Freeman Family Adventure: September 2011

Split Rock Lighthouse was our next stop along our trip http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/srl/index.htm.

Some quick info on the lighthouse...."The structure was designed by lighthouse engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham and was completed in 1910 by the United States Lighthouse Service at a cost of $75,000, including the buildings and the land. It was built in response to the loss of ships during the famous Mataafa Storm of 1905, in which 29 ships were lost on Lake Superior. One of these shipwrecks, the Madeira, is located just north of the lighthouse."

Back Row: Jennifer, Gene, Pat, Patrick, and AJ

Front Row: Lance, Ansley, Me, Allison, and Parker

Ansley, she is supposed to be the dog :)

Inside the lighthouse

the water was sooo clear!

(Ansley was taking a nap in the car at this stop)

I took this pic of our wonderful photographer on the trip...he took all these great pics!

AJ and Jen

Gene and Pat

Patrick, AJ, and Jen being silly

Jen and her momma Pat

Our last stop for the day was Gooseberry Falls. There are 5 falls to see, but we only made it to the upper, middle and lower falls. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/gooseberry_falls/index.html.

Ansley checking it out....actually she wanted in the water, but it was COLD!

We even ran into another one of Lance's classmates, Nick and his girlfriend Kimmy

On our way back to the cabin we saw an AMAZING rainbow! I don't think I have actually ever seen the beginning (or end) of a rainbow...but I have now!

We couldn't pass up a photo op!

We left Ansley in the car watching a movie...she had a long day at this point

Once we got back to the cabin we got ready to go eat dinner. We finally decided to eat at Ledge Rock Grille, which is located within Larsmont Cottages (http://www.larsmontcottages.com/) which is a beautiful resort. The food was great, but the location was beautiful, it overlooked Lake Superior! After dinner, we enjoyed smores, which were offered by the resort, along with a bonfire. It was nice to sit by the fire and listen to the water.

After a super fun filled day, Monday morning was check out. After we got everything loaded up Me and Lance decided we wanted to stop in Duluth on our way home. We actually don't have a single picture from Duluth! Not only was Lance tired of taking the pictures, but me and Ansley were tired of being in them! :) We had a great day in Duluth. It is such a neat town (http://www.duluthmn.gov/). We made it home late Monday evening, just enough time to get back to the grind for Lance on Tuesday!

recovering from the trip :)

Continue to pray for us and our adventure!

We love and miss you guys!

For the long Labor Day weekend, we drove up further north to Two Harbors, just north of Duluth. It is about 4hours from Owatonna. We went with Allison, Patrick and Parker, along with Jennifer, AJ and Jennifer's parents Pat and Gene. We had an awesome time and it was just absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! We stayed along the North Shore of Lake Superior at Superior Shores http://superiorshores.com/, in a cabin overlooking the lake.

The view from our balcony

(Some quick info on Lake Superior... it is the largest of the five Great Lakes. It contains 10% of all the earth's fresh surface water. There is enough water in Lake Superior (3,000,000,000,000,000--or 3 quadrillion-- gallons) to flood all of North and South America to a depth of one foot. If the shoreline of Lake Superior was straightened out it could connect Duluth and the Bahama Islands. The average annual water temperature of Lake Superior is 40º F. It only very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for hours. The last complete freezing of Lake Superior occurred in 1979.)

We had great weather the whole weekend. It was anywhere from mid 60's to low 70's! Saturday it started out overcast and it rained a little, but luckily we were inside when it did. It cleared up for the rest of the day and turned into one beautiful weekend! We arrived late Friday evening and just hung out around the cabin. Saturday morning 'most' everyone got up super early to watch the sunrise. If you know me, then you know that I wasn't one of the ones who went! :) But luckily for me, I have a husband who loves me and took lots of pictures, which were beyond beautiful so I can only imagine what it looked like first hand...

Lance is being funny here and acting like he is with his family

since we didn't get up to see the sunrise!

After that, the boys went and played golf so us girls went downtown. They had some really neat souvenir shops with lots of handmade goodies. I bought Ansley a handmade toboggan...

We had fun with Parker also :)

Once the boys got back from golf, we ate some lunch and it started raining a little so it was nap time. Ansley and Parker didn't take a long nap so me and Allison decided to take them out and go exploring while everyone was still napping. We went to the Two Harbors Lighthouse which is the oldest operating lighthouse in the US state of Minnesota http://lighthousebb.org/lighthouse-history and yes Emily, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. :)

Checking out the Lighthouse

looking at the 'burds' (birds)

Sunday morning we took off further up North and worked our way back down. We started at Palisade Head (Palisade Park).

Do you remember watching the movie, The Good Son (1993) with Macaulay Culkin??? (This link is for the trailer of the movie to refresh your memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP4P-VgcM4s) Well, it was filmed along the North Shore with the ending filmed at Palisade Head...pretty cool!!! Here are some more pics from Palisade Head...