Wow, it’s been quite a while since we’ve talked! I’ve been crazy busy between canning season and getting my mom’s house downsized, cleaned, and listed for sale.
On a positive note, all those things went well enough that Captain and I took a few days off last week to head to Duluth with some good friends, Kevin and Carol Dose, for the Tall Ships Festival.
Just in case anyone was worried...I did remember to pack the camp chairs this time! The only things I forgot were dish soap and bar soap. Discovered that shampoo works just fine as body soap, and Carol had dish soap packed, so it was all good!
We stopped at Dose’s to hook up their pop-up camper to our truck, and we all loaded in and headed out. Captain was....well, the captain...and did all the driving, thank goodness! There was construction and other road delays, but he handled it like a pro.
When we started talking about lunch, Carol mentioned that Guy Fieri did a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives episode at a little burger joint in Cloquet called Gordy’s Hi-Hat. A unanimous vote sent us in that direction. I am here to testify that Guy had it right...this was an excellent burger joint with good food at reasonable prices and excellent service. The fries that Captain and I shared were so good that I ate a half a dozen too many before I realized I was full. Hate when that happens!!
We had camping reservations at Banning State Park, about an hour south of Duluth, so we swung in there first and dropped off the camper before heading to the Tall Ships Festival.
The weather was not really cooperative and was raining just enough to be annoying but not enough to justify skipping any events.
This festival draws an estimated extra 250,000 people to Duluth, so parking was at a premium. We managed to get into a lot about a mile away from the harbor and walked to the festival. I justified to myself that the walk worked off the half a dozen fries I shouldn’t have eaten. It made me feel better!
We didn’t get into Duluth soon enough to see the Parade of Sails, and they weren’t doing any tours on Thursday, but we did get to at least see all the ships that were in the harbor. The crew of one of the ships was on deck and agreed to have a picture taken by the crazy tourist lady!
There is also an arts and crafts fair in the park near the harbor, so we strolled through there. Lo and behold, there was a stand selling handmade full length aprons with pockets...something I have been searching high and low for over the last five or six years! I bought two, one for me and one for a good friend of mine who also does a lot of canning.
The crowds were...impressive...we’ll say. Captain and I are not used to those kinds of crowds when we are up north because we usually go in the off season. It was an adjustment for us!
After checking out the ships and craft fair, we hiked back to the truck and headed back to the campground. We stopped at Jay Cooke State Park to show Kevin and Carol the swinging bridge there, the slate slab formations, and the water falls. They enjoyed it as much as we did!
Back at camp, we split up and each set up their campsite. We got our tent put up with a small tarp underneath to keep it off the damp ground. The big tarp went over the top due to rain fly that is MIA. The tarp covered the tent just fine...WHEW!
Then it was considering how to get the queen-sized air mattress into the tent. We debated inflating it first using electricity at the restroom/shower facility or putting it in the tent and inflating it using an extension cord and the electrical box at the site next door (currently unoccupied).
After much discussion and measuring, we went with the extension cord and electrical box next door. Worked like a charm!
What we hadn’t taken into consideration when borrowing a queen-sized air mattress was that it would take up the bulk of the floor space in our four-man tent! By the time we got the mattress inflated, there was about six inches of space between the door and the mattress and about a foot of space between the foot of the mattress and the side of the tent.
At that point, I didn’t care about floor space; I was ecstatic that I wasn’t going to be trying to sleep on the cold, hard ground for two nights!!
“Made” the bed by throwing two sleeping bags on top of it, put the pillows out, tossed in the duffel bags of clothes and called it good.
Now it was beer-thirty and bonfire time. We trooped up to Dose’s campsite which was at the end of the next road down from us, so just a short hike. We made pizza pockets using these cast iron thingies that you put in the fire. Awesome!! The campground was very quiet as the sites were all well secluded with trees.
The mosquitos were troublesome but near as bad as las year at Lake Sakatah State Park! The humidity brought them out as it was hot and there was no breeze whatsoever. Still, we had a relaxing evening solving world problems and telling really bad jokes.
We finally called it a night as we wanted to get up, showered, fed, and on the road to Duluth by 7:00 the next morning. We crawled into tent and collapsed on the air mattress and were sound asleep in minutes.
The sound sleep lasted until about 4 a.m. when the rain started. And the thunder. And the lightning. Holy downpours, batman...it was a regular deluge! But...the tarp kept us warm and dry during the two-hour onslaught of weather.
It was still raining heavily when we got up, so we opted for breakfast at the cafe down the road from the state park instead of cooking it ourselves. Cooking in the rain is no fun at all!
We rolled into Duluth in good time and found a parking spot in the same lot as the day before. We weren’t the early birds by any means, as the entrance line was about a quarter-mile long! It moved along fairly quickly though, and we were soon on the festival grounds near where the Big Rubber Duck was anchored.
Let me just say: a 60-foot rubber duck is impressive! We could have bought a souvenir rubber duck for $10, but we aren’t that foolish.
This was new territory for Captain and I as, in all the times we have been to Duluth, we have never wandered through Bayfront Park before. You get an excellent view of the harbor on the back side of the lift bridge from Bayfront Park, so I got some photos that are a completely new viewpoint than any I’ve taken before.
We came to the line for the first ship, but it was sort of hard to tell where the fast pass line was and where the general admission line was. We finally found the end of the fast pass line and began the hour-long procession to the ship. As the general admission line got longer and longer and longer, we were pretty smug about having purchased tickets in advance.
When we got to the head of the line, the ticket taker guy looked at our pre-purchased tickets and told us they weren’t fast pass tickets for the boat tours...only for entrance to the grounds.
Folks, I’m here to tell you that some days I am not entirely part of the Smart Kids group, but when a ticket that I have in my hand has the words “Fast Pass” printed on the front of it, I don’t think I was wrong in assuming it was for the boat tours!
The ticket guy admitted that the tickets were too vague the way they were printed, but he couldn’t let us board from the fast pass line and asked us to step out of that line and go to the end of the general admission line...which was now about three blocks long.
We stepped out of line and talked about what to do. None of us wanted to stand in line for two, three, or even four hours to tour these boats, so we opted to just get our photo ops from the sidelines. It was disappointing, to say the least.
Once we saw all the boats, we had a big chunk of the day left for other activities, so we decided to head to Gooseberry Falls State Park with a stop at Betty’s Pies on the way to have lunch.
Apparently every other person on the North Shore had the same thought! The parking lot was jam-crammed with vehicles and people already waiting to be seated. But, dining options are limited on the North Shore, so we put our name on the list and waited our turn.
And hour later, we got seated in the back porch area, which was actually nicer than the front of the diner because it was much quieter. We put our orders in and then drooled over the pie list on a chalkboard behind our table. After finishing our meals, we all ordered a slice of pie to round out the experience. I was a little bummed out that there was no pecan pie available, but the French Silk pie was quite tasty!
On the drive from Betty’s Pies to Gooseberry, we pointed out to Kevin and Carol where the cabin was that we lucked into renting last fall. It would be nice to stay there again some time, but they have a three-night requirement when pre-booking, so I’m guessing that isn’t going to happen.
Gooseberry Falls State Park was PACKED with people! A lot of them had their dogs with them. I have no problem with people vacationing with their pets, but there was one couple that had their big white dog, about the size of a Newfoundland, and he was overly aggressive with every other dog there. If he hadn’t been on a three-point least, he would have gobbled up at least two little dogs just in the half hour that we were there.
They must have had some good rainfall along the North Shore because there were three separate waterfalls coming over the top of the middle falls.
Despite the “swimming is not recommended” signs posted every five feet...people were swimming and wading in the falls, both at the top and at the bottom. Risky!
By this time we were all pretty tired from all the walking of the day, and it was a 2-½ hour drive back to camp, so we headed out for Banning State Park.
Beer-thirty came earlier Friday night and supper was bratwurst patties and chips instead of pizza pockets. Around the bonfire after supper, it was more bad jokes and solving world problems. The heat and humidity was better, though, so the mosquitoes weren’t as bad.
The second night on the air mattress was just as comfortable as the first night, and this time there was no rain to deal with!
Saturday morning we planned to explore the hiking trails after showers and breakfast, but it started to drizzle just enough to make that not happen. We did drive down to one of the waterfalls, but the mosquitoes apparently all migrated down there from the campground as we all got half a dozen bites in thirty seconds! Scratch that idea (no pun intended).
We headed back to camp and packed up the camper and truck. It’s funny how the stuff that fit into the truck on the way to the campground suddenly didn’t want to fit into the same space for the trip home. Some creative packing fixed the problem, and we were off for home.
Traffic was better on the drive home, but it rained the WHOLE way until we were just south of Saint Paul. We stopped at House of Coates for burgers and were pleasantly surprised at the remodeling they’ve done over the summer! The food was just as excellent as ever, though.
Once we dropped Dose’s back off at their house and unhooked their camper, we were more than ready to be home ourselves.
Why is that, as much fun as it is to go away somewhere, it is always so nice to come back home?!
I’m glad we took advantage of the slower farming days of August to make some memories with good friends! It was so much fun, in fact, that we have started planning a trip for next summer already!
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