We left Marquette, MI and drove west towards Ashland, WI. Initially I wanted to visit Isle Royal National Park (IRNP), but upon further investigation, the leg of the trip was omitted. The visitor Center is located in Houghton MI, 1 ½ hours north of our east-west route. Additionally, in order to get to IRNP, it required a boat trip of three hour each way. So we decided to postpone the trip to Isle Royal NP for now and include it to a future trip.

Since it was the 4th of July holiday we were unable to get a room in Bayside, where the Apostle Island’s Visitor Center is located and the where the cruise boats are moored. We had made reservations on the south end of Chequamegon Bay, on the outskirts of Ashland, WI. Ashland is about a half an hour south of Bayside. The land portion of the NL (Little Sand Bay) is north of Bayfield at the tip of the peninsula. We had made reservations to take an afternoon cruise of the islands. However, when it came time to board the boat, the captain announced that there were thunderstorms in parts of the NL. After a short delay, the storms did not dissipate, so we opted to pass on this trip. Our alternate plan was to go to Ashland and visit the town. Another passenger told us that the town has many very beautiful murals, some stretching an entire block. We arrived in Ashland in the late afternoon and viewed many of the murals. There were very beautiful, detailed and did indeed stretch the entire length of some of the blocks. Each mural depicted a time or an event in the history of the Ashland region. After photographing the murals, we finished the day with a nice dinner of smoked Lake Trout. Tomorrow we head west to Minnesota and North Dakota.