Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Two Harbors/Duluth Trip (Part I)

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 40ยบ 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...
It was a looongggg way down! The water was super clear!
The boys-AJ, Lance, and Patrick
The Girls-Me, Jen, and Allison
(The kids were asleep in the car during this stop that is why there aren't any pics of them here)
Patrick and Allison
AJ and Jennifer

Next we stopped at a marina. I don't remember the name...sorry! 

The boys found a cave
The Hebert's

After the marina, we pulled off the road to check out a waterfall we saw from the road. Once again, I don't know the name or if it even has a name. 
The hike down to the falls
since Lance is still wearing 'the boot' on his leg he didn't make it to the top of the falls
LOL! Don't worry grandparents....
she is actually flat, Lance just turned the camera to make it look like she is on the edge!

Too many pictures for just one post so I have to break it up!
Next up, Split Rock Lighthouse, Gooseberry Falls, and more from the North Shore....

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