Duluth

We went to Duluth for Labor Day weekend, and my heart is too heavy with longing to be back there again to write about it quite as cheerfully as I'd planned to.  We left Saturday morning.  (Friday night I cried as I went to bed because we weren't there yet.)  We stayed in Canal Park, a strip of shops, restaurants and hotels on Lake Superior.  One of my favorite places on earth.  Our hotel was lovely.  Our room overlooked the water.  I miss the nice-smelling down pillows.

We ate, and walked and shopped, and shopped and walked and ate.  There is a new thin-crust pizza place there, which took over the spot where there used to be a quaint bookstore.  I know it's sad and everything to see a bookstore close (especially a quaint one on Lake Superior next to a Caribou Coffee), but this was a good exchange.  I'm in love with Vitta Pizza.  After one slice I was already looking forward to going back.  They make their own crust and it's wood-fired.  For all my visits to the old bookstore, I never spent a dime there, whereas we ate at Vitta Pizza twice in two days (the cashier said "Weren't you in here yesterday?" when we showed up Sunday).

There's a toy store that was selling a beautiful play-kitchenette that I wanted to buy for Jabberwocky so bad it hurt.  It was white and pale blue (hey! like the nursery!) with wood paneling and little shelves and four little burners on the stovetop and dials that really turned.

Ice cream after dinner (new Cold Stone favorite: "Coffee Lovers Only"), then back to the hotel where we played Carcassone and then fell fast asleep on the nice-smelling pillows with negative ions drifting through the open windows.

Sunday was one of those rare days that actually felt like it had the proper number of hours in it, instead of being three or four short like most days.  Here's what we had time for:

1. A big, hearty, complimentary breakfast in the hotel's lovely dining area
2. Walk to the pier
3. Long, scenic drive up the North Shore
4. Play time on the beach
5. Lunch at a lakeside cafe
6. A pleasant, meandering hike
7. Browsing cute shops
8. Scenic drive back down the shore (I should include "nap time for Emily" here)
9. Vitta Pizza for the second time
10. Caribou coffee
11. Sitting on the hotel porch with our coffee listening to live music from across the street
12. Visit to Anders' aunt & uncle & cousin for homemade dessert and fun conversation
13. HGTV at the hotel

We listened to Mumford & Sons as we drove up the North Shore.  Perfect.  The sky was blue and everywhere interesting.  Big woolly layers of clouds were all lit differently by the sun.

Eighty miles from Duluth one finds a deep, narrow crack in the cliff, with water running through it, and this is called the Temperance River Gorge.  We went first to the little beach where the river meets the lake.  On a previous trip to Temperance, we were able to follow the beach beyond a protrusion of cliff to find another little beach on the other side.  This time, the way was blocked by water.  So Anders took off his shoes and socks, and waded round the cliff.  I waited until I saw three rocks plunk one by one into the lake from the direction of the hidden beach.  This was my cue from Anders that the beach was accessible, so I should join him.  I therefore bent down for the difficult and grunt-filled task of removing my own shoes and socks.  Oh, Jabberwocky.

Anyway, I succeeded, only to find that rocky beaches are not especially friendly to bare feet.  Nevertheless, round the cliff I went, with jeans rolled up and shoes in hand.  Oh, how I wish we'd packed a picnic to enjoy on that little tiny rocky beach on that beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Anders patiently demonstrated, for perhaps the twentieth time, the mechanics of skipping rocks to me.  I believe the motion comes naturally to boys, but I have to re-learn it each time.  There is certainly no better place to do this than on a beach made almost entirely of smooth, flat stones.

Then there was yesterday.  More walking, shopping, and negative ions, and also a chocolate-almond-caramel-apple from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.   Another wonderful day, if only it hadn't included checking out of the hotel and driving away!