Ahh, I Needed That!

DH and I got back early evening from our get away up to the Northern Minnesota shore of Lake Superior. I may break down the weekend into a few of the natural and man made wonders, brew pubs not being one of them, but below is a snippet of our weekend. We took our time driving the 281 miles, stretching the just under 5 hour trip to nearly seven with lunch break at the famous Betty's Pie's outside Two Harbors and a scenic ways top outside the Silver Creek Tunnel. DH hates his picture being taken, but another couple who offered to take our picture good naturedly cajoled him into being nice and posing with his wife. 

Betty's used to be a little shack of a place, right on highway 61. They've since moved the space a bit to create a large eat in restaurant and parking. The line for a table was out the door. We both opted for the cup of soup, half sandwich, and slice of pie lunch special-which was more than enough since I had selected a five layer chocolate pie. Diet? Healthy eating? You can bet  I tried not to take any short cuts with our walks! No pictures of the pie, but here are a few of our walk view. We had another two hours to Grand Marais so just enjoyed the sun and the peak autumn colors. 

Grand Marais was busting with fall visitors. Our hotel was an outdated but clean place right down from the coast guard station and walking path out to the light house. I had forgotten what the lighthouse looked like and was quite under whelmed, but it wasn't designed for tourists, now was it! This was not our only light house of the trip and I'll post about THE lighthouse tomorrow. After checking in, we took a walk through the small town, looking in the little shops and had a beverage break on this rooftop bar. It was chilly and sunny-perfect for taking in the sail boats that still were in the water, beach combers, and a view of the lake. DH had a bloody Mary  garnished with a huge shrimp, pickle, olive, and standard celery, but it was so spicy he needed a second beer chaser to get it down. I just had a locally brewed beer-no idea what it might have been but it was tasty. Shops and galleries stayed open into early evening and after a bit more looking and a visit to a local artist gallery and studio, we finished an early night listening to live music in a brewery company with a flight of 6 beers and spicy wings, sharing an order as we still were a little full on pie. 

On a funny note, we ended up at that same  brewery Saturday for a beer and soft pretzels. I heard my name being called. Across the room were a couple ladies from my old volleyball team and their husbands making a weekend of waterfalls and brew pubs up Lake Superior. They were quite loud, but jovial, and got the entire room into the fun. I became famous. As tables left, each group called out my name again, with big waves good bye. On Sunday morning, we walked past two couples and I heard one say, "oh, that was ..."

Basically, our weekend consisted of food, a few beers, art and artisan galleries, natural and man made geographical wonders, and long walks. Because so many things close down by the end of October once peak leaves watching is done and owners have limited months to earn a living, prices seemed higher than other small towns, but certainly fair. Our lifestyle is naturally a bit thriftier than many as we stop and have a beer, not beers, as for example when we tried the flight, we were so full up on beer, we didn't have additional glasses of the ones we liked. Our cameras provided our souvenirs, with the exception of 1/4 pound slab of peanut butter chocolate chip fudge to bring home for DD2. 

DH enjoyed the weekend so much, he insisted we need to plan at least one a quarter. Considering we have trips for show choir already scheduled for January and April, it might be June before our next "romantic" trip happens. Oh well, I guess that is what it means to be married 30 years. Priorities need to come first.