Last Call

Ahh Duluth. City of my soul.

I truly love this place. It's where we would take our family vacation in the fall before school started. Château Lavoux, where you fall asleep to the sound of lake Superior crashing on the rocks and have your morning coffee on the deck overlooking the lake.

Hawthorne Suites (now just called The Suites) in Canal park. Enormous rooms in a converted warehouse, pool where the loading dock used to be.

But most of all I loved the hiking. We must've hiked up and down every river along the north shore from Duluth to Grand Marais. My favorites have always been Tettegouche, and Temperence River. Although Devil's Kettle is amazing, Cascade is beautiful, Caribou is just a great walk, and everyone should see Gooseberry and visit Castle in the Park at least once.

This trip we got back to our roots, sort of. Just the immediate family and just a weekend trip. Up on Saturday, home on Tuesday. Ok so that isn't a traditional weekend, but still, our trips lately have been 7-9 days.

It was amazing to go back to all the old places and find them pretty much exactly the same. Rock doesn't change much, even in a decade.

The difference came in our after hours.

Irish car bomb. Offensive name perhaps but oh so tasty! Half a glass of Guinness, a shot of half Baily's half Jameson. Pop it in the beer and drink it fast. Like an alcoholic milk shake.

This was at Green Mill in Canal Park. I highly recommend the bar in the evening, Chris the bartender is the best I've ever met, plus we had great conversations about brain tumors, the ability to cross ones eyes and books.

We also tried Old Chicago- noisy and not so much fun. And an Irish pub further up the hill- great atmosphere but horrible specials. The Long Island has SPRITE in it (blech!)!

So Green Mill became our jumping off point for other shenanigans. Like walking across the lift bridge to find out if the other side was, as Kip asserted, Wisconsin and not an island. Katie and I both knew he was wrong, but the most fun was finding a small hotel, getting the guy to unlock the door and asking where we were. Yeah, it's still Minnesota and most definitely an island.

Also saw a big ship go under the lift bridge at about 10:00.

Gorgeous with the bridge all lit up and the moon shining down.

We got to go out to Castle in the Park where the Gooseberry river empties into the lake, and Katie found this amazing little spot where you can sit just above the waves and soak in the sun. The words Kay's Cove were carved into the rock. I love the ancientness of this place.

At the mouth of the gooseberry we stopped and set up the camera for a pic.

Also got one at the lower falls in Gooseberry.

My room had a great view of the Irvin. LOVE The Suites. The rooms are incredible and it has the feel of the lake, maybe just because we have so much history here.