My son Aaron and I took a little cruise around the area today; it was so nice out, we thought we’d take the cameras and visit a few spots we haven’t seen for almost three years. It wasn’t until we got home that I realized what strange names some of these places had.

First we went to a spot out in the middle of nowhere called Skibo. It’s a huge hill with boreal forest extending to the horizon in every direction. Great for astronomy. There are a few shacks somewhere around here without electricity; we drove by them once, and I was surprised not to see any cars.

While we were up on the hill, a couple of jets roared by, and I managed to capture one. When I was fueling jets in the Air Force, we only had some f-4s, f-15s, and mostly f-16s, so I have no idea what these are, but they look pretty cool.

Next, we headed down to Frying Pan Lake. Usually there are ducks and geese here (with goslings this time of year), but we got skunked today. It’s a beautiful, somewhat remote lake with two houses and an old Finnish cemetery on its verdant shores.

We started back, but had to make a stop at the Embarrass River. Every river north of the Laurentian Divide flows north to Hudson Bay, and every river south of it flows south to the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Superior–except this one. Somehow, it winds its way through the hills and heads south. Embarrass River. I wonder how it came by that name.

Finally, we headed back home to our humble little village of Aurora. It’s not much to look at, as you may have deduced from our sign, but it has a name I can live with.

–Photos by me