One day, last spring, I decided to randomly buy one of the groupon trip specials. I purchased three nights at Bearskin Cabin in Grand Marais, MN. I didn't really know anything about Minnesota, what the weather would be like, or even where it really was besides North of me. I called and made my reservation for early September, left my dogs behind and headed North. My first stop was in Clear Lake, Iowa. This was a surprise. I didn't think there was really anything special in Iowa, besides rumors of a unique jailhouse. This town was beautiful though. Clean, old-fashioned and home to a large lake.
I continued onward and stayed the night in St. Paul, MN. It looked like a really fun city, but I was too tired to explore and ready to get an early start the next day. So I crashed and left early the next morning, which turned out to be a good idea because I had time to stop at:
Best caramel I have ever had. If you're ever in a nearby state, I highly recommend making a stop here. They claim the difference is that they make their candy in copper kettles. The restaurant across the street...not worth the trip so much. As I traveled along I29, it really became a nice a drive. Lake Michigan was on the East and the houses were fancy and old-fashioned. There were some mansions and lots of lighthouses to stop and visit. I chose to stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park:
I was a little disappointed with the scenery, but I was informed that if there is more rain it's a better sight. Still a nice stop and free too.
I finally made it all the way to Grand Marais, which is a small, quaint town. It was considerably colder than Kansas City too. The cabin was great. Each place to stay had its own dock, kitchen and enough beds for about 7-10 people. I spent some time out on the water which is really close to the boundary water area. This is an area between Canada and the U.S. which is protected. They don't allow boats with motors and people are expected to leave no trace behind if they camp in the boundary water area. There are also lots of moose signs all over and moose paraphenalia, hence the sudden desire to search for moose.
View from the boat
View from my dock
I checked out the town, which was your typical quaint small town. There were several good restaurants, but this was my favorite:
So, not really a restaurant...but still worth a stop. Plus they keep track of which states people have visited them from.
Another nice part of visiting downtown, is that you can take a short walk/hike out to a lighthouse.
And along the way, check out artist's point.
Where people build small statues with loose rocks.
Finally, each day I walked along a moose trail, and stopped at a moose viewing point in hopes of seeing the elusive gentle giant. This is all that I saw.
All in all, despite the disappointment of not seeing a moose, it was a pleasant and relaxing trip. I'd love to take a longer trip up there to check out the rest of the North Shore and maybe a short foray into Canada. Oh, and as for the title of this post, it's true, lots of people up there do sound like that. And in case you were wondering, no, they don't like it when you try and imitate them :)
