First of all, I have no idea why the pictures are posting so far apart near the end of the blogs. Does anyone know why it would be doing that suddenly?
Also, I forgot to mention in my last blog that we were actually able to drive through Washington DC on our way back to the airport on our trip to Maryland. I had never been there, so it was really exciting to see things like the White House, the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Federal Reserve, etc. even if it was from the car! It was just the cherry on top of an already wonderful trip. Now I'm looking forward to the chance to get back to DC sometime with Will, so we can see it all and take advantage of the free museums. Between the two of us we have covered the western part of the US pretty well, but we have seen very little of the eastern half. Hopefully we will be able to remedy that over the next few years with some road trips and conferences.
But back to the coast at hand- the North Coast:) Will and I headed up to Grand Marais on Saturday and had beautiful weather all the way up.......until Grand Marais. There was a lot of fog near the lake, but as I said all week, you don't go to Grand Marais for the weather. I expect to be in a fleece or sweatshirt when I go, and it makes you feel all the more like you are transported to somewhere totally different (and more remote) than where you came from. The rain and low clouds actually reminded us a lot of Washington (the state). Luckily we were able to set up our tent just before it started raining, so no harm done there. We hid from the rain along with the rest of the tourists inside Ben Franklin's and stocked up on miscellaneous camping gear. They have everything under the sun in that little store, and it is packed tight. We were packed tight too, waiting out the rain. We had dinner at My Sister's Place and it was delicious as usual. Will got a BBQ burger with bacon and swiss and I got a chicken melt with carmelized onions, swiss, and a thousand island. Yummo. We decided since it was still raining we'd go hunting on the Gunflint trail as your chances of seeing one are far better at the beginning of the summer. No moose sightings to report, but we did see a fox, a bald eagle, and a deer. Being on the trail made it feel like no time had gone by since we worked there 3 summers ago. Not much changes in Grand Marais, so that might be why, but it always brings back such good memories. I'm SO glad we worked up there when we had the chance. Then we watched the Twins actually win a game (shocking, I know) at the Pickled Herring, possibly the best named bar in MN.
The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine and headed straight to World's Best Doughnuts. There was already a line. We sampled sugar raised (my fave), cinnamon (Will's fave), and a long john (I think??). I am not usually doughnut fan, but man those are good. I also got 10 cents off my coffee because I brought my very own trusty World's Best mug. After that, we went hiking at 4 different state parks all along the lake. Most of the hikes were to waterfalls, but we did have a nice overlook of Lake Superior on one hike (see pic below), and spent a fair amount of time just walking along the rocks. After being in the car the entire day the previous day, Mosby was glad to get a lot of exercise. He was our trail guide because he hates having anyone in front of him- he has to be the leader. The picture below of us playing fetch with him was funny because I was trying to make him sit before throwing the stick (he usually obliges quickly), but he kept doing this instead. Wrong end Mos! It was pretty funny.
We didn't really have much we needed to do the next day, so we headed back home early to avoid 35 traffic. When we left Grand Marais, it was 45, and when we got to the Cities it was 80 (and got up to 87). A bit of a climate change. I guess Memorial Day really is the beginning of summer.
We will be headed back up to GM for our anniversary in July and we decided to splurge this time. We are sleeping indoors! I know, it is a little luxurious, but we thought we would celebrate our 5th in style and spring for a cottage by the lake:)
Stay tuned for pics from our June wedding- Mike and Michelle's!
Until next time,
Kirsten
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