ALSV Days 7&8 (7/7-8/11) : Reading Day by the Lake & The Trip Home

By Dakota Noel

Sister-in-law Irene and her husband Alan were on the road back to South Dakota by 9:45 AM on Thursday the 7th. We hung out at the cabin, primarily reading. Lunch was refrigerator review as we paired down what we need to take home the next day. Supper was at Culvers followed by a stop at Flood Bay to search for seaglass. Ilene and I wrapped up the evening with wine and cheese eaten in steamer chairs overlooking the lake.

Friday morning featured the traditional cleaning, packing, and loading for the trip home as well as a few final moments sitting by the lake. We were on the road by 10:30 AM and stopped in Duluth for coffee and treats at Great Harvest. Past the construction and a mis-taken detour into Wisconsin, we were headed west, back to Fargo. The trip was uneventful except for having to stop for a momma duck and her chicks crossing the road at two locations. It was pretty cute, but happened too fast to get pictures. Lunch was at the Subway in Walker, MN. We were home by 5:00 PM.

The consensus was that it was a good vacation. I could have easily spent several more days reading and relaxing and chatting with Ilene, but I had an church elder board meeting Saturday morning. It’s also nice to have time to get unpacked and hang out before resuming the regular schedule. Hopefully we will be back to Lake Superior before another year passes.

Book Recap

Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
Strengths-based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
Living Your Strengths by Albert L Winseman, Donald O Clifton, and Curt Liesveld

Growing an Engaged Church by Albert Winseman
Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods by Rick Warren

ALSV Day 6 (7/6/11) : The Closed Minnesota State Parks + Camp Fire

By Dakota Noel

Minnesota State Parks are a part of the general Minnesota state government shut down which began July 1 due to a budget impass between republicans and democrats. It seems “closed” is a loose term since day-use is still seemingly permitted, but without benefit of in-park parking or restrooms/outhouses. We decided to venture out and see what we could see.

We drove out to Tettegouchie State Park, about an hour beyond the cabin and worked our way back after assessing the roadside situations at the places we wanted to visit. Tettegouchie encompasses Pallisade Head, a 350 foot cliff rising from the lake. The entrance was gated and we didn’t want to hike the road to the top, so we passed on. Picnic lunch was at the marina and park at Silver Bay. Since it isn’t state operated, running water and bathrooms were available.

Our next stop was at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. There is a major road construction project along most of the distance of the park along the highway which prevented parking near the preferred entry points. With a previously printed map (the state park website is down as part of the state closures), I picked a spot on the east end of the park and east of the construction for us to park along the road. This resulted in a 1.25 mile walk each way to the photo op versus a 2.5 mile walk each way from parking at the Split Rock River.

We thought we might get a good view from the shore at the end of short train used by divers who visit the 1905 wreck the Mediera near Gold Point. All we could see was the top of the light house.

Walking along the bike trail which parallels the highway and then turning into the park, we passed a couple who were also wandering day-users. Besides notices at the park entrance that it was closed, notices were also posted inside the park on buildings and other items. The notices pictured below, well inside the park, not only announce that the park is closed, but on the right, points the way anyone in the park might want to go. It was very eerie to be in the park with virtually no one else.

We reached our photo op spot and took our pictures. It was another beautiful day with clear skies and temps in the 70s. Hiking back out, we swung by the lighthouse itself and came across a man with a dog INSIDE the historic site security fence. He was working on a project in a garage and was presumably a security/maintenance person who was considered an essential  person. He acknowledged us with a wave and then returned to his task.

Our final closed state park stop was at Gooseberry Falls. Since the falls is very close to the highway, there were many more people here than at our prior stops. The amount of truck and other traffic on MN-61 raised a concern in my mind about visitor safety. How long will it be before we hear of a child being hit and severely injured or killed outside a state park?

We made our third visit to Clearwater Grill for supper and I reprised the great cheese tortellini for my entree. The women in our group then went back to Flood Bay to look for sea glass while Alan and I hung out at the cabin. About 8:30, I was able to start our one-match campfire which we used until about 10:30.

ALSV Day 5 (7/5/11) : Dragon Fly Day + Duluth

By Dakota Noel

One way our ALSV’s can be categorized is by the dominant insects. By coming in early in July instead of August, I think we avoid the main mosquito and biting gnat hatches. There was also a stretch of years when army worms were everywhere. Occasionally one would drop into a book from a tree providing shade. This year will be remembered for dragonflies. There had been a high number, but this day seemed to be the peak with many squadrons of the fliers at the cabin and all the way from Duluth to Two Harbors. In following days, the numbers dropped off significantly.

The morning started with reading at the cabin. About 11:00 AM, we saw the Mesabi Miner pass the cabin en route to Duluth. Our group of six got ready, into the minivan, and transported to Duluth to watch its arrival through the ship canal. We then headed to the deck at Little Angie’s Cantina for lunch.

After lunch, my sister-in-law’s husband Alan and I returned to the museum run by the Coast Guard at the ship canal while the others went shopping in Canal Park. We were also able to watch the departure of the Herbert C Jackson before rejoining the group for some Duluth sight seeing.

Our first stop was the recently remodeled Enger Tower. It was nice a clear day with good views of the Mesabi Miner, now docked to load coal; canal park, and some nice clouds over the harbor.

Our second stop was at Whole Foods, which doesn’t have locations in Fargo or Sioux Falls. Our primary reason for the stop was to pick up some fresh-ground peanut better. It seems we always find other things such as Crapola granola from Ely, MN. It was cute, expensive, and not outstanding. We also got some other cereals, granola, and juices (organic raw Kombucha).

Our final Duluth stop as the gardens at Lief Erickson Park where more peonies were in bloom than in 

previous days.

Supper was at the classic Betty’s Pies where several of us had pasties. A raspberry rhubarb pie was purchased for consumption back at the cabin. We made a stop at Flood Bay state wayside where most of the group engaged in sea glass hunting. Daughter T and Uncle Alan also spent some time discussing rock skipping technique as the sun set.

ALSV Day 4 (7/4/11) : Reading and Celebrating

By Dakota Noel

Right after my breakfast, I headed up to the Mocha Moose for a good wi-fi connection to wrap up some church email which hadn’t gotten done during my previous visit. Upon entry, I succumbed to the temptation of the fresh, warm cinnamon rolls in addition to my premeditated mocha.

Back at the cabin, we spent the afternoon reading, interrupted by a salad for lunch. I started Growing an Engaged Church by Albert Winseman. About 3:30, I watched a ship arrive at Two Harbors to load iron ore.

About 6:00 PM, my wife’s twin sister and her husband arrived from South Dakota for a two day/three night stay with us. Given the tight timing, we grabbed a quick supper at Culvers in Two Harbors en route to the 4^th of July Two Harbors Community Band concert which ran from 7:30-8:30.

Following the band concert, we moved our chairs from Bandshell Park to our traditional spot at the railroad depot for fireworks viewing at the harbor. In the 90 minutes between the concert and the fireworks display, we took advantage of the pie available at the community center as a fund raiser for the Social Active Seniors group. We also conversed, watched people, and watched ore dock operations.

The fireworks display itself lasted a brief 15 minutes, but the pace was fast and there really isn’t a need to stretch it out to half an hour. We had also been watching sparklers and fireworks set off by others during the wait. About an hour after getting back to the cabin, there was a thundershower. It was certainly more convenient than the storm which moved through Fargo at 9:30 PM, causing people to run for cover as sirens went off and the postponing the fireworks display for a day.

ALSV Day 3 (7/3/11) : Hunting and Gathering

by Dakota Noel

The day was about as perfect as it gets weather-wise: calm wind, calm lake, high in the 70s. We spent the morning reading at the cabin. I started another book related to StrengthFinder ™ called Living Your Strengths. I finished it late afternoon and need to do some more work with its contents.

For lunch we decided to try a a chef-owned restraurant which has been open several years, but at which we hadn’t eaten yet : Nokomis. As we arrived, the Cason J Calloway was passing by empty en route to Two Harbors, having unloaded the limestone it delivered to Duluth the previous night.

The menu had a nice variety of the standard and the more exotic. That is something we have missed at the New Scenic Café for a number of years as their menu went pretty much over to the exotic. We shared a number of items off the Nokomis menu : butternut squash ravioli, beet salad, ahi tuna sandwich with fries, and a pulled pork sandwich with fries. Portions could have been a bit bigger, but the food was good. We’ll probably be back some time again for lunch when the entrees are less expensive.

On the way back to the cabin, we made several stops. The first, and it was a first time we had ever stopped, was at the Great Lakes Candy Kitchen in Knife River. We got a variety of chocolates, a carmelled apple, a carmelled marshmallow, and some other confectionary treats. Our second stop was a meat and cheese store which we had visited shortly after it opened last year. Inventory was still poor and prices high, resulting in no purchases. Our final stop was a silversmith and Scandinavian gift shop. Ilene bought a few things.

After some more reading, supper time arrived and we headed back to Clearwater Grill on Lake Superior for their Sunday night specials. Ilene and I had spaghetti with meatball along with a half price bottle of Oregon Riesling while the girls had walleye egg rolls and sweet potato fries.

Since Ilene and I hadn’t finished our bottle of wine, we re-corked it but then needed to get cheese and crackers to go with it. As long as we were going to Two Harbors, we could stop at Culvers to see if they had any S’mores custard left over from the previous day in a pint container. Finally, the Presque Isle, a family favorite ship, was due to arrive at the harbor between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.

We got to the harbor about 7:30 to see the Presque Isle slip into the ore dock as the Cason J Calloway was pulling out. It is the first time we had seen simultaneous arrival and departure. It turned out that it wasn’t a departure, just a repositioning to a different position on the dock.

At the Super One grocery store, we saw two deer as we turned into the parking lot. It seems we’ll see 4-6 deer driving between places in the evening and tonight we saw a total of 4. We picked up our cheese and crackers before heading to Culvers where we got a party pack of 4 pints of frozen custard. Once back at the cabin, we took the custard down to the shore to enjoy. The ample leftovers were put in the freezer for another day. Ilene and the girls then searched for frogs on the rocks, but they were elusive. Then it was back to the cabin where I’m blogging and the rest are doing nails and/or conversing. There may be a little wine and cheese yet before bed…make that a Mike’s hard cranberry lemonade with Triscuts.

ALSV Day 2 (7/2/11) : Getting into the ALSV Routine

By Dakota Noel

We awoke around 7:30 AM to a warm, sunny day. After breakfast, Ilene and I took our coffee, Alakef North Shore Morning Blend, to the porch with our reading. She is working through a book set in 1950s Barcelona, Spain called Shadow of the Wind. I’m working with Gallop’s StrengthFinder™ to reflect on my personal strengths, how I am using them, and how I might be able to better develop and use them better. (BTW, my strengths are Analytic, Ideation, Learner, Responsibility, and Strategic). 

When taking a break, I sat on a nearby swing with daughter T. I was noting some things I feel when I’m at Lake Superior and she came up with a good summarizing word : “humbling”. Sitting by the very ancient volcanic rocks cradling an ice age lake which stretches for hundreds of miles, one’s minute longevity and influence is brought sharply into focus. What is too frequently forgotten in the presence of the Creator is recalled in the presence of this small piece of creation.

I wasn’t able to get all my loose ends from church wrapped up before leaving, so I headed a mile up the road to the Mocha Moose for a mocha and free wi-fi. I was there about 90 minutes, but didn’t get all the ends tied up. I did download a few things and will try to wrap them up no later than tomorrow so I can have them out-of-mind like my work stuff.

Lunch was a salad with meat and cheese preceded by watching, from the shore near our cabin, a ship arriving at Two Harbors shortly after another ship departed. The afternoon was a leisurely combination of reading, walking, and resting. About 5:30 we got in the minivan and headed to supper on the deck at Little Angie’s Cantina in Canal Park. We had a brief wait at the parking lot and then about a 15 minute wait at Little Angie’s for four table. During the wait and our meal, we enjoyed a busking string quartet about 25 feet from our table.

Supper was done and the bill paid just in time to watch the Cason J Calloway arrive.

From the ship canal we went to Lief Erickson Park to check out the flowers. There were a few peonies in bloom and the last tulips. Based on the lady slippers near our cabin, it seems horticultural summer is running a bit late. From the park we walked to the Portland Malt Shop for ice cream cones and then headed back to our cabin.or 

ALSV Day 1 (7/1/11) : It’s Cooler By the Lake

By Dakota Noel

We were on the road shortly after 9:00 AM, slightly delayed by the need to get cat food for our cat who was staying behind. The trip was uneventful with a lunch stop at the McDonalds in Park Rapids, MN and a gas stop at Floodwood, MN. During the drive, most of us enjoyed the audio book Nory Ryan’s Song about a 12 year old girl in Ireland at the start of the mid-19^th century potato famine. It was interesting to hear her historical fiction perspectives on the realization of the famine, the English nobility who exported food during the famine, etc. Recommended as a family audio book..

We arrived at Bob’s Cabins shortly after 4:00 PM. The previous day in Fargo, it had been 97 F with a 106 F heat index. When we got to the shore, a jacket felt good and fog hung over Lake Superior itself. It turns out that while it was in the upper 50s near the lake in Duluth, it was 91 F on top of the hills near the Duluth airport. It was the first time Duluth had recorded a high in the 90s in five years.

We drove into Two Harbors to stock up on groceries and then headed to a new restaurant, Clearwater Grille on Lake Superior, which is in the old Lakeview Castle building. Of the things we had, the three cheese tortellini was the best. Others had a baked pene and wild rice soup. Portions and prices were in line for the North Shore. Recommended.

As we drove from the cabin to the restaurant, we noticed storm clouds gathering over the lake and rain started falling while we ate. Varying intensities of rain, thunder, and lightening continued into the evening. We watched the light show from our cabin with a dessert of pumpkin bars and then went to bed before 10:00 PM.

North Shore Get-Away (May 30 - June 3, 2011)

by Dakota Noel

Our official Annual Lake Superior Vacation is still a few weeks off. However, we couldn't let our exchange student, Thien, head home without experiencing one of our favorite places. School was out, so we did a quick four night trip. The day-by-day specifics are listed below, but I do want to spend some more focus on the general timing of this trip as it is the earliest we have been to Lake Superior.

Our rule of thumb is that during a week at the North Shore, one will have a few days of poorer weather and th rest will be better weather. On this shorter trip, we hit the poorer weather which could be characterized as cool, cloudy, showery and breezy. Other than Wednesday afternoon and evening, it was very good weather for sitting outside. With our good planning, the rain in particular was a non-issue. The forecast for this weekend was very pleasant, but we are enjoying the good weather at home in Fargo.

Rather than staying at our traditional location, Bob's Cabins, we stayed down the road at Larsmont Cottages which provided better sleeping, TV, and bathroom arrangements for our larger group. It worked out well and we would stay there again for a non-summer visit. In fact, Ilene and the girls had stayed there a few years ago for a November get-away.

It seems like a number of places we visited were just ramping up for the summer season. Staff were new and took a few minutes to get answers to questions we had about history or menus. Since Minnesota schools were in session, there were very few (ie out of state only) families with school age kids. That made for less crowded conditions.

There were some new sight-seeing opportunities with the earlier timing. Trees were not fully leafed out which provided additional views of the lake. Streams were fuller which gave the waterfalls more thunder and even the lake seemed higher by a foot or two. On the down side, a favorite flower, lupin, was just barely starting to bloom and the lady slipper orchids were not even close.

We also altered our route to the North Shore by heading first to the Twin Cities where we spent Monday afternoon. It added about 90 minutes to drive time, but did give us half a day in the Cities for a 90 minute drive. We retraced out steps from a previous trip to the Chipotle grill on the south end of the Nicolet Mall for lunch and then took a short drive to the Minneapolis sculpture garden. Then we hopped on the freeway to St Paul and time at the King Tut exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. One of my biggest takeaways was that if your country is geographically isolated and has lots of slaves, there is little incentive for technical innovation. Artifacts spannned 2500 BC to 1000 BC.

Driving from St Paul to Duluth, we pulled off the freeway at Pine City and drove into town where we found an A&W drive in with true drive in service. We shared this bit of Americana with Thien: ordering by intercom, having the food rest on a tray hooked to the care window, and then flipping a switch to have the tray removed. Pretty fun.

Tuesday had a good chance of showers, so we decided to stay in the Duluth area. After a leisurely start to the day, we toured the 105 year old Glensheen mansion and grounds. Lunch was at Little Angie's Cantina in Canal Park. We stopped at Whole Foods in Duluth to get freshly ground peanut butter and Super One in Two Harbors for general groceries.

Wednesday was our North Shore day. We drove up the shore to the Canadian border and hiked to the High Falls of the Pigeon River. Canada is on the right of the falls and the US to the left.

The we drove a few miles down to the Grand Portage National Monument and toured the visitors center and reconstructed fur trading fort which had a number of costumed docents on duty.

For lunch, we tried a new-to-us restaurant in Grand Marais, the Angry Trout Cafe. We were not disappointed with the fare. We also spent some time shopping (including Drury Lane Books) as well as walking along the harbor shore and an adjacent bay looking for stones. We finished up with custard at Syndey's Custard which we at at the shore. We returned to Larsmont cottages and had a light supper at the on-site Ledgerock Grill and some smores over a fire. We lounged outside on a beautiful evening.

Thursday we headed a brief distance up the shore to take in Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock lighthouse. We did the falls circle hike and then went up to Fifth Falls. Lunch was at the historic Betty's Pies outside of Two Harbors followed by sea glass hunting at Flood Bay state wayside.We returned to Larsmont Cottages to hang out for the evening with a quick run into Two Harbors for salads at Culvers.

Friday it was time to head back to Fargo. After packing up and checking out, we made a number of stops at Duluth grocery stores in search of Alakef-roasted highlander grog decaf coffee beans. We were unsuccessful, so will need to order online from Alakef. Lunch was at the Subway in Floodwood and a snack at McDonald's in Park Rapids. We also stopped in Ackley for a celebrity photo opportunity.

Upon arrival to our home in Fargo, we discovered our house didn't have water due to water main replacement on the cross street half a block to the south. It came back on by 6:00 PM, but it is our custom that my wife not cook upon return from vacation. We ended up getting our first-ever Vietnamese carry-out from Jade Dragon in Fargo. It was a nice meal eaten on the patio on a very nice evening.