Gunflint Trail - Grand Marais, MN

We had heard about the Gunflint Trail so decided to check it out.  It was so much more then what I expected.  I just figured it would be a dusty little hiking trail.  It was beautiful...wildflowers all over and such a wonderful view of Lake Superior.  Truely awesome.

Middle Falls, Canada Sun 6/26/11

We had a wonderful day yesterday.  We went to Middle Falls.....about 8 miles up the road from us....just a couple of miles north of the Canadian border.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Not as big as High Falls...I guess that's why it's called Middle Falls (hehe)

Summer Soltace Festival - 6/18/11

Grand Marais had their Summer Soltace Festival 6-17 to 6/19/11.  It was a little chilly and windy....but it was a wonderful festival.   There was a Wooden Boat Show plus demonstrations from the North House Folk School.  Dale watched a guy carve a Noggin out of a birch log in 30 minutes.  He was quite empressed. Everything has been going well at Grand Portage. No wildlife sightings to date.

Mt Rose - Sun, 6/12/11

We decided to take the walk up Mt Rose.  1/2 mile at a 300ft incline.  I thought I was going to die but actually felt the joy of reaching the top.  It was well worth the photos.  What a beautiful view....and what a feeling of accomplishment.  This morning when I woke up I hurt all over. Ankles, wrists, ribs....vertually, I hurt all over.  However a couple of Excedrin and I was good to go.  Dale didn't seem to suffer to much...but you can see that grin on his face when we reached the top.

I think I'm in 1797

I've been working in the kitchen the past 2 days.  For a person that doesn't normally cook....I've been cooking up a storm.  Don't get me wrong...I'm still "on the job training"  but yesterday we made shortbread in a dutch oven and we cook Galette's (flat bread) in a skillet in the open hearth.  Today we made chocolate cake w/maple frosting. Oh yummy!!!!   I made the cake in the dutch oven in the fireplace.  It cooked too fast and got burnt...but we cut the burned part off and frosted er up and it was to die for.  Then we fired up the baking oven outside.  That was  a 4 hour process....but by 2:30 we had 4 very nice loaves of whole wheat bread.  Very pretty.  Cooking in the 1790's is not a light weight job.  You start the fire in the hearth right off the bat, then you have to haul water several times a day and haul in more wood.  After using the cast iron cookware you have to rub it down with beeswax. No microwaves or dishwashers...those cooks had to work really hard.  I felt quite proud of my baked goods.  Dale gets his turn in the kitchen tomorrow.  We'll just have to see how he holds up:)

Black Flies and the Bear

Well we've had our first experience with black flies. They are not what we expected.  I was expecting big black regular house flies.  These things are more like knats.  However they fly up your nose, in your ears, in your mouth. The buzz around your head in swarms.  They bite.  They flew up under the bill of Dale's cap and bit him on the forehead a couple of times.  All the guys have bites on their foreheads.  So now we swab ourselves down before we walk out the door. We've also got spray in our truck in case we encounter them while we're away from home.  We bought stuff to spray on our clothes that will last several days. We're going to spray out costumes.  The Bear - we haven't  seen any yet but they are around.  Several trash cans, by the visitor center, were turned over and rifled through.  A couple of our "classmates" saw a moose a few days ago while working in the community garden.  Another couple of kids saw a timber wolf...while they were driving to a trail to hike.  So we've got wildlife here.  Our "neighbor" thinks a bear turned over his BBQ grill the other night. Other then alot of Mallard's we haven't had any wildlife sightings ourselves:)   Last night (Fri 6/3) we had a lightening storm....I say lightening because there was vertually no thunder.  It was gorgeous...almost like I'd picture the Borealis to be.  Flashing lights all over the sky.  One of the "kids" from seasonal housing came over knocking on our door about 9:30p to let us know what was going on, in case we hadn't noticed.  I'm so glad he did. I would have hated to miss it.  They have been so nice to us "old folks".  Dale finally decided we better come back inside before we got hit by lighting.