Sept. 30: This is our second trip to Canoe Bay. It’s 10.75 hours (including lunch) and 600 miles from home, but worth it. We’re in the Lookout building, which has two accommodations. We’re in the same one as last year which is room 21.
We headed out from St. Louis at 7 AM and had lunch in a Fudrucker’s in Janesville, WI, same as last year. Got to Canoe Bay around 5:45, plenty of time to relax before our 7:00 dinner reservation here. We really love our room and would want it every time we come here. It’s at the end of the road of the cottages that dot the hillside and it’s the highest, so the view of the lake to the west is pretty much uninterrupted other than the oaks and birch between here and there. I won’t try to describe the room since we have pictures that do a better job.
A nice surprise awaited in the room – a Relais & Chateaus beautiful cookbook with pictures of all the properties around the world and of each recipe. It’s a birthday present from Canoe Bay to me!
We were here two weeks earlier last year. The differences are it gets dark earlier and the leafs are in full fall array of reds and yellows.
Dinner is at the old main lodge (there are only a couple of guest rooms in the building … it’s mostly the dining room and wine cellar). A few changes in dinner from last year. First, there is a single choice of entrée this year. Last year, there was an entrée of the day, but you could also choose steak as an alternate. Second, last year they served a sorbet between the first course and the entrée. This year they don’t seem to be. Last, and this is the best, the corkage fee has been reduced from $40 a bottle to $25. This is especially nice since we brought all our own wine … and some really good stuff! The food is always excellent and service outstanding. Again, look at our pictures (you know me and taking pictures of food) if you want to see what we ate.
We finished dinner around 8:40 and drove back to the room. And you can guess correctly about what time we fell asleep given we were in bed before 9:00 and didn’t watch TV.
Oct. 1: The breakfast tray arrived outside our door at 9:00. Some of us were up, others not. It’s a lovely continental breakfast with freshly baked muffins and other delights. While it looked like it could rain (and did later), we walked down to the lake and took the East Loop trail around the lake and up into the woods ending up back at our building. I filled a whole 8GB camera card with over 200 pictures. The reflections off the lake were wonderful showing the fall foliage. And it’s so quiet here, which is really nice. We took our time to look at things big and small … and take lots of pix!
After the walk, we went to the library building, a converted A-frame with a gorgeous interior. We browsed through the books and went outside and down to the lake. Then it started to drizzle, so we opened an umbrella and walked back to the room. I had brought some cold cuts, bread, and stuff for lunch. We had in-room massages from Jodi (same therapist as last year) in the afternoon, sat around in our robes, snacked on wine and cheese. Dinner again at 7:00. Finished about the same time. Came back and watched a DVD we brought with us (the last half of the last season of Slings and Arrows). I dabbled at reading a Lightroom book before my eyelids got too heavy.
Oct. 2: The breakfast tray arrived outside our door at 9:00. Some of us were up, others not. Only change from yesterday was the addition of some fresh fruit. It was cloudy most of the day and windy and chilly. So we stayed inside at our computers until around 11:00, when we drove into Chetek.
We cruised the two antique/gift shops and Marian bought some yarn at a fabric and fiber store. From there, it was down the block to Bob’s for lunch – same place as last year. Then we drove north to Rice Lake to go to Miller’s Cheese Shop to get some cheese curd and salami. We went back through town to Bargain Bill’s, which was too overwhelming even for Marian.
Before we had left Canoe Bay, I had plotted a route to the cheese shop in Rice Lake. It was a back roads route, but we took the highway up instead. However, we took the Google Maps route back and could watch our progress as the blue dot moved along the way. Don’t know how we would have found our way back without this. Then some down time, downloading time, game time before dinner.
Dinner at 7:00. The beef tenderloin was wonderful, but way too much. Lunch tomorrow! We watched the last two episodes of Slings and Arrows, which were terrific. Then to bed.
Oct. 3: The breakfast tray arrived outside our door at 9:00. Some of us were up, others not. Sat around fooling with computers and such until a bit after 11:00. We walked up past reception and the dining room building and off into the woods on well-marked trails. Many more leafs on the ground than our walk a couple of days ago. Guess it was the rain. We went back to Mallard Lake and around it and down to Lost Lake and back. It’s about a mile or more on the loops we made up and down the hills in the woods. It’s crisp outside, but it got a bit warmer as the day went on.
Back in our room, I fixed myself a beef tenderloin and Jarlsberg sandwich and downloaded pictures. We both sat at our computers and worked/played. Around 3:30, we went over to the lake by the library and sat in the sun knitting and reading for about an hour and a half. Then back to the room for some prosecco and cheese and watching the sun start to set over the lake.
Dinner at 7:00, of course. Yummy, perusual. Back to the room to put things together to leave all this beautiful scenery, colors, and silence. Oh, and computer games and uploading photos.
Oct. 4: Breakfast today is 8:00 and we’re up since we have to leave. Time to pack up and head south. It was wonderful and we’ll be back.
