotten to bring tripods on this trip, but we did try a few moon shots.

Anna did a nice job with the "Path To the Moon." I love the song of that name by Eric Thiman, and I confess to singing a few phrases of it as we were out on the dock.

At the end of our time under the stars a beaver swam by. It seemed like a nice coda to a lovely day.