my love affair with the North Shore

I have a love affair with Minnesota’s North Shore.

My love for it is still in the new, passionate stage. I know there are many who have a tried and true relationship with the North Shore. Theirs is the kind of love that knows every nook and cranny, every beautiful spot and tourist attraction. They know the secret places.

I’m not there yet. My love is young and passionate. It’s still in the discovery stage.

I’ve been to the North Shore a total of 7 times. Twice were day trips.

The first time I went Tom and I had been married just 4 months. He worked hard to talk me into tent camping up at a place I’d never heard of called the North Shore. Lutsen, to be specific. Ok, I thought. Are there showers? Yes? Alright, I’ll go.

It was October and the forecast looked chilly. It snowed. I was unimpressed and cold. Too cold to even look around and notice my surroundings. The showers were in an unheated 32 degree bathroom. When can we go home?

The next time we talked about going up North I had some input. One non-negotiable piece of input to be exact: No camping. And Tom, being the good sport he is, (and secretly happy that I hadn’t sworn it off altogether after the snowy-camping-night-of-freezing-torture experience) said, “No problem!”

That being the case, I have no idea how we ended up tent camping again on our next trip after the brrrrr, when-can-I-go-home trip. I must have been having a really really good day to go for that. Not to mention that this time we were camping with three kids ages 4, 2, and 1. Nevertheless, we had the best time.

And I suppose the rest is history. We’ve gone back each year since (not camping). We usually spend almost a week in Lutsen (not camping) and the kids beg to stay there forever. That idea sounds pretty good to me too (not camping).

There is something so captivating about Lake Superior. It’s not like any other lake. Nor is it like the ocean. It’s the best of both, but somehow completely unique. I just stare and stare and stare at it.

When we drive around I’m always trying to catch a glimpse of it: a new view, a different look. They’re all beautiful.

The hikes are like something out of Middle Earth, not Lothlorien, no, they aren’t that dramatic. But more of a combination of The Shire and Rivendell, only they go by the names of Cascade and Temperance.

To describe the North Shore in a word is: magic.  The food tastes better there (especially The World’s Best Doughnuts). The sky is brighter. The water is more like water ought to be. It’s like stepping out of the wadrobe and into Narnia. Only the wadrobe is the big fog-horn city of Duluth. And it leads you to a different MN world.

Which is why I have a love affair with the North Shore. It’s like stepping into the best story. A story I want to revisit as often as I can. I want to keep dipping my toes in.

And hopefully in 10 or 20 years my love affair will be more of that tried and true kind of love. The kind that knows every nook and cranny. But I’m not hurried to get there. I just want to enjoy discovering and uncovering the places that will be my secret spots.

Have you been to the North Shore? What’s your favorite place?

PS. A post about my love affair with the North Shore would be incomplete if I didn’t mention the Alpine Slide, which is two and a half minutes of sheer high speed enjoyment.

Ah, North Shore, when will I see you again?

father/son fun: it doesn’t get much better than this!

Tom and Seth conquer the Alpine Slide in Lutsen, MN.   If you haven’t tried it, add it to the bucket list.  Way too much fun.

a great vacation and lots of pics

We recently vacationed for three nights and four days up at MN’s beautiful North Shore!  We stayed in Lutsen and had the best time!  (Doing my best not to sound like a travel brochure and failing miserably..)

Our first stop on the four hour drive North was in Duluth at the Amazing Grace Cafe.  It was awesome!  Bread sliced an inch and a half thick.  Hard to find though.. a bit of a hole in the wall.  But packed, so obviously word gets around.

Traveling is hard work and the kids were asleep in no time.  I took the obligatory pic of the kids sleeping sweetly next to one another, so that, if ever they don’t like each other very much we can look back and say, “Ah, remember the days..”

The next day we made a stop at a park with a swing set right off of Lake Superior (which I think should be called Superior Sea.. nothing “lake” about it).  The wind was blowing and the waves were high.

Here’s the lodge of the place we stayed.  We were in a town home just a short walk from here with beautiful views of Lake Superior.  We could walk right down to the shore.

Is there anything better than kids climbing on rocks?  For them, I mean.. for me, it was slightly worrisome with so much cold water around to fall into.  I did a lot of hanging on to the back of jackets and trying to keep feet dry!  Seth was pretending to take a rock nap.

The trip was made complete having my mom and dad and Aunt Julie join us.  Way too much fun.

Yep, she’s as high up as she looks and laughing to boot.

Here’s Eliza by what I called the tumor tree.  Strange isn’t it?

Now here was my favorite stop of the whole trip.  The World’s Best Doughnut Shop.  They aren’t kidding.  I could have spent a few more hours at this ridiculously small doughnut heaven.

Snow on our fourth and final day up North.  It was perfect.

We took a gondola ride up Lutsen Mountain.  Very cold, but great views and lots of people to wave at along the way.

The one and only picture of Tom and me from the trip!  A stunning self-portrait!

Well, that’s it!  We will definitely be going back in years to come.  It was about as perfect a vacation as we could’ve asked for! We enjoyed God’s creation in beauty and hiking and eating and playing and people!