North Shore Weekend

Hello friends! We just went away for a lovely, long weekend to the North Shore of Minnesota, along mighty Lake Superior. It was SO nice to get away and see some different scenery. It was probably around 50+ degrees all weekend and rainy/drizzly/overcast, but we still had fun and got out hiking several times as well as visited several fun places. Since we were staying in a cabin next to Gooseberry Park, we were able to hike the trails right by our cabin, which was so much fun. Kristi kept saying "hiking, hiking" all the time and loved being carried in her Kelty carrier pack by her Daddy. We hiked around Gooseberry Falls one day, and heard so many different languages represented as visitors from around the globe were there. I think I must have heard Hindi, Swedish, German, Japanese, Chinese and some Texans too...that's almost like another language in itself! No offense to Texas, as I LOVE it there, and miss it like crazy...it was a blast living in Texas. We actually had fun conversations with the Germans and the Texans. I don't know how I end up in all these conversations with random strangers, but I guess I'm usually friendly and it just happens! When I told the Germans that I had been to Germany with my college choir, they wanted me to sing in German. So I broke out into song, "Die Forelle" by Schubert, right there by Gooseberry Falls. Erik just smiles and laughs at me when this song stuff happens on our trips. Everywhere we go I seem to have to break out into song...when we were hiking in the bamboo forest of Hawaii for our honeymoon, I sang there...and when we were in the Swiss Alps a few years ago, I was singing there to the goats and cows on the hills. I just love to sing in nature I guess! Anyway, we also saw Splitrock Lighthouse, which is a very famous and cool place. It was very windy and rainy and cold when we were there so we didn't get to walk down by the lake for the award winning views, but it was still fun to be there. We ate dinner in Silver Bay at what must be the iron miners' favorite little strip mall greasy spoon restaurant. I had yummy fried Walleye, and it was great. On our way home, we stopped at Betty's Pies near Two Harbors and had really good pasties and pie. YUM! It was fun to stay in a cabin and have a fire on our last night! Oh, and on the way up we stayed in Duluth for a night and stopped at the aquarium museum. That was fun! Kristi loved seeing all the fish and the fake moose, as well as the sea otter.

Gotta run...Little Bug is calling for me and needs some attention...I'll post photos soon!