North Shore trip

We try to go to the North Shore about once a year if we can.  It is my absolutely favorite place to be in MN.  I love the hiking trails, trees, ocean waves.  Well, it is lake Superior but it might as well be an ocean because it has the same feel to it.  And the rocky beaches remind me of our trips to Croatia with my family when I was little although it's on the other side of the planet.  Just a cool place to be and I just wish it was a bit closer so we could go there more often. I definitely want our kids to remember our special trips to the North Shore and I would never trade it for any trip like Disney World.  So many people think they have to take their kids to a "cool" place when we have this amazing place right here in MN.

We made a long weekend of it and it was perfect.  Kids had a blast exploring new places and when we were done for the day they still had enough energy to swim and enjoy the swimming pool for a couple hours.  They had a fun curvy slide at the pool but sadly Kason and Ani weren't tall enough and they didn't allow kids going down with their parents.  Kason was not happy about it but he got over it and enjoyed the rest of the pool.  I had to try it for myself and had a blast, who knew? :)  There were a few times I was going down just giggling and I couldn't stop laughing.  Partly, I think I was getting too tired at that point because giggling like that comes when I reach a certain point in over tiredness.  But it was a lot of fun and Kade did the hotel's challenge, he went down 40 some times to make one mile and they put his picture on the wall along with other one milers.  It was a much needed family time for us though and it was just nice to have that time just the 5 of us.  We took around 300 pictures too which is a huge amount for us because we loved every place we were at.  Sometimes the pictures don't give the places justice because it looked so much more amazing in person.

Ehren and I were also really excited when we discovered a couple new trails we've never been on because they came up to the most beautiful views we've seen around the North Shore.  This one trail we came across looked like nothing when we started and we thought this would be a cute little loop for the kids because it had educational information for kids to read along the path.  Little did we know it came out to the lake shore and the most amazing views of it with all kinds of rocks, caves and stuff.  This summer has been very dry so none of the waterfalls had much water but even so it was very beautiful.

The only place both Ehren and I didn't care for at all was the Gooseberry Falls because it was absolutely packed with weekenders, mostly from the Cities and you would not believe how many dogs people bring there.  It was way too crowded for our taste and so we were very happy that every other place we went to was free of people and it felt like we're the only ones there sometimes.  We would come across people, but nothing like the crowd at Gooseberry and I just cannot believe that all those people take their little trip to see that but have no idea about the gorgeous trails they are missing that are just a little bit more to the North of the Gooseberry Falls.  Well, I guess less people for us to worry about when we go there. :)

As I said before we took a ton of pictures so I apologize for throwing them all on here but I can't tell which ones to eliminate anymore.

the crowded place

Going Home