Grand Marais and Two Harbors

We had a simple breakfast of cereal before heading out for the day.  The plan was to go to Grand Marais, check out Artist's Point, have lunch and head down to Two Harbors to see baby Ruby.  Maybe with a stop at Gooseberry Falls on our way.   Well, as usual things did not go quite as planned.

Great fall colors

Driving through Finland

 But on our way towards Grand Marais we needed to stop at a rest stop.  When we were there we saw a sign for Carabou Falls 0.5 miles.  We were up for it.  We hiked up along the stream.  Very pretty.  We were just about ready to give up when we met people coming back who said where the falls were.

It was well worth the walk

But we did have to hike down 156 steps and of course back up those same steps.

Back on the road.  There was a big sign for Temperance Falls.  So, of course, we had to pull over.

Lake Superior

 We did do a little rock climbing which Pam would not have liked.

Next stop was Cascade River State Park

It was fun trying to get the waves hitting the rocks.  We did not see a lot of the Cascade River.

So now, instead of going to Artist Point and then lunch we decided to do lunch first.  It was 1 pm.

We ate at the Harbor House Grill

Great flower arrangement.

I had a Reuben and Jeanne had Fish and Chips.  Great food.  We were close enough that we could leave the car and walk down to Artist's Point.

I wonder why they call it Artist's Point

Lots of scenes of the water hitting the shore.

Half mast for 9/11

Bear Tree

Argh!! it was already 3 pm - that was when we were planning to arrive in Two Harbors.  So no stops.  So much to see, so little time.

We were going to Two Harbors to see Jeanne's niece's new baby, Ruby.  She was just born a week ago.  Jay has 3 brothers.  Gordon is the youngest. His wife, Sue, was there as well.  Julie and Trey are the parents of baby Ruby.  Ruby is the name of Jay's mom. 

Sue and Jeanne

Julie, Trey & Ruby

Ruby

Jeanne with Ruby

Julie with Ruby

Me with Ruby.

Their house.  It is quite nice and on 30 acres of land.  They have done a lot of work on it.  It is bigger than it looks from this angle.

We headed home a little after 5 pm.  We had to scurry home, since we were cooking dinner.... Well, Jeanne was cooking dinner.  The guys got home just before we did.  

Jeanne made sweet and sour meatballs, rice and broccoli. With peaches and ice cream for dessert.  It was all very good.  

Quilting and AAUW

I think that I must have gotten about 30 mosquito bites on the back of my neck from our evening walk in Itasca!!  Very aggravating.  Luckily Jeanne had some anti-itch cream that helped.  I should have pulled my hoodie up sooner.

It rained steadily pretty much all night long.  I hope it stopped raining by the time the guys were to go golfing.  They had a later tee time today.

Jay fixed a great breakfast of made-to-order omelets, toast and bacon.  Delicious.

View from "my" door to the deck.

Jeanne and I went to her quilting group.  They meet every other week.  Mostly they are making quilts for the county foster kids. (Kids at Risk).  Jeanne and I went to her church early to set up tables.  The group starts with coffee, treats and conversation at 10 am.  Then they all start working on different projects.  There were 7 people today (not counting me).  Sometimes they have up to  10 people.  Jeanne usually does tying finished products.  Some people work on cutting and some on sewing.  Toni was in charge.  She had me ripping out seams first, then I did some ironing, then working on ironing some trim.  She had to give me tasks which took no skill.  They work until noon and then take a short lunch break.  We had to put everything back where it belonged. We were out of there by 2 pm.

One of the finished tops.

We did some grocery shopping on our way home.  Relaxed a bit before it was time to head out again. 

This is in front of the Zups grocery store.  There seems to be some controversy about the moose antlers.  They look more like feathers to me.

See the one hidden in the trees.

Deer just out in front of the kitchen window.

Jeanne is part of the local branch of The American Association of University Women (AAUW) .  They are pretty active here in Ely.  The meeting was held at the Vermilion Community College.  We had appetizers first, then there was a presentation about the AAUW and then a very quick meeting.

Vermilion CC

Some awards they have won.

It was a very quick meeting.  We were home by 7:15 pm.  The guys did not get home until 8:30 pm.  They were very tired.  I guess this was a tough course.

We had a nice evening but no more pictures.

Following the Mississippi

We got up early and walked down to the lake to see if there would be a sunrise.  It was overcast so there was not much of one.

The wind has done a lot of damage to some of the trees, they are twisted as well as broken.

A lot of red and white pine.

Back to the lodge for breakfast.  Then we packed up the car and left.

I tried taking a selfie here but I was not thrilled with the results.

We thought that it would be fun to follow the Mississippi River until Grand Rapids when it headed south and we would go north.

First it headed straight north to Lake Bemidji.  The Mississippi goes in one side of the lake and comes out the other continuing in a more eastern direction.

This was at the Paul Bunyan Park in Bemidji.

The next goal was to get the furthest north that it goes before it heads south.  No luck with that.  Even at the visitors center at the Paul Bunyan Park they were not sure where that was.  It obviously is not a tourist attraction.

Next sight to look for was when route 2 crossed over the Mississippi. Again we were not successful.  I think that it was not labeled, if we did cross over.  Well, we must have because when we got to Grand Rapids it was on our right and it had been on our left.  But it obviously was not clearly marked.

We got in to Grand Rapids, MN (not Michigan) and went to the visitor center. It was next to this cute candy shop.

We stopped at the visitor's center to get information about the Mississippi River. We were told about a park near the river.

Then we went to the New China Restaurant.  They had a lunch buffet.  It was very good. 

We weren't sure if it was even open since there was a for lease sign in the window.  It was very confusing.

We said good-bye to the Mississippi River and headed on to Ely, with a stop in Virginia (a town in MN) to pick up some groceries.  We got to Ely about 3:30 pm.  Jay was still out golfing with his buddies.  Rick, Mike & Todd.  We relaxed a bit and got a few things ready for dinner.  Jeanne was doing the corn on the cob and the baked potatoes.  Jay and company arrived about 5:30 pm. It started raining just as they were leaving the golf course.  Jay did steaks on the grill for us all.  What a delicious meal.

Mike, Dave, Todd and Jay.

Then they all went downstairs to watch football.  Bev and Dan arrived for game night.  I joined them for this.  They very nicely did not play Settlers or Dominion.  That was fun.  

Another 9,000 steps

We had dinner in the lodge.  We each had a patty melt but mine was with a veggie burger.  It was quite tasty.

After dinner we decided to go back to the observation tower to see the sunset.  We took the short cut on the deer park trail. Because it was evening we had more mosquitoes to deal with.

Another 135 steps up to the top of the tower.  The lakes looked a little different with the sun going down.

Gorgeous sunset.  Well worth the walk.

We saw some dark shape that was not moving like the other clouds.  It was hard to focus on it.  But we called it our unidentified floating object.  

As we were walking back we got some nice moon shots.

It was starting to get pretty dark by the time we got back to the lodge.  We had not taken the short cut through the woods, so it was a lot longer coming back.  I was happy to see the lodge lights.  

All this fresh air and exercise is wearing me out.