Grand Marais Vacais 2012

This is the third summer we've gone to Grand Marais (North Shore of Minnesota, on Lake Superior). Each visit brings much of the same - playing at the Lake and Cabin, hiking and donuts. And new things - including fishing, the library (seriously) and Lutsen Mountain. Oh, and the addition of Wren this year!

Lake Superior
It's a big, gorgeous, cold Lake. Much colder than Grandma and Papa's pool or even Calhoun and Harriet in the City, learned the boys real quick. They always have a fun time throwing rocks in and wading in the water. This year they enjoyed climbing on a boulder on the shore between crashing waves one day...and then recognizing that the "rock isn't in the water anymore" the next morning when the water had stopped sloshing so much.

Nelson's Cabins

We've only ever stayed at Nelson's cabins in Grand Marais. My friend Marie tipped me off to this perfect spot for families and I'm pretty sure the boys would be devastated if we ever stayed elsewhere. They (Wren, too) would have been perfectly content playing with the trucks in the dirt, on the wooden boat and with the pedal go-kart at the cabin all week (as long as they also got to take a quick trip to the World's Best Donuts).

World's Best Donuts

On that note, what would one trip to Grand Marais be without at least a couple trips to the World's Best Donut shop. We managed to stay away from the donuts our first two days there and then indulged in them our last two days. Wren got to try her first donut - but it's safe to say the rest of us were more excited about ours. I think Wren mostly enjoyed all the oohs and ahhs over her cuteness from everyone there. This year Max branched out from just donuts and tried a "Skizzle" - fried dough with sugar on it - one of the shop's signature items. I stand by my proclamation that they have the best Glazed Raised's around!

Devil's Kettle Hike

Given that Otto insisted on hiking the whole way while at Whitewater last month, we decided to only bring a backpack for Wren. And right on cue, Otto decided he did not want to hike this trip. So Joe and I took turns carrying Otto (but Joe always had Wren this time, making it double duty for him much of the time). Max, although telling us he'd rather be playing with the trucks back at the cabin, did a great job on the couple mile hike and 260+ steps up and 260+ steps down to the Kettle.

On a previous Devil's Kettle hike the name "OTTO" was carved into the railing overlooking the waterfall. I wanted so bad to get an updated picture of Otto next to it. We could not find it this year. Max was pretty excited when he spotted his name, though. Maybe next year we can tackle carving all our names onto the railing!

Around Town

We spent some time tooling around town like we usually do. This year we took advantage of the blaze orange crossing guard flags they have at their intersection and had Otto wave it as we crossed the street for "extra visibility." The upper right picture is my current favorite of Max. We were walking home from pizza and ice cream on the beach. Shoes off, very focused on getting the paper wrapper from his ice cream cone.

Fishing in Superior National Forrest

We went to Mink Lake in hopes of catching a couple trout, but struck out. Otto's luck of catching two fish on his first two casts ala Whitewater didn't happen. We went home without any fish, but with a dozen and a half left-over night crawlers to add to our garden. That lower left picture stresses me out. Actually, most of this fishing trip stressed me out. We were on a dock with big, gaping holes between the railings. Wren wanted to move and so our time on the dock was limited.

The Library

While walking around town one afternoon a random rain shower crept in. We were just a block away from the new library (peeking out from behind the start of the Gunflint Trail) and decided to check it out. Jack Pot. Computers, keyboards, clipboards with pens for the boys (Otto's favorite! He was ecstatic!). And stuffed animals and baby toys for Wren. And Christmas novels on sale for $1 for me (such a better steal than spending $20 on a holiday hardcover at Target in a couple months when I become overzealous and think I'll be able to leisurely enjoy reading a book over a cup of hot cocoa).

Lutsen Mountain

While headed back to Minneapolis from Grand Marais Joe had the great idea of stopping by Lutsen Mountain instead of Split Rock Lighthouse or Gooseberry Falls which we've done most years past. Once there we realized the gondola was running and we could take it to the top of the mountain for a hike and lunch. It took serious finagling to get Max and Otto to agree to ride it (apparently it's "really scary" to them). But after convincing them (which included me trying to pretend the gondolas were apple cars from BusyTown (they do look remarkably similar to them), and that the ride wouldn't be scary because there was a family with kids younger than them in front of us, and because Otto could get an even better view of the excavators that were digging beneath the gondolas), we made it to the summit. Wren loved the gondola ride and giggled and jumped up and down as she stared out the gondola. It was the most beautiful day and we had an expansive view of Lake Superior and the mountain "range."

Brothers

A few very important photos follow. I need to look at these at certain times on certain days when it seems like all these brothers do is fight. Proof that I'm not always right and that they don't always fight.


Wren's Grand Marais Debut

Safe to say Wren enjoyed her first trip to the North Shore. She was right along side her brothers playing in the dirt. She particularly loved tetherball and the Bolo ball game outside and playing in the suitcase inside.

My Blondies & Brownies

Fun travel companions on all our adventures.