Greetings from Minnesota

Hey everyone! Greetings from Minnesota! John and I flew up here at the crack of dawn on Saturday and we're in the middle of a wonderful vacation. No, I truly mean that. Ok, it didn't start out all that great. Mostly because for some reason that we haven't yet figured out, neither one of us got much sleep the night before. And our flight left at 7am, which meant we had to be at the airport by 5:30 or 6. I think it's safe to say we both averaged around 2-3 hours of sleep.

We landed in Minneapolis around 11am CST and immediately headed to the Twins game. It felt like I had not spent the last 3 1/2 years attending a Twins game in a different State. It felt soooo good to be at the Dome surrounded by all the Twins fans. Granted, when I see them playing the Devil Rays, I'm still pretty much surrounded by Twins fans, but now all the music cheers and the wave (has that ever been done at a Devil Rays game?) is for the Twins as the home team. It was also my last chance to see the Twinks play at the Dome. I know, they probably won't be in their new stadium for a few years. But I don't see me making another game at the Dome anytime soon.

Right after the game John and I then headed north to Grand Marais. The drive went fairly quickly. We spend about an hour in Duluth playing around on Canal Park before continuing the drive. Traffic was pretty light which allowed us to make good time. I was disappointed that the leaves weren't as colorful as I thought they'd be. But the drive back to the Twin Cities definitely made up for it.

Sunday we drove up to Canada. John's never been to Minnesota or Canada and he wanted to go. The clerk at our hotel in Grand Marais suggested driving to a waterfall (for the life of me I can't remember the name, but it started with a K). So we planned on doing so. However, at the end of 130 in Canada (highway?), we had a T intersection and no further directions. We ended up in Thunder Bay, had lunch and then headed back to the border. A stretch stop at the Ontario visitor's center showed us that there were a set of falls right there. The visitor center is on Pigeon River. We had a nice short (about an hour round trip with rest break for pictures) hike to High Falls. We spent Sunday night in Two Harbors.

This morning after breakfast we headed up to Gooseberry Falls. After we did the tour of Glensheen Mansion in Duluth before heading back to the Twin Cities. The fall colors were amazing on the drive back. It partially makes me wonder why I ever decided to move to Florida. The trip North was relatively unchanged. It felt like I had never left. At times it also felt like I was back in high school. And although I've greatly enjoyed the trip north, I know in a very short time it's going to be beyond freezing and I will be nice and warm in sunny Florida.

I've uploaded pictures to my Photobucket account. I tried to get them semi in order. It didn't quite work out the way I planned. The titles all have a D#. The D stands for Day with D1 being Saturday Sept 22. Etc. The number after the decimal indicates the general order of the photos. For example, D2.o are the initial pictures of Sunday morning in Grand Marais. D2.1 would be the photos on the way to Canada, etc.

More pictures to follow as the week progresses. It's going to be a full, enjoyable week. I'll be visiting with old friends and the week will end with my ten year high school reunion. Wow! Where has the time gone!