We had great weather during our visit with Jon and Cathie Ringen, way up in the NE corner of Minnesota.  The leaves were just beginning to turn when we arrived, and they just got better and better.  The Ringen’s own a gazillion canoes; we used two to take a short excursion into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, where we had lunch in one of the park’s camp sites.  On our last day, we took a ride in one of their small motor boats to the extreme southern end of McFarland Lake.  Absolutely gorgeous day, made all the better by getting some photos of Common Mergansers that were so preoccupied with their feeding on small fish and/or crayfish that they never flew away.

Our stay was much too short, but we enjoyed visiting and walking in the woods and being on the water and playing cards with our friends.

On our way back to Bismarck, we made three stops.  The first, to photograph an incredible “artistic” display in the front yard of a home on the highway adjacent to Lake Superior.  The second, to grab a lunch in a small town of Minnesota and photograph an interesting creature outside a dive shop.   The third, to have dinner in Valley City, ND with Barb’s high school friend Lynn and her husband Steve.