Chelsey was home on break a couple of weeks ago. My parents treated her to a mini vacation on the North Shore in Two Harbors, one of her favorite places. Monday morning, I woke up wondering what I would do with the girls on their last week of summer break. Mid-morning, I got a message from my dad saying it was pretty quiet at the resort they were staying at and we should join them. Then he added the world “seriously”. Then I started to seriously contemplate it. I sent a few messages to Loran, plotted my packing plan in my head and waited to hear back from Loran. I knew he wouldn’t be able to go because of work commitments, but the girls and I were totally free. I got the okay and started packing myself and the girls for two nights away. I was seriously slowed up by waiting for the laundry to dry, but four hours after that first message, we were on the road north. Three hours later, we rolled into Superior Shores resort. The girls watched one movie and took naps. They were excellent passengers. Ella especially liked the four tunnels we went through on our way through Duluth (Lily slept through them).
After we checked in and unpacked, we headed into downtown Two Harbors for pizza. All the times I’ve been up there, I’ve never left Hwy 61. Turns out there’s a train museum, lighthouse, a harbor where large ships come to port, and a 3M museum – it’s where they started! We spent some time checking out the trains and tracks while we waited for our pizza.
The girls plowed through their pizza. Lily really wanted coffee to drink with her dinner. Totally Loran’s child. I’m not sure she actually knows what coffee tastes like, but she was adamant she wanted coffee. Grandpa had an idea and provided Lily with her “coffee” - water with a little splash of root beer. She thought that was great. Ella tried some full-strength root beer. It was a little too bubbly for her tastes. She’s not quite ready for the hard stuff, she was happy with her water. After pizza we drove around a bit and stopped for some supplies (milk, cookies and other treats). There was much fighting over which girl would get to hold the tray of cookies. Turns out, I was the winner! Once back at the room, we put on some sweatshirts (unreal since it was in the 90s at home) and headed down to the water to introduce the girls to some good ol’ Lake Superior rock skipping. Or, in my and the girls case, chucking rocks into the water without actually skipping them. Chelsey had the real skipping skills. It was a beautiful night. The almost full moon was rising and casting a reflection on the water. So serene, even with the constant barrage of splashes and rocks whizzing past.
Not a bad view from our room!
I think it’s unspoken rule that rock skipping eventually turns into chucking giant boulders into the water.
Once we were back in the room, we said our goodnights to everyone and I attempted to take some photos of the room. Turns out I’d packed a couple of hams in my hasty packing adventure. They showed up as soon as the camera came out. The girls were all smiles and poses for the camera, along with a lot of showing off and gymnastics on the bed. They were just nuts.
Once the monkeys were contained, I gave them a bath. I didn’t have bath toys, but I did have waterproof babies, which was unbelievably fun for the girls. Once all the babies were washed and dried, we attempted bedtime. Good grief. Lily carried on quite a bit. She finally settled down around 11 and Ella around 11:30. Lily was then up crying at 12:30 having wet through her pull-up (the only thing I forgot was diapers) and then Ella woke up around 2:30 screaming, “Scared! Scared!” Never dull.
The next day we headed into Duluth for some adventures. First stop, Leif Erickson Park and rose garden. I’ve never been here, but the views and gardens were spectacular. Well worth the visit. Ella took time to smell the roses, and also learned the important lesson that they are pokey a life-long lesson. Lily insisted she bring her baby. She also insisted that she be held like a baby most of the time we were there. Luckily, Chelsey was happy to oblige her.
After that park, we drove through canal park, across the lift bridge and to the point. We watched a plane take off on the water and then headed over to the dunes. I love the dunes. Every where you go along Superior, there are rocks. Most of them are small, round, well polished rocks from being assaulted by the waves for centuries, and then there are larger jagged boulders, but then there’s this slightly sheltered area where it isn’t rocky, it’s covered in fine, powdery sand. And this year, the lakes are running a bit warmer than usual (White Bear’s in the high 80s) and this is also true for Superior. I’m not sure the temperature, but typically it’s set to mind-numbingly cold, yet there are a few hearty souls who swim and you question their mental capacity. This year, it was shockingly cold, but you could slowly get used to it without losing feeling to your toes. A vast improvement. And there were more swimmers. This is also a fun area because despite the still air, the waves were rolling in with a bit of power. The girls loved wading in and feeling the waves push them. There was some sand throwing (a lot of sand throwing), splashing and giggles. Both girls got back into the car sans pants. Always the sign of a good time by the water. We also got to test the power of the “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” signs at McDonalds when we stopped to pick up lunch. Lily had a shirt, she had shoes, but she did not have pants. Yet, she did receive service. Perhaps being a cute curly haired two year old helps. We took our lunch near the Two Harbors lighthouse to see a ship being loaded up. The girls also got to experience the fun/terror of feeding sea gulls. The thought it was great fun to feed the “eagles”.
After our adventures around town, we headed back to the room to rest a bit. Who am I kidding, the girls didn’t even have a heavy eye-lid. But we did do some quiet activities before heading back out to throw more rocks. Chelsey joined us and Grandpa snuck out and was secretly taking photographs. After throwing hundreds of rocks back into the water, we made the executive decision to visit a North Shore landmark – Betty’s Pies. All of the adults enjoyed giant slices of pie. The girls had corn dogs, grilled cheese, apple sauce and milk. They were beyond thrilled with the apple sauce. They don’t know what they were missing. We saw a couple of deer on our adventure.
Once again, back at the rooms we said our goodnights and I braced myself for another long night. This time, I was smart and put two pull—ups on Lily. Luckily, our day of adventure meant both girls were sacked out by 9. Hooray! That left me awake with nothing to do. I caught up on some good cable television and played my sister and dad in Draw Something through the wall on my cell phone. Chelsey introduced this fun game to my dad, which has been a bit awkward…
Shockingly, I didn’t guess this. Avengers. Of course.
We woke up to another gorgeous day on Wednesday. There was a ship coming through that we got to watch. The girls loved seeing that. Once packed up and checked out, Chelsey and my parents hit the road. The girls and I went back down to the water to throw more rocks. Of course, once we got down the stairs, down the winding path, scrambled down the boulders and landed on the shore, within two minutes Ella announced she had to go potty. Classic. So back across the beach, up the boulders, up the winding path, up the stairs into the pool area, into the bathroom. False alarm. Classic.
After the potty fail, we left and headed to Two Harbors to visit the 3M museum. I was just going to take the girls photo in front of it once I saw they charged admission, since I had zero actual dollars in my wallet. But the girls really wanted to go in the 3M museum – turns out, they thought Daddy would be inside. Fooled them! But, we know where our bread is buttered, and we support our brand. We visited the local credit union’s ATM and got a few dollars. Now Ella goes up to ATMs in stores to play the money machine. She hasn’t been a winner yet. This is how often I use an ATM, it was completely novel to them. Once inside, we were enthusiastically greeted by the senior citizen working there. He loves 3M. I don’t even write this sarcastically, he really LOVES 3M. It makes me feel a little guilty for saying I was an employee so I could get the admission discount. I mean, I kind of work for them…without me, Loran would never find his keys or ID to get there. And my insurance card says 3M. I’m sure this guy could see right through me when I broke into a sweat when he asked me if I knew how Scotch tape got it’s name…and I didn’t. He gave us a nice tour through two of the three small rooms until another couple wandered in. It was interesting. The girls spun some of the gravel used in sandpaper, we felt a lot of sandpaper, saw tape through the years, played with reflective tape, did some interactive movies and quizzes and the girls were certain they would find Daddy in the next room, until we ran out of rooms.
Ella interrogates the display to find out where her daddy is. The girls pose, excitedly, by a giant roll of sandpaper.
We attempted to visit the Duluth Children’s Museum on our way home. We’re actually members. We’ve never been, and only purchased the membership on one of those Groupon type sites so we could get the reciprocity to the closer Minnesota Children’s Museum and Science Museum of Minnesota. It’s also come in handy on our other adventures to Chicago and Charlotte. Anyway, because I only glance at my membership newsletters, I vaguely knew they moved. I figured that Google would have known this. Nope. We wandered through this entire Depot complex of museums trying to find it. I’m not sure if they’re moving from there or into there, but it’s not quite there. There was one exhibit on race. The girls colored pictures of “themselves”. They thought this was spectacular. The “Children’s Museum” was adjacent to a train museum, so we wandered through that a bit and then called it good. As far as they know, they went to the Children’s Museum and were very happy with their drawings. We grabbed some food on our way out of town and I set the girls up with a “car picnic” – once again, they thought this concept was amazing. A car picnic! So fun! I may have found 3/4 of a cheese burger stowed away in the arm of Lily’s car seat later. We were happy to get home, see the real Daddy and then I flew out the door to the girls’ school orientation. Back to reality.
Getting out of town was awesome. I’m so glad we jumped at the opportunity. It was just the right parts of adventure and relaxation with beautiful views and great company.
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