5th Anniversary

Daniel and I left Joshua with my parents for three days and went up to Northern Minnesota to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We had a great time just being together and relished being on our own schedule and eating our food while it was hot! The weather wasn't what we'd hoped for (the first day was a high of 45 and rain), but we made the most of it.

We were in the Two Harbors area about 25 miles north of Duluth and 3 hours north of St. Paul and stayed in a little cabin on Lake Superior. The first day we stopped at Grandma's Saloon in Duluth for lunch because I'd won a bet with Daniel a few months ago (can't remember what it even was) and he owed me onion rings! I read in the AAA book that Grandma's specialty was onion rings, and they did not disappoint. That day was really nasty weather, so we opted to stay inside as much as possible and took a tour of Split Rock Lighthouse. It was interesting to see the inside of the keeper's house, the lighthouse, and the foghorn house. Daniel was excited that he got to wind the weights that drop and spin the light (which weighs several tons). It works sort of like a grandfather clock, I think.

Curling - a sport of fitness and finesse! Never seen a curling club before, although I've always regreted not doing the curling intramurals offered at Iowa State!

We only wish we saw the sun that day - picture from http://www.harnoislaw.com/assets/iStock_000001147235Small.jpg

Daniel on the lookout!

The weather was better the second day, so we hiked around Gooseberry Falls State Park for a while. The falls were roaring from all the rain the Midwest had been getting. Locals said it was the biggest the falls had been in 20 years. In the afternoon, it looked like more rain, so we went to a coffee shop to read John Grisham's The King of Torts which we were reading aloud together. That night we went to The Lemon Wolf Cafe for dinner, which was a quaint little place. I had Swedish Meatballs and Daniel had Lake Trout. Very good.

Our last day up there we wanted to kayak on Lake Superior, but were told it was too dangerous. The outfitters did rent us a kayak to take to an inland lake in the Boundary Waters. So, after much deliberation about whether we wanted to strap a kayak on my dad's fairly new Lexus, we went for it and drove about 40 miles inland to Brule Lake. It ended up being pretty windy out there, so our trip back to the boat landing was quite strenuous...and wet. There were whitecaps on the lake and waves crashing over the front of the kayak in my face!


We made a few stops at scenic overlooks on our way back, stopped at Grandma's in Duluth for dinner and more onion rings (not as good the second time...perhaps due to high expectations), then got back to Minnesota and our little boy about 9pm that night.



Joshua did great while we were gone. I'm sure he didn't have much time to miss us since Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Renee, and Uncle Marc were all there to devote their attention to him. He just took it all in stride. We did great with leaving him too and only called to check in one time!