duluth

Bryan and I decided to do a little spur of the moment trip to Duluth this past weekend. We quickly learned that it would have been a good thing to plan much farther in advance, mostly to get a decent hotel room, especially if we wanted to stay where all of the action was. But, we found a room at the Edgewater Hotel & Waterpark, with really no intention of going to the water park (which we never did), and it worked out great. Was right on the lake and we had a lake view out of our room, was a few miles from Canal Park, but it was just fine. The water park looked pretty cool if anyone is interested. So, we left Friday at about noon, with an unexpected quick trip to urgent care for Grayson and a potential case of pink eye, which was confirmed, but armed with eye drops we were on our way. The boys did fantastic in the car on the way there and back. We arrived about 5:30 and had made reservations at Grandma's Saloon on our way up for supper.

We explored Canal Park while waiting for our reservations and were in love with the scenery. The fall colors were still beautiful (we were a little worried we'd miss it) and since I hadn't been to Duluth since I was very young, it was neat to see the sights! Dinner at Grandma's was excellent and then we waited around for a ship to pass through the bridge, which Connor was in awe over the size of the ship and how the bridge could lift. 

The next morning we had lined up a boat cruise of the harbor on the Vista Fleet. We are fully aware that we were the cliche tourists, but we're fine with that. Connor did fairly decent on the cruise, kind of a lot to ask of a busy three year old to sit still for two hours, but it was good and the history was interesting, however the jokes were a little much :)

(photo credit: connor)

 Our first attempt at a family photo on the trip, I was a little worried this was telling of how the rest of the trip would go.

After the boat cruise we headed north along the Scenic North Shore Drive to see Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls. The lighthouse was Bryan's favorite part of the weekend, we did the tour, watched the movie and again the history was so interesting. I loved the scenery.

(photo credit: connor...ha, I was just impressed it was fairly in focus?)

exploring Gooseberry Falls

 Other than Grayson looking crazy I am happy with how this one turned out!

 Connor mad I took the camera away from him.

 So we let him take a few of us...

 me and my boys, love them

 bryan and connor exploring

That night we ate at Little Angie's Cantina and Grill which was also great. We didn't hang around to see a ship as I think we were all pretty exhausted :)

 Sunday morning we decided to hit up the Lake Superior Zoo before heading home. The scenery at the zoo was BEAUTIFUL. The colors were amazing, the animals were pretty good, too :)

 Connor insisted on being our tour guide at the zoo.

 our horrible attempt at a self-timer shot

We had a great time and look forward to going back again someday! (maybe next time without kids, however pleased we were with how it went this time around, it would be a great 'date weekend' :))