This past Wednesday, I had a very special privilege.  I attended the swearing in of two hundred twenty-four new American citizens.  They came from 54 countries.

It wasn’t much like I thought it would be.  I have always pictured a swearing in taking place in a beautiful formal room in the State Capitol, and some of them do happen like that.  This one didn’t.  It was in the auditorium of an old school building that was currently in use as an African American community center.  The building looked its age and then some.  It wasn’t a very fancy welcome for new citizens.  Nobody seemed to care much about that, though.

Dan and I arrived about forty-five minutes early and the room was already crowded.  The first several rows were reserved for the new citizens with the back half to two thirds of the room already almost full of their friends and family.  The observers represented just about all races and ethnic groups.  Some were very dressed up and some were in worn jeans.  Many carried bouquets of flowers.  Anyone who arrived after us had to depend on the volunteers patrolling the isles to help them find seats because the area was very full.

About half an hour before the scheduled start of the ceremony, a representative of the League of Women Voters approached the podium and told the candidates for citizenship that she was there to help them register to vote.  She explained the privilege of voting and told them that they should learn about the various candidates for office and come to an informed decision before voting.  Then registration forms were distributed to the candidates, a copy of the form was projected onto a large screen on the stage, and the speaker talked everyone through the process of filling out the form.  She instructed them to check the box declaring themselves as citizens of the United States because the forms would not be collected until after the swearing in.  That was when I started crying.  I really couldn’t tell you why, but the that instruction to mark the box indicating U.S. citizenship was very poignant for me.

A few more minutes passed and then six people came out and took chairs that were waiting for them on the stage.  One of them, a woman, was introduced as a federal judge.  She took the podium and explained that she was chambered in St. Paul and had come to conduct the swearing in ceremony.  Then she declared court to be in session and asked the clerk to read the agenda for the day.  She instructed the candidates that they were about to renounce allegiance to their home country and asked them if they were doing that willingly.  She then told them that even though they were becoming citizens of a new country, they should not forget their homeland and their cultural heritage.

I had always imagined that the names of the people becoming citizens would be announced, but they weren’t.  Instead, the court clerk told everyone that she was going to read the names of the countries of origin of the candidates and that they should stand when their country was read.  After a few minutes, a group of proud appearing very dressed up people stood facing the stage.  Some of them were in native dress, but most had worn typical American garb for the occasion.  When all were standing, the oath of citizenship was projected on the screen.  The judge asked the candidates to raise their right hands and repeat after her as she read it line by line.  When it was finished, the observers were invited to welcome the new citizens by applauding.

Next, everyone was asked to stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner.  After that, we all recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  I cried through both of those.  Then there was a speaker who gave an account of her grandmother’s experience as an immigrant to the United States, and a representative of Immigration and Naturalization welcomed the new citizens. Then the judge adjourned the court.  It all took about half an hour.  For the new citizens, it was a monumental half hour.

Dan and I went to find Harish, the new citizen we had come to support.   We teach adult basic education classes on Wednesday evenings.  Most of our students are working on the GED or preparing to go back to college, but we also work with candidates for citizenship.  When we started working with Harish, we told him that we wanted to attend his swearing in.  It was a wonderful privilege to share it!

Every once in awhile, somebody asks the question “Why blog?”  Today is one of the days when I have a perfect answer to that question.  I had two experiences this morning that were strong reminders that it’s nice to have a blog to turn to when you really need to rant and there is either nobody around to rant to or the one person who is available (Dan) agrees with you, so yelling at that person is no fun.

On Sunday mornings, it’s my habit to watch the CBS Sunday Morning Show and Face the Nation as I am getting up and ready for church.  Face the Nation this morning focused on the Republican National Convention which takes place this week.  Bob Schieffer interviewed Marco Rubio.  Now,  I tend to like Marco Rubio.  He’s a modern example of the American Dream.  He’s a first generation son of Cuban immigrants who has risen to serve in the U.S. Senate.  He’s young, good looking, well spoken, and appears to have a very nice family.  He makes a very good impression.

Part of the interview was devoted to the topic of taxes, always a popular topic in an election year.  Mr. Rubio was talking the Republican line about how the Democrats want to raise taxes and how that prevents the development of small businesses which create jobs.  I have a hard time understanding how people can buy into that argument.  For one thing, the proposed tax increases are on personal income, not on businesses.  For another, the proposed tax increases are on the wealthiest 2% of the population.  Those folks are not starting small businesses.  I can pretty much guarantee that Bill Gates is not going to start a corner hardware store or a family drugstore in your neighborhood.  The Democratic proposal is continued tax relief for the middle class and increasing taxes on the very wealthy to help pick  up the slack.  It’s the middle class who start small businesses.  They aren’t going to have increased taxes.  I don’t understand why that discrepancy is not clear.  The fact of the matter is that the Republican party feels that the middle class should carry most of the weight of supporting the government and that the very wealthy should have tax breaks.

After I watched Face the Nation,  Dan and I went to church.  We are lifelong Roman Catholics and participate actively in our parish.  We have been unhappy with the Church recently, though.  At least in Minnesota, the Catholic Church has become very politically active.  I am a little worried when any church, even my own, begins campaigning for the passage of laws that require everyone to live by the beliefs of that church.  At least in Minnesota, the Catholic Church has become very active in trying to get the vote out to pass an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  They have poured a lot of money into that effort.  Both Dan and I have a problem with that.

We are not really gay right activists, and to our knowledge, we do not have close friends who are gay.  We are, however, in favor of equal civil rights for all citizens and this is a civil rights issue.  We cannot see a reason for not allowing gay people to be married under civil law.  We aren’t really sure why a man would want to marry a man or a woman would want to marry a woman, but that is because we are not gay.  We do think that all citizens should have equal rights under the law.

We understand that the Catholic Church has the right to refuse to perform gay marriages if it chooses to do that.  We do not necessarily agree with that, but we understand that the Church is not a democracy and that it has the right to decide who is eligible to receive its sacraments.  Our problem comes from the opposition to allowing gays to be married under civil law.  The Church does not recognize civil marriage anyway.  It considers the marriages of heterosexual couples who are married in civil ceremonies to be invalid and does not allow those couples to receive the sacraments of the Church.  It seems contradictory to campaign to prevent people from entering into a civil contract that the Church considers invalid anyway.  If people married in civil ceremonies are not really married, what difference does it make to the Church if gay people participate in civil ceremonies?  How can an organization spend time and money opposing something that it does not recognize anyway?

This morning, our priest began his sermon by defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  When he said that, Dan stood up and walked out.  I followed him.  The priest may have been going to address only the sacrament of marriage.  We don’t know because we did not stay to hear.  Dan is really angry.  He wants to call the parish office tomorrow and tell them to take our names off all lists.  I am trying to get him to wait to do that until he has cooled off.  He can always do it then if it still seems like a good idea.  Anyway, it looks like we may be church shopping.

So, it’s been an interesting and upsetting day and the day is still young.

I thought I would fill you in on some of the things that happened while I was not blogging.  One of the significant (surprisingly significant!) changes in my life was the loss of these two:

The orange cat is Tigger and the black one is Hobbes.  It was difficult to get a good picture of Hobbes because he was a really, really black cat, so he just kind of faded into himself in photos.  Tigger died on St. Patrick’s Day 2010 and Hobbes died about a year and a half before that.  Both of them were cremated.  Hobbes sat in a container on the counter in the kitchen for about a year and then we sprinkled him over the grave of Herbie, one of our previous cats.  Herbie raised Hobbes (and Tigger).  Tigger is still sitting on the counter.  I am not ready to let go of him yet, but eventually he will join Herbie and Hobbes.

Sam was picked up as a stray, so we don’t know exactly how old he is.  The vet who examined him when he was taken into the rescue program estimated his age as about 5 years.  That was in January 2010 and then he sat in a cage until October 2 when we adopted him and took him home.

This is my grandson Jake.  He is 9.  Do you think he will be the next rap superstar?

I got up and read my classes early today because we are going into the Cities (That’s Minneapolis/St. Paul if you are not from Minnesota) to look at light fixtures and hardwood flooring.  We are just in the planning stages now.  Our main goal is to get an approximation of cost so that we can figure out how we are going to pay for what we want to do.  We did some minor redecorating (replaced the couch and a chair) and now we want to put hardwood through the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway.  If we can afford it, I would like to do our bedroom, too, even though we just replaced the carpet in there a couple of years ago.

I have always loved hardwood, but when we built our house carpet was the big thing.  We have talked off and on over the years about adding hardwood to certain rooms because we have antiques and it would complete the look.  Lately, I have been watching HGTV quite a bit because you don’t have to pay attention to it so it works well while I am working on my classes.  There’s also not much on the other channels that really appeals to me anymore, so I often have the Food Network or HGTV on.  Anyway, all the home renovations on HGTV seem to include installing hardwood floors and it seems to be something that all young home buyers want now, so we have decided to make serious plans to add it to our home.

I am thinking that I want a wider plank and that it is going to need to be fairly light since we have dark woodwork, but I am hoping that I can find something with a bit of darker grain in it.  We shall see.

Here’s the new couch and chair.  Don’t you think they would look great sitting on a hardwood floor?

I haven’t written anything on my blog in a long time!  For some reason, though, I do keep coming back, at least occasionally.  I have a Twitter account and a facebook account.  I can’t even remember how to get into my Twitter account, and I really do not see the point of letting the world know what I am doing from minute to minute.  I am not interested in being that current on anyone else’s life, either.

I do know how to get into my facebook account and I go there once in awhile, usually to wish someone Happy Birthday.  Sometimes I “like” something to let my friends know about it.  I rarely post anything.  Facebook just does not seem to hold my attention.  Maybe I am too wordy or maybe facebook is not enough of a journal experience.  For whatever reason, it does not seem to suit me.

I do enjoy Xanga.  When I could not sleep last night, I decided to stop by and see what was going on here.  Apparently many of my Xanga friends no longer blog.  Some of the ones that I enjoy the most are still around, though, so I read and commented on some of their blogs.  I do find that I think about my Xanga friends and wonder what they are doing.

So anyway, I guess I am back, at least for awhile.  I probably will not be a daily blogger.  My job requires me to sit at a computer for 12 hours some days, and after that, I am just not interested in looking at a computer screen anymore.  But I will be around off and on, at least for now.  I will enjoy reconnecting with my friends.

OK – it’s not politically correct to say “Girl’s Getaway” and some of the women I was with would object.  Just between you and me, though, this post is about a Girls’ Getaway.  Don’t tell anyone, OK?

July 20 to 23, I went on my annual summer trip with my college friends. We have been doing this for awhile.  It feels good, somehow, to spend time with a bunch of women whom I have known for 2/3 of my life.  We all lived in the dorm together way back in 19 __ (fill in the year of your choice), and we still remember how to survive together 24 hours a day.  Better than that, we know a lot of the really important stuff about each other, so conversation flows well.  There were reasons we were friends back then and those reasons are still valid.

This week’s trip was to Lake City, Minnesota on beautiful Lake Pepin, which, by the way, isn’t a lake.  We rented a condo right on the shore.  This was the view from our living room.   We had planned to go out on that boat, but it rained the day we wanted to go.  That was OK.  We enjoyed looking at it.

Our trips are very causal.  Normally, we have no plans.  We get up in the morning and sit around in our jammies talking and drinking coffee.  Well, everyone else drinks coffee.  I drink Diet Coke.  You get the picture, though.  Eventually, someone gets hungry and we get ready and go get something to eat.

Some days, we have breakfast.  Other days, we start with lunch.  This year, we found a wonderful little restaurant called Chickadee Cottage right in downtown Lake City.  They have delicious, freshly prepared and slightly unusual food served in a very lovely setting.  They also have a great waitress who was very friendly and helpful to us.  We ate our first meal of the day there every day.  That’s Loretta over there on the left.  She has her purse in the chair with her.  She must have been hoping to eat soon.

One day we ventured to Redwing,  a few miles north of Lake City.  Redwing is known for many things, among them Redwing Shoes, which may not be much of a fashion statement, but which are widely accepted as being the best work shoes around.

There’s also Redwing Pottery.  The pottery has become very collectible.  Besides the new pottery being made today, many places have historic examples on exhibit and you can buy them in the antique stores.  Over the years, the pottery works has turned out some interesting pieces.

Redwing is home to the historic Saint James Hotel.  We have talked about staying there on one of our trips, but we really like having a place with a private living room where we can sit and talk.  In a hotel, you have to sit on beds if you gather in someone’s room, and you have to get dressed if you gather in the lobby.  Or you probably should, anyway.  That means that we look for somewhere other than a hotel. The St. James is a beautiful place, though, and we enjoyed a tasty dinner there on the outdoor deck.  That’s Loretta and Joanie on the right.  You can easily imagine that you are at a lovely outdoor table at a bistro in Paris or any other beautiful city while sitting on this deck – that is, unless you look over the edge at the backs of the buildings on the street and the parking lot.  We just didn’t look in that direction.

That’s me on the left.  I look pretty happy to be sitting down.  We had been doing some pretty heavy duty shopping during the afternoon.  We found a Hush Puppies outlet store.  They have fewer shoes now than they did before we arrived.  I think I even had on a new pair of shoes in this picture.  Of course, you can’t see my feet, so you don’t care about that, do you?

We fought the heat and humidity with nice cold beer and Bloody Marys.  I had Rosemary Parpardelle with shrimp for my meal.  It was delicious and the shrimp was cooked perfectly.  I would definitely have it again!   Consider dining at the St. James if you have the opportunity.

That’s Cathy and Millie on the left.  We all look pretty content, don’t we?

 There we are below arriving back at the condo with our purchases.  It looks like we gave the city of Redwing quite an economic boost!  Left to right, that’s Millie, Cathy, Loretta, and Joanie.  We had 6 pairs of shoes and several pieces of clothing to show for our day.

The next day, we headed to Wabasha, a few miles to the south and another interesting place to visit on the shores of Lake Pepin.

Wabasha was home to the Anderson House, another historic hotel, which is, sadly, not in operation at present.  It’s the oldest hotel in Minnesota, a very beautiful building, and is on the National Registry of Historic Places.  None of that is really why the hotel was famous, though.  It was definitely a hotel for cat lovers.  When you checked in (Dan and I have stayed there), you were taken to a room full of kenneled cats, and you could choose one to be your companion for the night.  It was a strange little custom, but one that I really liked since I am a cat lover.  I don’t suppose that it would have been a good place for a person with an allergy to cats, though.

I did some snooping and peered into the windows of the Anderson House.  The tables are still all set up for dinner.  The front desk looks ready to check you in.  I was very sad to see this interesting place closed.  I hope someone buys it and reopens it.  I hope they have cats, too.  By the way, I wonder what happened to all of the ones who were there?

Many of you have seen Wabasha even though you may not know it.  Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men were filmed there.  Cathy found this bench and could not resist sitting down with Walter Mathau and Jack Lemmon.  I’ve heard that Mathau and Lemmon really enjoyed the time that they spent in Wabasha.  By the way, if you saw either of those movies, there was no artificial snow made for them and they really do put fish houses out on Lake Pepin and drive around out on the lake in trucks in the winter time.

We had supper at a Mexican restaurant in Wabasha.  It was unique because it was the only Mexican restaurant I have ever seen that seemed to have no Mexican people working there.  Everybody looked very Scandinavian.  I expected them to break out the Lutefisk.  (If they had, I would have run for the hills!)  The food was good, though, and there were Hispanic-looking people eating in there.

In the evenings, we sit around drinking wine and talking.  We talk a lot of politics.  We tend to agree, so we don’t have any lively debates, but for some of us, it is the only time we talk to people with our same political views.  We occasionally talk religion.  We all like to read and Cathy is a retired librarian, so we talk about what we have been reading and what we plan to read in the future.  Sometimes we talk about our husbands, but not very often.  This time is about us, not about them.   We talk about food.  This year, we had a treat.  Karen, my college roommate, called and talked to all of us one evening.  She lives in Albuquerque, NM, and none of us have seen her in years, but we have been wanting her to come back and make one of these trips with us.  She says she will definitely come next year.  We are going to hold her to it.

Well, that’s what girls do on a trip.  At least, that’s what my girlfriends do.  Most of the time, we don’t do much of anything, but we do it very well!

  We had one rainy day during our North Shore trip this year.  July 6 promised to be unsuitable for hiking or other outside activities, so Dan and I got into the car and headed inland to Ely where we were rewarded with a gorgeous sunny day.  Although it is a small town (just under 4000 people), because it is in a resort area,  people from the lake areas nearby depend on it for shopping and entertainment, so it has a thriving business district with some interesting shops and restaurants and some unique tourist attractions.

Our first stop was at the International Wolf Center .  At the center, there are large windows looking out into the area occupied by the wolf pack.  To coax the wolves down near the building, the curators put treats out for them.  On this particular day, it was very warm and the wolves had experienced problems with  heat stroke during the previous few days, so the center staff wanted the wolves to swim.  The treats for the day were pieces of food embedded in chunks of ice and thrown into the pond.  The wolves were more than willing to go into the pond to fish them out.  They would carry them to a shady area and start chewing and licking to get through the ice chunk to the prize inside.  There was a curator in the enclosure with the wolves, and she would periodically take the ice chunks and throw them back into the pond.

You could tell that these wolves did not have to hunt for food and that they were confident that they would have plenty to because they did not pay any attention to the curator when she took the treats and threw them back in the water.  They just went into the pond and retrieved them.  The picture is a gray wolf pulling one of the ice chunks out of the water.

After lunch at the Steakhouse in Ely (have the portabella mushroom fingers if you ever have a chance to eat there), we drove a few miles south to Tower, MN, to tour the Soudan Iron Mine.   From the 1880′s until the mine closed in 1962, the finest iron ore in the world came from this mine.  The tour takes you half a mile under the earth into tunnels cut into Ely Greenstone, the second oldest rock type on earth.  Unfortunately, the pictures that I took in the mine did not turn out very well.

We had one more hike during the week.  On Thursday, we hiked trails in the state park at Split Rock Lighthouse.  Split Rick is one of my favorite spots on the North Shore.  We did not go to the actual lighthouse this year.  Our hike did give us this scenic view of it, though.

The lighthouse was taken out of service in 1969, but it is maintained in operating condition.  This year is its 100th anniversary, so the lamp is being lit on the first Friday of every month.  We were on our way home that day, so we did not get to see it.

 Every year in November, a ceremony is held at Split Rock to honor the men who died when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior.  At that time, the lamp is lit, the horn is sounded, and the bell is rung once for every man who perished.  I would really like to attend that ceremony sometime.

In addition to the hiking, we enjoy the visits of the wildlife that lives at the North Shore.  Every year, we look forward to seeing of these little guys.  This chipmunk had a burrow directly across the lawn about 30 feet away from the front window of our cabin.   He would pop up out of his hole and stand there like this looking around for danger.

He did not seem to feel that human beings were dangerous, though.  He would run down his hole if we got within a foot of him if we were up walking around, but if we sat still at the table and put out treats, he would actually climb into our laps on his way to the tabletop to get them.  Dan wanted to try to get him to eat out of his hand, but I advised against that.  I do not think the Chippie would hurt us, but he is a wild animal, and I don’t think it is good for him  to get too chummy with humans.  The next people who stay in the cabin might not have his welfare at heart.  He did come up and sniff Dan’s hand to see if he had more treats at one point, though.

I try to provide treats that are safe for the little critters to eat.  This year, I brought up unsalted peanuts in the shell and hamster treats.  It appears that chipmunks think that hamster treats are quite a delicacy.  Unfortunately, so do seagulls, so I had to be careful when I put them out.  Gulls can also figure out how to open peanuts.

This year, we were treated to visits from some creatures that we have not seen before.  I was working in the kitchen of the cabin one afternoon when Dan started calling me to come into the bedroom quickly.  When I got there, I found this little fellow standing there looking at us through the window.  He’s a groundhog.  I wonder if seeing him means that we are going to have 6 more weeks of summer?  He stood there for quite awhile watching us watch him.  Unfortunately, my picture is not too clear because it was taken through the screen on the window.  Isn’t he a pretty little fellow?

We had one other visitor who appeared during daylight hours the first day we were there and then came back a couple of evenings during the week.  This picture was taken at night through the window of the cabin, so it’s not good.  It’s a gray fox sitting on the bench of the picnic table right outside our cabin.  A fox is willing to learn how to open and eat peanuts, too.  Who would have guessed?  I gave him some turkey one night because I thought he might like that better.  He took it and ran off somewhere, then came back to see if I was going to give him more.    Chipmunks and groundhogs are on the menu for foxes, but I am glad that I did not see him eat any of them!

There are lots of seagulls in the area.  We had one who would come and sit on the picnic table looking in at us as if to ask if we had anything for him.  Apparently many of the animals around that particular cabin have learned that the picnic table is a place to beg for goodies.

That was our trip to the North Shore for this summer.  We are already looking forward to being there with our family next summer!

Dan and I spend one week each summer along the North Shore of Lake Superior.  It’s one of our favorite places.  Most years, our whole family has gone with us, but this year we started an every-other-year tradition so that our kids have time to make other types of family trips.  For the beginning of our week, Dan’s cousin Larry and his wife Ginny joined us.

All of us like to bike, so we brought our bikes up with us.  Unfortunately, I am very out of shape from spending all of my time at the computer when my classes are in session and I have never been good at biking on hills, so our attempt at a bike ride from Beaver Bay to Gooseberry Falls was not very successful.  Dan and I turned around at Split Rock Lighthouse and rode/walked the six miles back to Beaver Bay while Larry and Ginny continued on the rollercoaster-like hills to Gooseberry Falls.

Dan and I really enjoy hiking and it’s easier for me than biking on hills, so the plan for the next day (July 4) was to hike the Oberg Mountain Loop.  It’s a lovely trail that begins at a point partway up the mountain and takes a circular path around the top.  Unfortunately, the day of the hike turned out to be rainy.  We went anyway.  The picture is Larry, Ginny, and Dan getting soaking wet up at the top of the mountain.  Fortunately, there was no lightening!

The views from Oberg Mountain are breathtaking.  Unfortunately, we could not see them at all.  Between the rain and the fog rising out of the valley, it was difficult to see beyond the edge of the cliffs at the overlooks.  We described what they would be seeing to Larry and Ginny and showed them pictures from other years when we got back to the cabin.

We missed the big 4th of July parade in Tofte because it was still raining, but when the rain finally cleared, we did walk into downtown Tofte to check out the rest of the celebration and in the evening we enjoyed the fireworks display from the rocky lakeshore in front of the cabin.

We got in some sunny hiking at the Temperance River the following day.  The area above the falls at Temperance River is Dan’s favorite place in the world.  We have lots of pictures of the grandkids playing in the water up there in previous years.  I was glad that they weren’t up there this summer, though, because the river was very full and the current was strong.  People do not survive a trip over that falls!  Unfortunately, I did not bring a camera this year.  Take my word for it, though, it’s a beautiful place!

Before Larry and Ginny left, we had to have pictures in front of the cabin.  Here are Ginny, me and Dan – dry this time!  We really enjoyed the time they spent with us!

July 7, Dan and I decided to hike the Devil’s Kettle Trail.  It’s considered challenging because there are 200 steps to get down to the trail itself, which then climbs to a level at least as high as the top of the steps.  The picture is only a part of the stairway.

The adventure begins with a little hike from the parking area across the river and through the woods to the top of the stairs.  Of course, going down the stairs is easy.  When you get to the bottom, there is a lovely hike, mostly uphill, through the woods to the Devil’s Kettle a little over a mile away.  When you get there, you are as high or higher than the top of the stairs.  Dan kept saying that there had to be a way to do the hike without going down to climb up, but I am pretty sure that there was not.  The foliage was very dense and would have been difficult or impossible to penetrate, plus it looked to me like there was a pretty significant gorge at one point.
   
Here’s Dan on the trail.  The area of the North Shore that we visit is in the Superior National Forest.  There are lots of well-developed trails with frequent signs asking that people stay on them.  The Forest Service is working very hard to return the forest floor to its natural state and to let the forest itself return to its natural condition.  You can see several birch trees at the left of the trail here.  They are natural flora of this forest, but many of them will eventually be replaced by pine trees which are the predominant species of the area.

There are lots of beautiful wild flowers returning to the forest floor as well as wild strawberries and raspberries.  On some of the trails, there are signs explaining how the Native Americans harvested these treats at the appropriate times of the year, being careful not to take enough to cause damage to the forest.

Eventually, the trail brings you to a lower falls seen here on the left.  The water below this small falls is calm enough for swimming and there was a family there doing just that.  I am sure they were enjoying the cool water because the North Shore is having an unseasonably warm summer with temperatures in the high 80′s and high humidity.    

A bit more of a hike, or rather a climb, brings you to this view the upper falls (picture on the right).  The rock formation in the center splits the Brule River into two waterfalls.  The one on the left is the Devil’s Kettle.  It’s called that because it disappears into a hole in the rock.  Despite the efforts of many scientists over the years, the path of that part of the river has never been successfully traced.  It’s assumed that it follows an underground path that eventually ends at Lake Superior, but nobody knows for sure.

I love the sight and sound of a waterfall!  There is something really awe-inspiring about  water tumbling over rocks.  There are so many beautiful falls on the rivers flowing into Lake Superior.

Here’s a view of the Devil’s Kettle from above the falls.  You can see how the left branch of the falls just disappears into the rock.  I wonder how deep it goes?  I don’t think I want to make the trip to find out!

The picture below is the view looking away from the falls above the Devil’s Kettle.  It’s fairly similar in appearance to the area above the falls at the Temperance River.  I think  it’s very lovely and peaceful.  I can spend a lot of time just sitting on a rock listening to the falls and looking at this calmer water and the lovely trees surrounding it.

Of course, we had to leave eventually and go back to climb back up all of those steps!  Think about it – the average stairway in a building has 10 to 12 steps, so a climb of 200 steps is the equivalent of 8 to 10 stories!  Shortly after we started our climb, a young girl came by running up the stairs.  She said she was going to run all the way up.  We don’t know if she actually did because we did not want to run along with her to find out.  We were surprised, though, that the trip up the stairway was not nearly as strenuous as we had thought that it would be.

That’s the first half of our week on the North Shore.  The second half will be coming up in a few days.