August 7 – We woke up in our cozy little cabin at Burntside
Lodge near Ely, Minnesota, and heard the call of a lonely loon as we snuggled
down in the cold room. We turned on the
gas heater and enjoyed leisurely waking up with coffee in bed. We walked to the main lodge dining room and
had a light breakfast of blueberry scones with lemon curd. It was the start of a gourmet day. We learned that this year marks the 100th
celebration of Burntside Lodge.
We checked out of the lodge and drove through Ely and scenic
highway 1 to the coastline with distant views of Lake Superior – my first views
of this great lake. We stopped in Beaver
Bay where a quilt shop was calling Rita’s name.
Eventually we arrived in Duluth, Minnesota, and the northern end of
Interstate 35. I can say that I have
been on both ends of I-35, Laredo in Texas and now Duluth. We drove down to the area called Canal Park
that is adjacent to the Aerial Lift Bridge, a strange bridge that rises up
horizontally whenever a large boat passes under.
We had lunch at Grandma’s Tavern, a Duluth icon and the
sponsor of Grandma’s Marathon, which means something only to marathon
runners. The lunch was great. I had one of their Grandma’s pale ale with
two dishes that Rita and I shared equally – their special macaroni and cheese
dish and their chicken pot pie. Both
were delicious and lunch was a hit.
Afterwards we drove over the Aerial Lift Bridge and did a U-turn to
drive back over it again. Then we headed
east into the state of Wisconsin, my 49th state.
We headed northeast along the Scenic Byway, or highway 13,
to the pretty little town of Bayfield and the entrance to the Apostle Islands
National Lakeshore. We stopped at the
park visitor center then checked into our stay for the night, the Rittenhouse
Inn. This inn is also in the “1000
Places to Visit Before You Die” book. It
is a beautifully restored Victorian house with dozens of stained glass
windows. We walked into Bayfield and had
a drink at Morty’s Pub before returning to the inn. We had our dinner in Rittenhouse Inn at their
award-winning restaurant. I started with
foie gras while Rita had a salad of
smoked trout with Wisconsin cheddar cheese.
For mains Rita had champagne chicken while I had local fresh trout with
pearl couscous. A nice bottle of
chardonnay washed everything down well.
August 8 – Breakfast at the Rittenhouse Inn was also very
nice and filling. We made it to our
10:00 am departure on the boat, “Superior Princess”, to cruise the islands of
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Once
more the weather was cold and a bit rainy but Lake Superior was generally
calm. The three-hour cruise took us
between most of the 22 islands. At Oak
and Devils Island the captain, who gave a great running commentary, pulled up
very close to the shore to see the strange rock formations created by wind and
sea erosion. We circled Devils Island
then headed back to port at the town of Bayfield. A quick lunch at Wild by Nature café and
another short visit to a quilt shop by Rita and we were on the road again about
2:30 pm.
We took US highway 2 east and soon crossed the border into Ironwood,
Michigan, and our 50th state to visit. We were surprised that we changed time zones
as well back into Eastern Time. We headed
northeast on roads with slow speed limits which made that trip much longer. We passed several copper mines along the
way. We stopped in the town of Calumet
and had good beer and burgers at the Michigan House Café & Brewpub which
also went by the name of Red Jacket Brewery.
Finally we made it to our little motel in Copper Harbor and
crashed. Tomorrow we park the car and
take the boat to Isle Royale National Park.
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