Category: travels of snand

A’s first scout camp and G is back for more. pictures will follow, too tired right now 🫥

sitting here having our last hotel breakfast, I don’t think I can stomach more of their eggs and cheap breakfast meat. luckily I have leftover ramen from yesterdays lunch to polish off before we go.

I had all these intentions of keeping up my posting but we have done so much, stayed so busy and I’ve taken so many photos/video that this vacation recap is going to take some time. that’s ok though because this trip is going to take a while to sink in; every single moment has been as close to perfection as I can imagine. M, the boys, Dad, we are all coming home on cloud nine.

a little late posting this one.

another nice slow start to the day, breakfast at the hotel, swimming again and some Nicholas Cage movie in the morning. by the time we got on the road, we were greeted by a perfect snowfall.

first up, gooseberry falls.

oops, missed the exit.

first up, split rock lighthouse.

sadly it’s no longer free but I suppose these days, 8 bucks to preserve history and let them upgrade the place is worth the admission.

initial disappointment gave way to the familiarity of the place, and a welcome surprise of a pretty decent upgrade of the museum facility. centerpiece is the old fresnel lens on a big rotating display; it’s oddly beautiful.

we headed back to gooseberry where the falls proved to be shockingly beautiful. I got a little held up with A, trying to get pictures of a woodpecker we saw but when we eventually caught up, the other boys were doing their best job being boys near the edge of the lower falls.

eventually I found M at the upper falls, we had to grab a selfie.

I honestly couldn’t believe how much it’s begun to ice over. this might have been the most dramatic I’ve seen it in the winter. the fully iced over falls are always beautiful, but with water still cascading down…it’s just cool.

seems the falls decided to whip us up a batch of pancake ice. we sat and watched for a while as the little circles danced around, and the little children hit each other with sticks behind us.

we did find this weird little ice knob growing, I told them to leave it alone but it took a surprising amount of force for them to break it loose. made a pretty good crack when it went through the ice after the boys made me throw it.

we did a bit more driving around, headed over the lift bridge and found ourselves a new place to try out. note – I’m only posting this section to remind myself about it in a year (Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Duluth Waterfront in case the link dies, future me).

and finally our destination, good ol’ Bentlyville. sure it’s cheesy, and pretty much the same thing every year, but it’s tradition and we love it. man, oh man it was cold though, wind just whipped through us and we weren’t the most bundled we’ve ever been. false sense of security due to the earlier trip and unseasonably warm fall. oh well, no one to blame but ourselves.

not pictured are the trips to the Duluth Grill and White Castle, the latter of which, despite being in a gas station, might have been the best late night castle run I’ve ever had. Duluth Grill was fantastic as always. in the end, due to my poor planning, I forgot to take off Monday and so we abandoned our final evening in the hotel and hit the snowy road back home.

I think we might do the same weekend again next year.

with 2023 being what it is, holidays are a bit off schedule for us. traditions are traditions though and so we are up in Doolooth to see the Bentlyville lights. every year we come up here to see them, or at least that’s the excuse we use to get in one last family trip. we have one more planned this year though and so this one was bumped up a bit. first time we’ve been up here without snow, though.

we’re staying at the Inn on Lake Superior, we love this place. got a poolside room so we could breath the magical fumes even while we sleep! we started the morning with a little swim, I stayed up while G teened in bed all morning.

next up we went shopping, mostly for candy. I love taking the boys here, I remember it from when I was little. I still kick myself for not buying one of those metrodome Duluth packs up here years ago.

next up , duckpin bowling. oops, we reserved regular bowling so had some time to kill. 3 boys, a bowling alley, so of course there’s an arcade.

duckpin bowling is basically little bowling, using balls that are about 5” without holes. the pins are on strings, and you get 3 rolls per frame. it’s honestly a lot of fun, we play it wherever we get the chance.

dinner was Anchor Bar and Grill, over the bridge in Superior. no, not our usual Anchor (Fish & Chips), but this one was also pretty durn tasty; was exactly what I was hoping for and exactly what a wisconsin hamburder should taste like.

a trip over the bridge and then back to the hotel for one last swim. while they got chlorinated, I made this. a lovely day, not much else to say.