Summer Vacation - Day Three

I woke up this morning about 6:30 am. Since the rest of the family was fast asleep and I knew from experience that wasn't going to change any time soon, I decided to grab a book and head out to the shore. Sitting in an Adirondack chair with a view of the rising son, I settled in to read. The sound of the waves on the shore, and a gentle breeze blowing through the trees, the setting was perfect for relaxed reading.

After breakfast we headed out to visit two State Parks in the area. Heading northeast out of Two Harbors our first stop was Gooseberry Falls State Park. There are several miles of hiking trails as well as a shorter paved walking trail that leads to the lower and middle falls. Chris has been having a really good back days lately so we hiked over to the falls.The views of Middle Falls are spectacular. With the weather being in the low 90's there were quite a few people climbing on to the fall and cooling off in the cascading water. We didn't have our bathing suits with us so we just got our feet wet.

Continuing up scenic Minnesota Highway 61 our final stop of the day was Split Rock Lighthouse. Commissioned in 1905 after a terrible November storm sank 38 ships in Lake Superior it is a string of lighthouses build to keep ore ships from floundering onto the rocky shores during heavy weather. The lighthouse sits atop a 100 foot rock cliff projecting it's light over 20 miles out. We got a great tour of the lighthouse, the lighthouse keepers homes (there were 3 houses, one for each keeper and there family) and the building that ran the huge air compressor that powered the fog horn. The view from the top of the lighthouse was breathtaking.

Summer Vacation - Day Two

Woke up this morning and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Once we got packed up and the car loaded we ventured out to the S.S. William A. Irvin Ore Boat Museum for the guided tour. The Irvin was the flag ship Ore carrier for US Steel for 40 years after it was launched in Duluth in 1944. It was a working Ore carrier as well as a floating public relations vehicle to wine and dine potential investors while showing them how there money would be working for them. At over 500 feet in length, it is impressive in its size. Until you consider that modern Ore ships plying the Great Lakes are well over 1,000 feet long! The picture to the right is a ship I watched make it's way from Duluth Harbor, under the Aerial Lift Bridge and through the channel to begin it's long journey to Indiana

After a our tour of the Irvin, we made our way to Two Harbors where we checked into the Larsmont Cottages. Our cottage was a one bedroom with room to easily sleep the five of us. With a full kitchen, dinning room and living room with full home theater we were all set to spend the next 5 days exploring the North Shore with the Larsmont as our base camp. The living room was all picture windows looking out over the Lake Superior shoreline, only 50 feet from our back door. Nik was awed by the rugged beauty of the shoreline, standing on the ledge rock and taking it all in. Near the lakes rocky shore was a seating area with Adirondack style furniture. A beautiful view and a relaxing place to sit and enjoy it, who could ask for more!

Summer Vacation - Day One

We started our long awaited family vacation today. As anyone close to or family knows, we all love to travel and explore new places. We have done many big road trips over the past 5 years. This year, since we are still new to the state of Minnesota we decided to spend this years trip exploring one the states most scenic areas, the North Shore. The North Shore, or is the marketing folks around here call it "America's North Coast" is an area that extends from the port city of Duluth MN northeast to the Canadian border. The area is a mix of scenic beauty and Great Lakes shipping with several towns along the shore serving as harbors for the monster ore carrying ships that carry cargo from the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota to the steel mills in Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Our first days destination was Duluth. We spent the day exploring an area downtown called Canal Park. They have done a nice job of renovating this small peninsula of land that touches Lake Superior, the shipping canal and Duluth harbor. Points of interest include the Aerial lift bridge, the Lake Superior Marine Museum and the Floating Museum ship the S.S. William A. Irvin Ore Boat Museum.

Canal Park also has miles of walking paths along the water, lots of good hotels, restaurants, and shops to explore. We spent all afternoon here checking out the sites at the lift bridge and the marine museum, teaching the kids how to skip stones on the water, enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner (in Duluth, who knew!?) and watching the sun set as large ore ships make there way under the bridge to Lake Superior.

Familyfest weekend

Under the heading of better late than never. I finally have some time to jot a few lines about our adventure last weekend. One of the things I enjoy about living in Minnesota is that we can attend family events in Wisconsin on a far more regular basis. This past weekend for example was the family get together that my sister Jenny and her husband Jack host every year at their house on Lake Winnabago known to the family as Familyfest. Jack and Jenny do a nice job of setting up the event so there is really something for everyone. There were two boats available to give tubing rides to the kids. Ginny Lemke and Dave Wunrow brought their Kayaks, Swimming was available both in the lake as well as in the above ground pool, Frisbee, Horseshoes, sandbox, swing set, well you get the idea. Combine that with good food, a great view of the lake and the setting was right for all to have a nice Saturday afternoon.

Alex and Catie both spent most of the day tubing. One boat driven by Uncle Jack had the smaller or less adventurous kids and the other driven by Uncle Dan had older kids. The later manages his rides so they they always ended, not when a kid says stop, but rather when they were physically thrown from the tube by an especially large wave! This was always spectacular. By the next morning Alex was moving pretty slow from all the fun the day before.

Also during this trip we had a chance to join Chris' Mom for dinner. We brought fried chicken and she provided authentic home made Spanish rice and beans along with fresh tortilla's and salsa. All the kids love Grandma's cooking and Alex kept bugging her for the recipe. Like most of her dishes there is nothing written down, it's all in her head so it was hard for him to come away with the exact ingredients, but it was cute watching him try to figure it out. Later that same evening we joined my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Marge Freitag for a visit and a glass of wine. Jerry is developing a nice wine collection and we enjoyed sharing a glass he had brought up from Tasmania, off the coast of Australia.

Friday we took the kids to Summerfest, the worlds largest music festival held on the lake shore in Milwaukee. It had been 18 years since Chris and I had been to Summerfest and it was cool to be able to share the experience with the kids. Alex being a big music fan really enjoyed the Alternative Rock stage and the emerging artist series. He thought it was cool he might be hearing one of the next big bands. Much like when I had the chance in 1977 to see the Ramones before they made if big in the US. Dave, Tracy, Cory and Jamie met us at the festival grounds and we spent the afternoon together, eating from the huge variety of restaurants and enjoys the sights and sounds of Summerfest.

We were also fortunate the be able to spend the night with several of my siblings and their families. Thursday night we stayed with my sister Debbie and Dan, Friday night we were with my sister Julie and Dean and Saturday night following a full day of Familyfest we stayed at Jenny and Jacks. We are grateful to them for opening their homes to us. We very much enjoyed our time together.

When we lived in CA we were always having to choose between using vacation time and money to visit family or to spend it on travel to parts of the country we had yet to explore. Now that we are closer to family we can do both. What a blessing!

Hurray for the 4th!

My grandfather Alfred Wunrow used to always greet us on Independence day by proclaiming "Hurray for the 4th!" My Dad and I carry on this tradition in the early morning hours each 4th of July. This year, in our quest to see who can get the greeting out first, I was victorious. Every time we say this, we think fondly of Grandpa. What a character.

We celebrated the holiday this year with friends from the neighborhood as well as Chris' Godson Noel. We had a nice BBQ dinner of ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans, corn bread, cole slaw, and salad. The weather was a bit rainy a few hours before we ate, but after dinner it was beautiful. A perfect night for watching fire works. We enjoyed the pyro display at the Excelsior Commons. The even featured the Minneapolis Orchestra live on stage. There were boats anchored everywhere and people spread out on blankets as far as the eye could see. We had a really nice time, sharing the experience with friends. I've uploaded a few photo's from the evening on the family web site. Hurray for the 4th!

The Fifth Beatle

We had a fun day today. Uncle Gary invited us to his house for a family get together. All of his sons (my cousins) were getting together for Sunday afternoon. Jon was in town from Sitka Alaska with his girlfriend Leslie, Dan was in town from his missionary work in China with his wife Kathy and their 3 kids, Aaron was in town from northern Minnesota with his wife Mary and their two kids and Steve and his wife Martha and their 3 kids made the big trip from St. Paul. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, not too hot and no mosquito's.

Jon and I had to rack our brains to figure out how long it had been since we had seen each other. I think we finally settled on Grandpa Wunrow's funeral, which was almost 17 years ago! I'm pretty sure that it had been that long since Aaron and I saw each other as well. It was really nice reconnecting with all the brothers, but Aaron and Jon in particular since is had been so long since we has seen each other.

The highlight of the day was my anointing of 5th brother status. It felt like Pete Best, the 5th Beatle (anyone younger that 40 may want to google that name!) only instead of being the forgotten Beatle, I was the remembered brother! I felt right at home with all my bro's and my "Mom and Dad" made me feel very welcome. They even asked me to pitch in for Aunt Rosanna's birthday present. Hmmm, wait a minute...maybe this was all a sham to get me to pony up some cash?! Well, either way I'm still glad to be a part of the family.

I had quite a few requests from my brothers to have access to the photo's we took today. So, I've created a photo album on my web site so you can view them. Also for anyone that want's the hi-res images to get prints made, I copied them into the share folder on the web site. You can grab all of them or only the ones you want.