It's great to have great neighbors!

We enjoy meeting new neighbors, and we really hit the jackpot here at the Birchwood Resort. Just like us, Tom was being visited by his high school friend Tim. The two fishing buddies were bringing home their day's catch when we first arrived and Denisa got a picture.

They were trying to teach her the difference between Northern Pike, saugers, and walleye. She remembered the walleye statue . . .

but this is what a real walleye looks like.

We liked this view of walleye even better. These guys shared their fish with us on more than one occasion, and these walleye are a true Minnesota delicacy. Delicious white fish that doesn't taste fishy!

Between the fish and the berries, we are "eating off the land" here at Voyageurs National Park. Denisa is enjoying wild blueberries on her cereal!

We enjoyed our neighbors' hospitality around the camp fire on more than one evening, as we got to know them. We're sad to say that we never got a picture of Tim before he returned home to his wife back in Iowa. But we did have our camera the day that Tom invited us for a ride in his boat.

We were accompanied by Tom's faithful companion, Gunner. Denisa loves a good dog picture with his ears flapping in the wind.

Our destination is Ellsworth Rock Garden. We had read about this place, but had given up on getting to see it because it was just too far away to paddle our kayak. There is no other way to get here except boating to it.

So we were so excited when Tom offered to zip us across the lake in his motor boat. What would have taken us two days via kayak, took no time at all to arrive.

This rock garden was a labor of love of Jack Ellsworth. Beginning in 1944, he and his wife began transforming this 60-foot granite rock into a formal garden. He worked here for 23 summers, carefully cementing rocks into place.

He made artistic . . .

as well as functional pieces that one could sit upon.

At one time the garden tiers were adorned with day lilies. But the deer on the lake found the lilies to be particularly tasty.

So today we found a ranger spraying deer deterrent on the few patches of lilies that are surviving.

Tom has been here many times, so he was a gracious host to give us the opportunity to see it as well. He's been coming to Kabetogama Lake for many years, so our boat ride home included some of his favorite places.

We're developing our own list of favorite places here. The dock at our campground would be on that list, and we're watching another sunset there on our last evening.

We've been here a week, and we keep watching the aurora borealis forecast. This last night is the highest chance of seeing the northern lights, and we really want to see them. Mark even installed a special night vision app on his phone, hoping to photograph the colorful waves of the northern lights. Instead, he got a lime picture of the dock.

We had the perfectly dark northern sky and no clouds, two of the ingredients for successfully witnessing the northern lights. This was Mark's best picture of the spectacle he found during his two middle-of-the-night trips down to the dock. Do you see it?

No, we didn't either. We've traveled this far north, and the northern lights have eluded us. But we have found great fun, good friends, and tasty food with our neighbors. It's been a great stop here at Voyageur National Park, and we count it as another of God's wonders that we have been honored to wander through.