Duluth the Trek

Because of (waves hand at everything) all that's been going on in the world, my husband and I had not been on a vacation out of the state in three years. We decided that we deserved a long weekend somewhere. Quickly, we concluded we didn't want to go anywhere that required too long a flight, we didn't want to go anywhere that would be too stiflingly hot at this time of year, and we did want to go somewhere neither of us had been before. At the intersection of that Venn diagram: Minnesota.

We flew into Minneapolis on Saturday, but immediately set out on a drive north to Duluth. We planned for the next day to take the North Shore Scenic Drive along the coastline of Lake Superior, and wanted to be at the starting point for that morning to give us as much time to work with as possible. That actually still gave us plenty of afternoon and evening in Duluth.

The city was a little reminiscent of San Francisco, perched on a hillside with steep streets backed up right against a vast "ocean." We went to Leif Erikson Park. It's a lovely little location with easy walking between a number of different secluded nooks right along the coastline. There was a nice rose garden to stroll through (though we weren't quite there for peak bloom), and a great view of Duluth's signature skyline feature: the Aerial Lift Bridge (a 100-year-old bridge that raises entirely to let ships through, rather than breaking in the middle).

We went on to do some brewery hopping around the city, quickly discovering some recurring themes of the trip: almost every brewery in Minnesota was boldly celebrating Pride Month, and a great many were also making a Girl Scout cookie inspired beer (and sharing proceeds with the organization). Bent Paddle Brewing Company was my favorite of the stops, but there was something tasty everywhere we went.

The next morning, we started north along that scenic drive, watching Wisconsin and Michigan gradually pull farther out of view across the water as we went along. We had only a few stops in mind, and were open to pulling off anywhere that looked good. So our first stop was one actually recommended by a Duluth local the night before: the "Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen." We picked up some sweets made right there on site to take with us for the trip.

From there, it was on to Gooseberry Falls State Park. A series of falls clustered together on the Gooseberry River made for some pretty pictures, and a one-mile hike to the "Fifth Falls" gave us some exercise too. It was a fairly easy walk, with the "mile high credit" of coming down near sea level working in our favor, but was well worth the effort.

Our next stop was at the Split Rock Lighthouse, a picturesque 100-year-old lighthouse perched on a cliff overlooking the lake. We got to tour inside the lighthouse as well as the home of the former keepers, and learned fun details about the practices and designs of lighthouses as we snapped some nice pictures. That was our turnaround point, as we then headed back toward the town of Two Harbors. We stopped for delicious food at Betty's Pies, and then hit up a few more brewery stops on our way back to the hotel.

That night was the deciding game in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and we had gotten advice from locals the night before about where we could go watch it. After the tiring day we'd had, we opted just to watch from the hotel room instead. Still, watching the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup was a nice non-trip-specific capper to a fun day.

The next morning, we'd move down to Minneapolis/St. Paul for the rest of the trip... which I'll pick up with in a future post.