For Spring Break I had originally planned to go to Bolivia to help Mano a Mano, but that plan fell apart. When that happened I thought the best thing to do was to find a place to curl up by a fireplace and read books for a few days. I picked out the Cascade Lodge, 99 miles north of Duluth. This lodge got mixed reviews. It was OK, but not luxurious. It did have the necessary fireplace! And the fire building skills I learned in Poland came into good use. The best part of this lodge is that it is right by Lake Superior. I had huge picture windows through which to watch the lake. The colors, the wind, the lake changed almost every moment.
It took most of the daylight hours on Monday to drive up there. A bit north of Duluth I stopped at Betty's Pies and had a wonderful piece of peach/blackberry crumble pie. What a treat to have peaches actually taste like peaches. It was good!
After checking into the Lodge, I drove up to Grand Marais, about 10 miles. I ended up having a burger in Grand Marais for an early supper. I stopped at a grocery store and picked up chocolate,yogurt, and oranges for snacks.
On Tuesday morning I saw the sunrise over the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that it created an optical illusion making the lake look like it was a mighty river running south. About mid morning it began to snow, and that seemed like the time to build another good fire and hole up with the books. In the late afternoon the weather turned sunny so I drove about 9 miles back to explore the Lutsen Ski Resort. I marveled at how diverse Minnesota is. One minute I'm by a huge lake, and then in ten mintues I driving down a road with skiers wizzing over my head on a ski bridge. I had a nice early supper there.
Wednesday morning I found a light snow fall over everything. The lake at this moment looked as if it was totally frozen. There must have been some skim ice on the top that held the little bit of snow that fell over night. The weather was sunny, however, so I took off to see what I could find up the road. I stoppped for coffee and a cinnamon roll in Grand Marais. Then I headed all the way up the road to Grand Portage. Grand Portage is very, very quiet in the winter. Nothing in operation except the school and the casino. I was astonished to find that 90% of the cars at the casino were from Canada. I just couldn't imagine crossing an international border to come to a noisy, smoky slot machine casino.
I wandered back to Grand Marais and stoppped at the Pie Place. This is actually a gourmet restaurant. I choose the brunch lunch and had a very good plate of banana pancakes with caramel, banana syrup. I only wish I had found this restaurant earlier in my stay. I would have eaten more meals there. I stopped at a grocery store and picked up some more snack things, including a microwave potato/broccoli dinner, for I didn't want to go out for supper.
I stopped at Cascade State Park and walked around for a bit. I didn't have boots so had to be careful. I walked a bit on a deer trail. I'm certain I left smells that gave the deers something to think about when they wandered there again. Near the lodge I stopped to see where the Cascade River was entering Lake Superior. Even though the temperature was not much above zero, the river mouth was open and water was running over a low cascade into the lake. This time of the year the sound of spring rushing water is great. At the lodge I wandered around a bit and then went across the road to get down towards the lake shore.
On the drive home, Thursday, I also stopped at Gooseberry State Park. Even though the waterfalls looks totally frozen, I could hear water rushing underneath all that snow.
It was a good break from the usual routine.
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