For as many times as my family has been to Bayfield, the place still barely seems possible. Perched near the tip of a 30-mile-long peninsula on Lake Superior, it feels like a seaside village plunked down in the middle of America. The town of 625 residents was built on fishing, timber, and quarrying. But these days, it's best known as the gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (715-779-3049; www.nps.gov/apis), an archipelago of 27 mostly uninhabited islands off the northern Wisconsin coast.
My wife and I have approached this trip north in different ways as our family has changed. Pre-parenthood, we hired a water taxi to drop us off on a remote island beach. Years later, with two children in tow, we spent a weekend at a comfortable campground on Stockton Island. There, we swam in the sandy bay, hiked the gentle trails, and took the kids to well-run nature programs at the island's visitors' center. Most recently, with our older girl headed for college and 12-year-old Anna our sole charge, we rented a tidy cottage near Bayfield's five-square-block downtown.
For us, August has always been the perfect month for a visit. Cooler nighttime temperatures tend to knock back the mosquitoes and flies. And by the end of summer, the sun has had enough time to warm the water to a refreshingly swimmable temperature. It seems there's a beach around every turn in Bayfield -- many of which we explored with Anna during a run of sunny days on this trip. One of our favorites is the municipal beach south of the marina, which also offers a playground with a zip line, swings, and a climbing wall.
Late summer is berry season. By mid-August, the farms dotting the hills above town are ripe with blueberries. We spent a happy afternoon at Highland Valley Farms (715-779-5446;), a picturesque you-pick-it field where Anna was in her version of heaven. On the way back to town, we debated the classic you-pick-it question: Had more blueberries gone into the basket or Anna's mouth?
But berries were hardly the only vacation indulgence. On a warm summer day, it's easy to believe that Bayfield's economy runs on ice-cream cones alone. After extensive field research, Anna decided that The Candy Shoppe (715-779-3668) was her favorite, for its creative flavors -- Coconut Joy and the chocolate and peanut-butter-cup-laced Elephant Tracks, among others -- and old-fashioned family-run atmosphere. If your taste runs to fudge, check out Sweet Sailing (715-779-3682), where the menu includes pistachio, dreamsicle, mint chocolate swirl, and more.
Bayfield doesn't bustle with nightlife, but we found that after days of swimming, berry picking, and biking on nearby Madeline Island (see "Shore Bets" on the next page for more information), we didn't need much more than our beds. In fact, on our "big" (and final) night out, we drove to Little Sand Bay at the northern tip of the peninsula. There, we walked along yet another long and empty beach. As night fell, we strolled to the end of the breakwater that forms the harbor. We lay on our backs and listened contentedly to the waves gurgling beneath us as we watched for meteors in the black sky.
