MS150 North Shore Trip- Part One

M and I go up to Duluth every June so he can participate in the MS150, but before he does that, we build in some time to relax and spend some time on the North Shore.

We went up to Duluth on Thursday, June 7th after work.  We got into Duluth around 7:30 pm and checked into our hotel right in Canal Park.  I am very appreciative to have a family member in the hotel business which allows for us to stay very cheaply even in the best of locations.

We then headed down by the Aerial Bridge to watch a ship leaving the harbor and then headed to Grandma's to eat.

I recorded the ship leaving the harbor:

After Grandma's, we went to Lake Ave. for a drink on the patio, despite it being a little chilly and then to Old Chicago for a drink before walking to the boardwalk outside our hotel and admiring the moon and it's reflection on Lake Superior.  

Friday, June 8th:

We got up and it was supposed to be a rainy day.  It was a hazy, humid morning and for only being 63 degrees, it sure felt very warm.  We only had loose plans of what we wanted to do for the day.  Since we weren't able to stay for a cheap rate in the hotel on Friday, we had to move to another Duluth hotel.  We called them and were able to get an early check-in so we checked out of the one and into the new hotel, which was free, since my sister gave me a gift certificate for my birthday. 

We headed out of this hotel around noon and started our trek up the North Shore.

We stopped at a place called Stoney Point where the waves can be good and the surfers come out.  Not this day though as the lake was calm and the temperature was just about 80 degrees.

We stopped at a place called Gill's Cheese and Smokehouse for lunch.  They are extremely nice there.  They have a little store and you can order different types of sandwiches including smoked salmon, trout and whitefish.  I sampled each of them.  The salmon didn't come from Lake Superior but the others did.  The smoked trout was fantastic but I decided to go with the salmon wrap.  This place is located on scenic 61 in between Duluth and Two Harbors and I would recommend stopping there.

After lunch we went stopped in Two Harbors.  It was windy and even just going this far north, the temperature was dropping.  

Michael skipping rocks

He threw in a huge rock right before I took this, hence the splash

We next headed to Castle Danger Brewery.  I'll do a separate post about that soon.

Just a mile or so up the street is Gooseberry Falls.  We've been here so many times but always need to stop when we're in the area.  The falls were flowing pretty good this time and there weren't that many visitors.  

This little guy was right behind our car and could care less if we were right next to him

We next went to Split Rock Lighthouse.  It was just about closing time so no one was there.  The weather changed dramatically and we were in a complete fog where you couldn't see the lake and could barely see the lighthouse.  The temperature was now in the upper 50's.  

This is what Lake Superior looked like with all the fog! 

We finally went a little further to Silver Bay to visit M's Auntie Carol for a little bit.  Once we turned away from the lake, the fog cleared and it was bright and sunny again.  51 degrees, but bright and sunny.  Do you see the messed up bird feeder above their heads in the picture below?  A bear did that the night before.  Normally she takes her feeders down at night but for some reason left this one out.  The bear climbed up and  messed it all up.  Also in the picture below, there is a window that is cut off on the right.  It's a set of windows that have hummingbird feeders hanging in front of them.  The bear also climbed up on the railing and swiped at them.  There were bear paw marks all over the window!  Scary!  We did get to see six to seven hummingbirds, all at one time while we visited with her.  It's rare enough to see one or two so it was quite fascinating to see them all together. 

We headed back towards Duluth, about 60 miles away from where we started for the day.  I really had this feeling that we were going to see a bear but we never did.  We settled for six deer instead.  

We went back to Canal Park and had Vitta Pizza and retired in the hotel room so M could get up early for a big day ahead of him.  Stay tuned for Part Two.