We're heading to Madeline Island, in Lake Superior off Bayfield, Wis, in a few weeks. We'll bring our little camper and the kayaks and take the ferry to the island to stay at the Wis State Park there.
We're going to visit friends along the way and arrive at the ferry Labor Day afternoon. Prior to Labor Day, the state park is booked 100% all summer. Looks like, according to the reservation site, bookings are sparse after that. We expect the ferry to be loaded with shore-bound campers when we arrive Labor Day but to be near empty going out to the island. A nice advantage of retirement, camp when popular venues are near empty.
DW and I love it "Up Nort" and also love beaches. We're hoping this location gives us the best of both!
Between now and the Madeline Island trip, we're heading up to northern Minnesota for our second week at "fishing camp" of the summer. A quaint American Plan place with great food, oldish log cabins and wondeful views over a 3k acre lake. Our freezer is already bulging with fish from last autumn and this spring, so I'm thinking this will be primarily a catch and release trip. That means lots of experimenting with different techniques and time to teach DW some new methods.
We'll be heading to the Northeast (New Hampshire with stops along the way) for leaf peeping in late Sept / early Oct.