Hello from Mankato, Minnesota! We will be in South Dakota tonight! Wrapping up our five days canoeing and portaging in the Boundary Waters, we had a fantastic trip! It was very hard what with 23 miles and 13 portages total. Not much ground covered, but we got alot of fishing in. The mayflies filled up most of the fish so it was hard getting the fish to bite. Eric pulled out a smallmouth out of Sawbill Lake (the Tofte district) the first day. Another smallie the second day out of Cherokee, and hooked a Northern Pike in beautiful little Sitka Lake... and he caught a Walleye on Smoke. I was jealous... I just pulled a smallmouth out on the last day out of Smoke. Most areas were very very buggy and we spent 80% of the trip with bug nets around our heads. I am scratching a mosquito bite right now! Our last night was wonderful on Smoke Lake. We found a great campsite with the wind coming right through - great firewood, and we even had a little wine to celebrate the fourth of July! At around midnight, a bear came and wouldn't leave us alone. He stole our food and ate all of it - I didn't do a good job of hanging it properly. That will change in the future because he really scared us! Finally, we allowed him to drive us out of the campsite at around 5 in the morning.  Big bad bear wasn't afraid of us at all!  The Boundary Waters is fantastic - saw a few more cow mooses with babies, and Mergansers with their babies.

After leaving the BWCAW, we headed to Duluth, after speaking with a nice fisherman at Sawbill put-in who suggested we buzz the town.  We loved Duluth - they really did a great job revitalizing the downtown area. Had such an interesting character. We dropped into the Duluth Pack Store to check out the hooplah. Spoke to a young man about doing the Appalachian Trail. We also thought of the couple that we met on the Isle Royale ferry ride, Marty and Jennifer who said they lived in Duluth. We could see why they were proud of living there! Sharing a shelter in Windigo due to the unexpected delay on getting to mainland, we talked alot with them - they are getting married this September!

Heading south, we arrived at Bunker Hill Campground outside of Minneapolis. We also buzzed Minneapolis downtown and visited the Walker Art Museum sculpture garden. Bridge Spoon to Cherry was pretty crazy - most of the sculptures were of the 80s. We mused. Changing the entire mood, we scooted over to the Mall of America and rode a little coaster inside. Hilarious!

The traveling has been great and the folks we meet have been so nice! It's hard too what with missing family and friends. My uncle in Germany is not in good health - lung cancer and two strokes. I've been thinking and praying alot about him... My folks are headed to Alaska tomorrow for a nice trip! I am so excited for them! And they promised to call as soon as they land...