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.

first day of summer

Monday did not start out feeling much like the first day of summer. It was another dreary day (just about all of June has been rainy so far); and we can't afford to go on vacation this year, while with school having been out for a week "everyone" else was doing fun summer stuff but us. After lunch, when it was my time to work, we all got ready to go for a walk instead. Of course it started raining even more, so we got into the car and started driving. Lilly fell asleep, and so we just kept driving; down south, passed Nerstrand big woods state park and eventually, through the stormy weather, all the way to Pepin, Wisconsin. After two hours in the car, just as we arrived in Pepin, Lilly woke up and the sky cleared. We had coffee at a cute coffee shop, drove by some impressive looking houses overlooking Lake Pepin, played on the beach, then had dinner at the much-raved-about Harbor View Cafe. And it was amazing! The food and wine were excellent, though way above our budget. (The meal was covered thanks to gift credit cards from grandpa Kent (Leighton's dad) and grandma Cheryl!) And Lilly was just her sweetest little self, nibbling on the food, playing with the guests around us, smiling to the server. What a fun first day of summer it turned out to be!

We did not bring our camera, but here are a couple of photos of Harbor View Cafe from their site. (Actually, since the restaurant doesn't accept credit cards, we were told to just send a check when we got home!):

We decided to keep up the fun the following day and headed out to Lake Byllesby beach in Dakota county (which Lilly had fun wading in, even though it was filled with alga). Afterward, we strolled around in charming Cannon Falls.

When we came home, we reserved a cheap room at a motel in Duluth on Lake Superior for next Monday-Thursday. We've both been missing Greece, looking out on the Mediterranean sea from our deck at Alechos' in Drios, Paros, surrounded by his vineyard. Lake Superior is the closest we can get here in Minnesota to something resembling a sea coast. I've only visited once, briefly stopping on my way further up north, and Leighton and Lilly have never been. We'll bring a cooler with food for breakfast and lunch, and will probably have dinner out. We hope to spend just about a total of $300 though, plus gas money; a fairly affordable mini-vacation. Together with this week's summer kick-off, it should fill our vacation needs so we can buckle down for work during the month of July--with an occasional day off to go visit other towns and beaches, or just go to the pool when it's nice out and we feel like we need some time off.

Lilly turns 2

Today is my daughter's birthday. I woke up with a strange calm feeling. To my surprise, when I saw her I didn't seem to be overly sentimental. I mean, I'm a softy, and just yesterday I was thinking so much about what it means for me that my daughter is turning two. So what's up?

We celebrated Lilly's birthday last Saturday, with a party at our house, with our friends and their kids, who are Lilly's friends. It was a great party! On Sunday, we as a family spent the day in the city as a kind of continuation of the celebration, having brunch at a nice restaurant (Lucia's) and seeing a movie (Babies) at a movie theater--our first movie at a theater as a family.

Monday was back to work as usual, with our weekly routines. However, hanging over us was the fact that Tuesday, today, Lilly is having her birthday.

It got late, and thus bedtime for Lilly. Anne most always puts Lilly to bed.

...

September 25--

I began the following post on Lilly's birthday. I don't remember where I was going with it; it's been such a long time. It must have been something I couldn't put words to at the time. I mean, your daughter turns two--how HUGE is that; how do you describe that 'whatever it must have been at the time' sentiment in a blog post. You can't of course; you can try (which is what I'm trying do in this blog) but nothing quite says it, you know. I'm leaving the post unfinished because that's all I can do with it now. I could just as well come across this way than if I had finished it; although, surely it would come across more to the point if I had finished it at the time, as it came t me at the moment (I mean why else would I try to write it all out). Leaving it as such and posting it might be just as worthwhile is all; there's no knowing if it would come across better.