Bayfield is a small place, but there is a lot crammed into it in the way of handsome homes and shops. Of course, as with all such places, there is nothing for sale in the shops that anyone really needs, unless you count the fairly high-end clothes in several sophisticated women’s fashion shops.

The town has several excellent restaurants, and eating outdoors at any of them in the warm twilight is delightful. There is a quirky, artistic spirit that colors a good deal of what you see in Bayfield, and I think that saves it from being just a charming-but-precious kind of place.

A stroll down the main street or down some of the side streets is a genuinely pleasant experience. It will remind you of one of those affluent little towns in Maine. Although I don’t recall quite as many flowers in Maine. Bayfield could be called a village in a garden.

The American flag is flown too much for my tastes, but then the great bellowing giant is just across the lake, and I’m sure it provides a good many visiters with fat wallets.

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