Duluth, MN to Beaverton, OR

 We had our coffee and breakfast at the Days Inn.  It was typical fare.  I got a message from Delta this morning that my flight to MSP was delayed 1/2 hour.  This was no big deal because I had a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis.  

We walked to Target for Jeanne to get a few items which are not available in Ely.  It was about 1 mile to Target. The Days Inn is right across the street from the mall. The Target was down the street a ways.  There were no sidewalks so we had to go a longer way to get to it.  It felt good to walk.  I am not as sore as I thought that I would be.  Going up and down the stairs at the hotel was the only painful time.

We were looking at some other activity to do when I got the message from Delta that it was back to the original time.  We decided to go ahead and head to the airport.  Jeanne still had a 2 hour drive to get home.  

Duluth International Airport.

I zipped right through security.  This time there was no line and I was not trying to transport the Zups secret seasoning.  Plus there were only about 3 people in front of me. They did have a TSA Pre✓ this time.  We got to MSP about 12:45 pm.  My gate was close.  I went ahead and got a smashburger since it was close and there was a table I could sit at.

Cool kids play area

I could have eaten at the Twins Bar and Grill and gotten a cheeseburger that was 4 times the cost.

My work station.

Art in the MSP airport.

Gosh, if I just had been more patient I could have eaten here instead.

It was an uneventful flight.  I watched "It was a Good Year," which was OK and part of "Book Club: The Last Chapter" I did get a free drink.

Art at the Portland Airport.

George met me and we got home about 6:40 pm.  Debbie had come down and she got here by 6:30 pm.  We went out to the Siam Lotus for dinner.

Sunset on our way home.

Jelly Legs

 7.5 miles, 17,000 steps, and 1,346 stairs!!!!

Jay fixed us a very nice egg breakfast. Jeanne and I headed out about 9 am.  The plan at the time was to get to Grand Marais and have lunch and then go to the Devil's Kettle Waterfall.  Jeanne had read about this.  The waterfall goes into a hole and where it comes out no one knows.  It sounded interesting.  

We stopped for coffee at the Log Cabin

We passed the sign that Jeanne and I autographed.  You can read Jeanne's but the marker I was using was not working well so you can't read my signature. Oh well.

At the party last night we met an artist who said that she had a watercolor in the art show happening at the Miners Dry.  

Miners Dry is where the miners had their lockers and there were showers.  Now it is an event space.

She told us that it would be open 9 - 5 so we thought that we would stop there.  First change: Not only did it open at 10 instead of 9 but it was only open Thursday - Sunday.

I made Jeanne stop so I could take a picture of the Ely sign.  I try every year to catch it as we drive into town.  This time we stopped.

Ely Regional Trailhead.  The trail is the Mesabi Trail which is 150 miles of paved bike trail from Duluth to Ely.  The flag is at half staff for the fire fighter who died fighting the fires in the area.

As we were driving we remembered that last year we had talked about going to see the tallest waterfall within Minnesota. It was in the Tettegouche State Park (Tete-goosh). It was on our way. So we decided to add that to our day.

We crossed over a narrow bridge that went over the river and under the freeway.  It had an amazing view.  It had a pedestrian walkway so we parked and walked on it to take pictures.

When we got to the trailhead we thought the sign said 0.3 miles to the falls.  We found that was only until the first turn off. 372 stairs and lots of steps later we were at the High Falls. 

The trail was fairly well maintained.  No mosquitoes. And Jeanne had her walking stick.

Total 774 stairs and 9,000 steps

As we were driving to Grand Marais we stopped for lunch at a small roadside restaurant instead of having lunch in Grand Marais.

We had sub sandwiches.  That hit the spot.  It was 1:30 pm by then. We stopped for gas in Grand Marais but we wanted to get to the Devil's Kettle.  

This was Upper Falls. It was on the way to the Devil's Kettle. Why they called it that I don't know. There were no Lower Falls.

Devil's Kettle.  The water goes into a hole.  Jeanne got a good video that shows this better. The picture doesn't do it justice.  It was impressive.

603 stairs 7,000 steps in all.  It was listed as a 1 mile walk.  It took us 2 hours. 

Whew.  We were both exhausted.  We still had to get to Duluth and dinner.  We decided to go to Bellisio's Italian restaurant in Canal Park in Duluth.  It closed at 8:30 pm and our GPS indicated that we would get there at 7:30 pm.  

We stopped at Julie & Trey's home in Two Harbors to drop off a stack of egg cartons for Julie (Jeanne & Jay's niece).  They raise chickens and sell the eggs.  We warned them that it would be a very quick stop.

The fires had gotten very close.  In fact Julie and Trey had to evacuate for a few days. This was the first evidence of the fires that I had seen.

We got to the restaurant at 7:50 pm.  Just in time.

We had a glass of pinot grigio.  I had the chicken marsala, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables and Jeanne had the chicken alfredo.  Jeanne took the leftovers.

After dinner we walked down to take a picture of the bridge.

Full moon??? Haha NOT!  Just a street light.

Half moon over the bay.

That was a nice way to top off the day.

We headed to the Days Inn close to the mall.  It is also close to the airport for my flight tomorrow.

We were both exhausted.