Turkey Day Get Away

So as a honeymoon, I took Jana to a little place called the Honeymoon Cabin.  How very clever of me, huh? This was a small two room cabin right on the shores of Superior in the little town of Tofte.  This place had it all, stove, heat, water, you know... the works! 

This trip began the day before Thanksgiving, and of course, most of the state has a winter weather advisory going on (snow is my archenemy now).  We left early enough in the day to avoid most of the snow, and we stayed at a hotel right in Canal Park in Duluth.  By the time we wanted to eat dinner, the snow was coming down like....well...like a heck of a lot of snow would come down. This had us both worried because we had a ways to drive in the morning, but it turned out the snow plow drivers up there are amazingly good at their jobs, so we had no issues!

Dinner reservations were at 2pm on Thursday at the BlueFin Bay Grille, and it was AMAZING. It was a surprisingly easy drive, but we were ready to eat by the time we got there.  Cranberry stuffing, turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole... you named it, they had it.  Jana's favorite part was the peach dessert she had with bread pudding, she found it to be quite heavenly.  We headed back to the cabin stuffed and ready to sleep, even though it was only about 3:30! We ended our evening with a few flicks we had picked up the day before.

Day 3 was spent in Grand Marais, shopping and checking out some sights in the winter (I have never been up there in the wintertime).  We picked up Scattergories Categories, fudge (of course!), and a few other things we may have forgotten about or ran out of.  The rest of the day had us playing Scattergories, Sequence, and just enjoying each others company.

Saturday was the day we decided to try and hike, despite our better judgment.  We were right near the Temperance River and had both hiked it multiple times, so we gave it a shot. About half way up, I slipped on one of the many ice patches and luckily just landed on my butt (instead of on my butt 30 feet down).  Jana wanted to turn back, but I knew it would be worth it, so we pressed on!  We got some amazing pictures and we were actually surprised that at the top of the falls the water hadn't frozen over completely yet. The way back down was even more treacherous, but we made it.  There was a guy with a baby on his back (in a carrier thingy) that was crawling across some of the ice on the stairs, all while his worried wife says "Are you sure it's ok to do this?" So we were NOT the crazy ones. We headed to Lutsen to do a gondola ride after, but it was such a beautiful day that everyone was there skiing and we decided against it. Something about standing in line in the cold just didn't sound that appealing to me.  Instead, we drove north of Grand Marais and explored a few places we had never been before and just enjoyed the clear skies and wonderful views.

Sadly, our trip had to come to an end, so we trekked back to St. Paul on Sunday, just in time to have Ryan drop off Otis, who acted like he hadn't seen us in a month.  It was a wonderful trip with a wonderful lady and it should tie us over until we can make it somewhere more tropical in the near future!