A Helluva Good Day in Hayward!

Say what you will about the hassles of travel, there are certain things that only are experienced if travels. One of these is the unexpected experience. We had a great day to day in the northlands of Wisconsin. My brother-in-law T the Oil-guy agreed to take me out for a day of kayaking. We went down the Namakagon River. The Namakagon is part of the larger St.Croix National Waterway system and is therefore, protected from development. So there is no development allowed along the waterway an while not totally wilderness it has that wilderness feel.

What a blast. I had never done this before. Going in I had some minor (maybe major) trepidations about my ability to navigate a kayak (read stay upright and dry). In fact it wasn’t that bad and was truly enjoyable. The only thing that was really challenging to me was getting in and out. That required a sense of balance that seemed to escape me so I was very glad to have T’s assistance. The waterway itself was a combination of mild rapids (Class One – Training Wheels Rapids) and long stretches of slow tranquil calm water. So you had areas where you had to concentrate and had the rush of fast water followed by periods where you could just flow with the current and take in the beauty.
The weather was perfect. We saw a blue heron, king fishers, merganser ducks, and teal ducks. With the exception of my getting stuck under a fallen tree limb during one white water section, I managed it without a hitch.

For dinner we went to a place that was suppose to be a tapas place. It wasn’t in the Spanish sense but it had some nice wines at reasonable prices and live entertainment. We tried two Australian wines (a Shiraz and a blend) that were very reasonably priced. The second was recommend by our waitress. I was very inexpensive ($24) and also quite good. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name (it was the second bottle you know).

The physical set up was like an old European place with a small narrow building. The upstairs was a narrow area with only room for four tightly packed four tops with the outside seats of the table banquets. Across from stairway leading up to the upstairs dining a stage called L’Etape de Danger (the stage of danger in French) that was no more that six feet in width. There was a three-piece band (actually four pieces because there was a drummer on the stairway with some bongo/congo type drums. How they managed to play (70-80’s rock for the most part) with as much vigor without falling of this stage was a mystery to me. When the band members wanted to refill their wine glasses, they put the into a bucket, lowered it to the bar below, and hauled it up. We had a wonderful evening of listening to music and enjoying wine.