Duluth/Superior Vacation

You may remember the infamous family vacation to Duluth in August 2010. 

Even if most of that first trip was miserable for me, the kids have asked many, many times when we could return. The truth is I wanted to return because I really do love Duluth and I knew we could do it better. We decided to return over our last week of summer vacation.

We highly suggest coming in to Duluth from the south on the Interstate. Coming over the hill and seeing the harbor below is awesome and makes the long road trip all worth it. (Although driving through north central Minnesota is never a bad road trip!)

We stayed south of Superior, WI, which is just across the bridge from Duluth. Who doesn't love a bridge . . . and you have a choice of two (three if you count the lift bridge)!

On our first night, we visited Amnicon Falls State Park outside of Superior. It's a small state park full of waterfalls, paths and hiking trails.

Rachel had to take her multiplication table, which was her MAP. She consulted it several times on our hike. We may not have known where we were, but we knew 2x2=4! (Yes she is a smart little girl, but, no, she does not do multiplication yet.) :)

It was much more fun to get off the trails and get close to the waterfalls. We saw several people swimming in them, but we stayed dry!

We kept our waterfall theme the next day with a road trip up the north shore to Gooseberry Falls State Park. This was our first trip to this park, too. I knew it was going to be worth the drive when several friends mentioned it as a favorite place. We ended up spending most of the day there and finding three waterfalls.

Another favorite of this state park was the wild raspberries and thimble berries we were allowed to forage. I'm pretty sure our family cleared out all possible berries along the trail! Interestingly, we did not eat any gooseberries!

To close off the day, I took a quick tour of the Split Rock Lighthouse, which I've always wanted to see.

The next day, we crossed our favorite lift bridge to make a return trip to Park Point Beach. This was a favorite part of our previous trip (even for me!) and was again this time.  We even went back for a second day to watch the Tall Ships come in, which only happens every two years. Lucky for us, we were there!

We took a scenic drive back home, driving south through Wisconsin to visit Uncle Lynn & Aunt Tami in Menomonie, which is always a great--and delicious--time, and then discovered our new favorite drive--Highway 60 across the river from Wabasha, MN. (My kids had no idea what Grumpy Old Men the sign was referring to.) :)

I've always loved Duluth, and now we ALL have great memories of our time there.

There are still many, many things we haven't visited there, so we will have to go back again!