NORTH SHORE

Our little get away to the North Shore this past weekend was nothing short of amazing. And I have to say, I was amazed by how amazing it really was. [You think I used the word "amaze" enough there?]

I had never been to the North Shore, and I admit, I never really had any desire to go there much less any other place in Minnesota. I always thought, Oh, I live in Minnesota, why would I want to go on vacation in Minnesota? Boooooring! Give me hot, sticky, sunny weather, a beach and a cocktail in my hand -that is what I call vacation. Which meant take me to Key West, Florida, Hawaii.... You know the places.

I admit, as we were driving through Duluth to our final destination, I was still feeling a bit hesitant. Not knowing if I would be bored out of my head and desperately looking for the nearest beach or happening bar/restaurant to entertain myself at by people watching.

But when we arrived, all my worries melted away.

The Mr. had taken care of all the details, and I have to say, he did quite the job. We stayed at the Grand Superior Lodge in Two Harbors. He decided the regular rooms in the lodge were not good enough for our last-little-get-away-before-baby-arrives, so he went and rented us our own little one bedroom cabin over looking Lake Superior.

All I can say about this place is.... perfection. It was the epitome of what I had asked for - a peaceful, relaxing, romantic getaway, just him and I.

This was the view from our patio,


The patio that the Mr. enjoyed sitting on each evening while enjoying an adult beverage after a long day of exploring. I would have to say, he deserved it after bringing me to this little piece of heaven.


We did our fair share of exploring The North Shore - one of the most amazing places we stopped at was Gooseberry Falls. The waterfalls were nothing short of unbelievable. The crazy thing was that us tourists had free reign of the place, you could walk right up - I mean right up- to the side of a waterfall and look down. It was as if you were in the middle of no where on your own little adventure - like LOST. [I may watch too much T.V.]

Here I am standing a safe distance away from one of the waterfalls. I would not dare to get much closer, as I have to admit, I am pretty clumsy, even more so when I am pregnant. I would be the one they would be telling the unfortunate story about on the local news station. Top news today: A pregnant tourist plummets to her death after tripping on a rock and falling down a waterfall at Gooseberry Falls today. Yep, I can see that happening.


We even managed to get a picture of us together next to the Falls. This is never an easy feat, as both the Mr. and I feel weird about stopping complete strangers who are enjoying their day to take a picture of us. But I figure if we did not do this at least a few times on this trip, we would not have any pictures of the two of us together, and I would be kicking myself.

So, we stopped a lovely couple who looked as if they were on the same sort of romantic little get away as us, and asked them to snap a quick picture of us. This time we were up higher, where they had built a wall so that no one had the ability to plummet to their death. That is unless they were trying to.


Here we are inside the visitors enter looking at this wolf. Apparently this breed [would you call it a breed? Heck, I don't know] is no longer in existence, so this one they stuffed and put on display is pretty special. We thought the kids would enjoy the picture, so here I am, posing with the big fella.

I got a few shots of the Mr. hiking down the trails toward other fun things to see.


Here he is feeling how cold the water was. At this point I was ready to lay right on those rocks and let myself be covered in the freezing water I was so hot. Being 8 months pregnant and hiking up and down stairs, dirt paths, and rocks is not so easy. Not to mention it makes you hot. Really hot. Like sweat dripping from your forehead down in to your eyes hot. No jokes - I felt as if I were 16 again and had just spent an hour running up and down and up and down the soccer field playing a game. Sad thing is now at 33 all it takes is a bit of hiking to get me to sweat like that. Oh the joys of getting older, being out of shape and being pregnant.


Here we are in Grand Marais checking out the view.


Right after this little sight seeing expedition we happened upon a shop called "The World's Best Donut's" and decided we had to stop in and have one. In deed they were very yummy. Would I call them the world's best donut's? Not so sure about that, but I can say I could have eaten a dozen of them.

Outside of this little shop was a fun place to stick your head for a photo. Of course, I had to have the Mr. take a picture of me. I look pretty good, right? An obese woman with yellow pig tails, holding a tray of donuts. Nice.



No, this is not the only pictures we took. There are many, many more that are still sitting on my camera. I just thought I would show a few of the highlights from our trip and leave it at that. Not to mention this post would be about a mile long if I were to have uploaded all of our pictures to see.

So there you have it, our trip to the North Shore. It was amazing [there I go with amazing again], beautiful, peaceful, relaxing, and perfect in every way.

Thank you to the Mr. for planning it and making it so special - our last little get away before our little peanut arrives in 6 weeks! I love you, love you, love you. You are the best.