Pretty Rocks and Water

About vacations.... it doesn't matter how far away you go, as long as it's somewhere you can relax.

the biggest, cleanest, and (i think) most sparkly great lake

And that's a good thing, because with a family of seven (eight, counting Grandma), it's hard to travel across the country whenever we need to get away.

my brothers and i aboard the "vista star", a tourist boat.  it was a cold ride, but a fast and a fun one.

This week, we took a road trip to Duluth - a city on Lake Superior.  This is the Boston and New York City of Minnesota, in my opinion, and you can't call yourself a true Minnesotan until you've paid it a visit.  This was my second time there.

the famous lift bridge

We only stayed for two nights, but we milked them for all they were worth.  Besides the trip on the Vista Star, we went indoor rock climbing (I enjoy these battles against my inner fear of heights), swimming at a waterpark hotel, and got malts at a malt shoppe on the boardwalk.

The second place at which we stayed serves s'mores every night.  Needless to say, those were much enjoyed.

my own brother wouldn't hold his marshmallow still, so this picture is of another kid's sugary treat.  i seem to adopt little brothers wherever i go.

remember what i said about 'most sparkly'?

The high on Thursday in Duluth was in the fifties, quite a drastic change from our hundreds at home on Tuesday.  The average water temperature of Lake Superior is 39 degrees fahrenheit.  So, no swimming.  But there were boulders heaped up along the coast near our hotel, so we climbed around on those.

Also, in the pebbly sand, we searched for sea glass.  A piece of sea glass is glass that has been worn away and tumbled in the water.  This pieces look a lot bigger than they actually are - don't be deceived.  That green one on the left is a little larger than my thumbnail.  

But we found a lot.  And if we found a piece of regular glass, we tossed it into the water to be sea-glass-ified, as was our duty as sea glass hunters.

Oh yeah - my family got to see this movie - one of my favorites in the entire world. 

Rapunzel: "Well...I do like ducklings!"

Flynn Rider: "Yay!"

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"Hey! Gimme back my guy!" - Rapunzel

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"Rapunzel, please, stop with the mumbling. You know how I feel about the mumbling. Blah blah blah blah, it's very annoying! I'm just teasing, you're adorable. I love you so much, darling." - Mother Gothel

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"Here's your pan, here's your frog." - Flynn Rider

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"BEST! DAY! EVEERRR!" - Rapunzel

After so much climbing and sailing and rock hunting and wave watching and huddling on boulders in fifty-degree weather, it was no surprise that our time of relaxation backfired into exhaustion.  

But I mean the good kind.

- Ellyn