The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 45,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
I happened to be down in Canal Park when the Cornelia came into the harbor. There were quite a few ship watchers around, on a cold fall day, to watch the ship come in. The Cornelia was built in 2001 and flies the Liberian flag.
It has been bitterly cold around the farm for the past several weeks. Out of boredom I suggested to my wife that she heat up some water and we could go out and have some fun in the cold weather. She came out with the hot water and I came out with my camera.
In cold weather, it was below zero on this day, when you toss hot water into the air it creates steam and ice crystals.
Lots of fun on a cold day.
Three Fingers Fireworks is located just outside Amnicon Falls State Park. Every time I drive past the fireworks store I start laughing and tell myself that I need to take a photo of it. Will this time I finally stopped to take a photo.
Every year I get my hopes up that the Apostle Island Ice Caves will be open for viewing and every year I’m disappointed. They haven’t been open since 2009 but with the three weeks of bitterly cold weather we have had in December I’m hoping this could be the year. They are one of the most spectacular sites Wisconsin has to offer so if they do open be sure to plan a visit.
Apostle Islands Ice Caves
Ice conditions can be followed at the Bayfield Chamber site and the National Park Service website. The latter has a hotline that you can call to check on ice conditions. I usually start call at the end of January to check on ice conditions.
More photos from the Apostle Islands Ice Caves can be found on my website.
It had been a couple of weeks since we visited Gooseberry Falls State Park. Since out last visit the park had received over 4 feet of fresh snow.
Lower Falls
Trail to Lower Falls
The air temperatures were -18 and the wind chill was -30 below on a beautiful morning in Duluth. The fog was rising off of the relatively warm water and there was fog out on the lake.
South Breakwater Light
North Breakwater Light
South Breakwater Inner Light
It was a cold evening when we made our visit to the Bentleyville Tour of Lights. In fact, it has been so cold and snowy that they had to cancel the Tour of Lights on a number of evenings. They have extended the tour of lights to January 4th when the annual fireworks will take place.
I had wanted to visit Devil’s Punchbowl when the Ice was first starting to form. On my first visit the ice hadn’t started forming. By the time I was able to get back down to the Punchbowl the ice wall was already formed. Large chunks of it were falling down so I spent my time photographing leaves that were frozen in the ice.
The day after Thanksgiving we took our first ski trip of the season. It was almost a month earlier than last season. Of course last season ended with a blizzard the first week of May.
Our first trip was to ABR in Ironwood, Michigan. It was about the only place with snow and it was crowded with anxious skiers. They had almost three feet of snow by the time we arrived. The skiing was good but the snow was still a little soft.
Last weekend we drove over to Brule, Wisconsin to ski on the After Hours Ski Trails. Surprisingly it wasn’t crowded. There was a lot of traffic on the roads but most of the people seemed to be heading to Duluth for a little Christmas shopping. The trails were good but it was very cold. The thermometer at the trailhead read 0 degrees.
