summer vacation in Duluth

We're home from our little vacation up north and while it was a short three-night visit, we were able to fill it with lots of good stuff. The weather was fair, mostly sunny with short and T-shirt temps, though a little cool at times. It was so nice to see wide open water again. Lilly loved playing at the beach, especially the rocky one in Canal Park where she even got into the water quite a bit.

The vistas of the long stretchy sand beach out on Park Point, the world's longest freshwater sandbar, were amazing, but the water was a little dirty there.

Lilly was fascinated by the Aerial Lift Bridge which goes up and down allowing ships to enter the harbor all day long. Every time she saw it, Lilly would say "opp og ned, opp og ned."

One day we took a ferry cruise, learning more about the lake, city and harbor.

And another day we took the scenic route up along the north shore to Two Harbors, providing more amazing lake views. 

While we had brought a cooler full of food, we ended up splurging with our meals, dining out except for breakfast. The day of our coastal drive, we stopped at the much raved about New Scenic Cafe (on the North Shore Drive) for dinner on our way back to Duluth.

Upon arrival in Duluth, we enjoyed margaritas at Mexico Lindo adjacent to the historic Fitger's complex. The restaurant has an amazing deck high up in the air over the boardwalk that stretches along the lake. While we were a little nervous there with Lilly chasing around, it was spectacular.

Then we had dinner at the Fitger's Brewhouse (with yummy beer) before we went down to the stretchy boardwalk where Lilly loved spending time, throwing rocks, exploring, climbing around.

Before heading back to our motel room we stopped at the Portland Malt Shoppe for dessert (Lilly like her papa has a sweet tooth for chocolate shake, ice cream, gelato, cake, all of which she's had within the last couple of weeks ...).

We celebrated our anniversary on June 30th with lunch at Va Bene (a neighbor of the Malt Shoppe)--we had such a good time there!--on its deck overlooking the lake, and dinner at Hacienda Del Sol which has a tree-house feeling deck in the back but we opted for the second floor inside which also has a view of the lake.

The last day, before heading back home, we visited the Great Lakes Aquarium and had lunch at Sir Benedict's Tavern, across the road from Va Bene.