The Wild Adventures of Kate and Jeremy: One last mini-cation

Before Madeline, Jeremy and I would head up to the north shore in the spring time to get the best sites while it was less crowded and enjoy some north shore camping. Although we have had pretty good weather each year, we decided once Madeline came along that the spring camping (with the occasional snow flurry) was out of the question and moved our accomodations indoors.

There is just something about the northshore...once you are north of Duluth, my mind completely forgets all of the day to day craziness, and goes blank for a weekend, it is just the Kirschbaum's with nothing to do other than spend time with each other.

We decided to leave thursday evening to have a full weekend and hopefully do some of the drive while Madeline was sleeping...but will rethink this one next year as we got stuck in traffic, got to dinner late, missed the beautiful drive on the north shore (as it was dark), and were exhausted once we got there...we will remember for next year to at a minimum take a 1/2 day on thursday :).

Madeline was occupied in the back seat by some cheerios and strawberry milk (which is what happens when you let your 18 month daughter pick out her own drink at the gas station). Note the pony tail - good effort daycare :).

The weather was as always a little questionable. We were anticipating 40-50's and rainy...but again the north shore gods were on our side as each day proved the weather predictors wrong :).

Friday we headed up to Grand Portage to the canadian border. There is a little state park up there, and an amazing waterfall. We were pretty excited to go hiking...and decided to take a pretty rugged trail past the waterfall to another falls -- but after a mile or so of jumping tress (with Madeline on Jeremy's back), a pretty unkept trail (which is pretty sad when you only have one hiking trail in the park) and my weird intuition that told us we shouldn't go further...we turned around.

After a picnic in the car, we headed to another state park...Judge CR Magney. We all took a little nap in the car and headed out for some more hiking...it was perfect weather and the trails were amazing, definitely what I think of when I think of north shore hiking. I decided to take the pack to give Jeremy a little break, and get into a couple of the pictures :)...

We to Grand Marais for dinner...the Angry Trout is one of our FAVORITE restaurants of all time. The people are great, the food is fantastic and a cute atmosphere on the lake. Jeremy asked what the secret was to their fish and chips - and the waiter replied "well we did catch it this morning". As we were about to order dessert, the waiter informed us that the couple at the table next to us had bought us dessert...as our baby was very cute - we agree :). and thanked Madeline for a great dessert! We think it was her cute hair do after being in a hat all day!

After a day in the woods, we decided Madeline needed a good bath...and she loved the big jacuzzi tub.

Day 2 was supposed to be the worst of all - cold, rainy and miserable. However, after the rain stopped around 8, the clouds parted for a BEAUTIFUL day! Again, mid 50's but blue skies and perfect for another hike. Although it took us a while to find, it was a beautiful hike along the river...