this is duluth~

in august lars and i spent a long weekend in duluth. 

it was a great chance to relax and pre-celebrate our upcoming wedding anniversary.

this is where we spent our honeymoon too.

40 short years ago.

at that time, because we were country kids who'd hardly been out

of dodge this destination really felt like a destination.

i love this industrial city and always look forward to a trip 

back up the north shore.

any chance to wander along the big waters of lake superior just

seems to settle you down and remind you of how small we are in a great big world.

as you know by now i love to look for beach glass so when we got to town

we had a yummy lunch and then lars happily went to take a nap while

i walked to canal park to dig in the sand.

i barely got down by the water before the sky started to rumble and

lightning flashed in the distance. there were a ton of other people down

at the shore though so i just started looking for treasures.

after a bit i looked around and it was just me and one other person

still out there so I hustled up to the hotel right before the sky opened up

and it poooouuuured!

you can get a carriage ride in canal park~

next we headed up the shore to lake breeze motel where we were going to spend a few nights.

after we settled in I walked down to the lake again and snapped a few pictures of

the wildflowers along the way.

the weather was perfect when we were there and we had our breakfasts on our little deck.

the morning of day 2 lars took a long bike ride up to two harbors and back while I drove to 3 different beaches to ding around and look for beach glass, pretty rocks and drift wood.

later on we met back up at the cabin and drove to two harbors.

it's always fun to drive by the beautiful home (above) that my friend leslie and her

hubbie built and lived in for several years on old hwy. 61.

I have many favorite memories of time spent in this house laughing till

the wee hours of the morning, the wedding reception for their daughter Maggie,

the fabulous boutique sales leslie had there.

we love to harass them that when they moved to Alexandria,

they should have kept this house and used it as

a cabin so we could all keep coming back.

french river bridge

don't you love this view in my side mirror?     hello lake superior.

we parked in two harbors and could see this light house off in the distance so we started walking and kept on till we'd hiked to it.

on the way we passed this big rig where ships get loaded. if you look close you can see how tiny the men look that are up there working.

out from the lighthouse is another lighthouse on this long arm, stretched out in "the sea". 

I never miss an opportunity to see if there might be beach glass and while I was looking lars started talking to this nice couple. when she found out I wasn't having much luck she took two beautiful pieces out of her pail and insisted on giving them to me. I tried to say nooooo, but she just pressed them into my hand and said "these are a blessing for you".

who does that? LOVED her! 

pretty sure this bird made the blonde highlights on this carved trader.

after walking all the way over to see the red lighthouse, lars said of course we're walking out to the end of the pier too.

we stopped at another marina on the way back and this weathered driftwood was intriguing to me.

(*in a brainy sort of way.)

a mermaid sighting.

we stopped for a yummy meal on this deck on the way back to the resort. this place used to be called 

the castle, but it's under new ownership and I can't remember the new name. the food was excellent!

lars brought his hammock along and he took at least one nap in it.

dude loves to nap.

he wanted me to try it so bad...so I crawled in and laid there for 2.5 minutes, but i'm not a napper ha.

5 beaches later this is the total extent of my treasure hunting. it wasn't the best this time, but i guess it wasn't the correct time of year for the big winds that toss up the treasures. oh well, i brought the loot home and added it to my bowl of sea glass. it makes me happy.

the last day we headed to brighton beach so dale could try kayaking the big lake. he really loved being out there, but did say that it was a really weird feeling too. he felt like he wasn't going anywhere, just paddling and paddling and then all of a sudden he looked back and felt like he was in the middle of the ocean. : )

of course he wouldn't put his life jacket on, just had it in the bottom of the kayak. (some people's kids!)
to tell you the truth i kind of had to drag my hubbie to duluth. he didn't think there was enough to do up there. (and he doesn't like to leave his dog).
by the time we left he was ready to move. 

being a woosy land lover there was no way i was kayaking lake superior. i happily played on the beach while he paddled. i like to make rock stacks so i did some of that and took photos. this isn't as hard as it looks, but it's not easy either. does that make sense? if you've never tried it you should. just find a handful of rocks and start balancing them. it takes patience, but you can make all most all of them work if you take your time.

our last stop before heading home was the leif erickson rose gardens in duluth. so much beauty. these gardens are close to the fitger building on london road if you want to check them out sometime.

have a good weekend friends, i'm so excited for a baby shower that my girlfriends are hosting for my daughter. you guys our grandbaby will be here very soon now~ there is so much love being extended to our daughter and son in law and so much excitement from our camp.
eeeeekkkk!
: ))

take care, 

b.