Where The Mom and The Dad Run Away From Real Life and Play at The Lake

Hey Family!

Dad and I ran away from life and all responsibilities

yesterday and headed up the North Shore.

And guys, I know I told you we're getting

along great. But we were so crabby!

We weren't even sure if we should go. We 

didn't want to waste our resources in case

it was a horrible day.

But we learned something; 

Apparently the thing

to do if you are super crabby at someone

is to go up the north shore together and listen to the 

waves and hike in nature, and see all the beauty.

Nobody can stay crabby surrounded by all that.

We found (re found?)

a place just like five miles out of Duluth to walk 

along the shore. Well, in truth, we drove into one of the pull offs

and sat in the car and ate sandwiches. We went to that awesome

deli/fish market that is in the building right behind Duluth Pac

and got sandwiches for the road.

We sat in the car with the windows up eating and 

suddenly realized where we were. 

Down the windows went and off went the car.

The  sound of the waves was glorious!

After we finished eating we climbed over the cable (rule breakers)

and down the rocks and were on the shore.

I couldn't even believe all of the glass and agates 

I found in just thirty minutes!

We watched this big ship come out of the

 harbor and zip down the lake.

He was moving!

Then we went to Palisade Head.

Definitely not a place for little boys.

Yikes!!! 

This is laying on the edge of the cliff looking straight down.

I was disappointed to not get better pictures there.

It was so beautiful, but the afternoon light was casting

big shadows so none of my pictures

 turned out as well as I hoped.

I need to go earlier in the day, I think.

It was super windy and I wished hard core that I had my hair

in a pony or that I had a good hat.

I didn't want to walk off a cliff because hair was in my eyes!

A really nice couple took our picture. It was so bright and windy we couldn't actually open our eyes.

Then we went on to Tettagouche and parked at the rest stop.

We went in the gift shop, but opted out of the caramel corn we 

really wanted because it was tiny and $8.00!

Sad, because it looked so delicious!

This hike said 1.5 miles to the high falls.

They lied, haha.

We hiked and hiked and hiked and barely saw the river.

It was a gorgeous hike through the woods though!

After we had been hiking for a while I remembered that

it is "fatten up the bears for winter" season, and we had a 

little "hey bear" happening.

I'm such a chicken.

Dad laughed at me but played along.

Isn't it pretty and fall-y?

This is us on a bench about a third of the way up a

 giant flight of steps.

We were extremely grateful to whomever decided to put

 that bench in that particular spot.

This hike was a little bit of "death by steps"

Dad's knees and my booty are sore today.

This is at the bench, already one third of the way up.

I only included this too close, zoomed, accidental photo because Dad looks happy.

We went in the visitor's center to use the bathroom and viola! I

suddenly had wifi and about a million messages.

My phone remembered the wifi from when I

 have been there before.

It was a nice surprise.

We hiked down the walkway to the mouth of the river.

It's so interesting how different it is every time I come here.

I feel like where we were sitting last 

summer  while Dad did laundry

is under water now. Yes? No?

For your viewing/listening pleasure

Dad was so enjoying the sound of the waves he

 wanted to video it on my phone.

Then we went to the place where we all were

 a couple of weeks ago.

It was getting dark and raining.

I wanted to have a fire again so bad but the rain said no.

Look at how much more sandbar there is now!

I really love these cairns that people are building. It is a new phenomenon. Nobody used to do it.

And it was time to head for home.

We drove to Duluth to find something to eat.

We felt strongly against the McDonald's dollar menu

so we tried out Grandma's in Canal Park.

So so so good! I mean yummy!

And then we ran into some friends from Buffalo who were up

for their anniversary. We shared a table and visited for a while

and it was so fun!

Then came the hard part- driving home in the dark and rain.

We stayed way too long and it was way too late and

poor Dad had to work in the morning.

We listened and sang along to The Big Bad Voodoo Daddys

and Huey Lewis to get us home.

Can I be honest? It made me feel young

and alive. It was fun.

We did have a sad casualty on the way.

We hit a big racoon by Princeton.

It was really sad.

Luckily we were fine and the car was fine.

We got home and pet Luna because she was super lonely. 

She's a funny girl.

And then we crawled in bed for a very

short night.

It was 1:30 AM

We are too old for those hours. Haha!

But it was worth it.

Totally worth it.

Love you all and hope you are well 

and finding things that chase away the crabbies

The end