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!

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.

 
Even though I was not quite finished with my classes, Dan and I made an extended weekend trip to the Dubuque, Iowa, area.  The primary goal of the excursion was to see the man above.  Yes, that is what a 62 year old rock star actually looks like.  (He's pretty cute, isn't he?)  That's Peter Noone,  perhaps better known as Herman of Herman's Hermits.  If you have never seen him perform, I highly recommend that you go when he is near you.  You may see an equally good show, but I highly doubt that you will ever see a better one!

We went with our friends Cathy and Ed.  They were celebrating their anniversary and decided that a Peter Noone concert would be the perfect event since I had been raving about his shows for years.  We went a day early and toured Galena, Illinois, on Thursday.  Galena used to be a thriving port city on the Mississippi until their river shifted and left it too small for large ships.  Then it became a lovely and well preserved historic community.

Galena is the home of Ulysses S.  Grant.  It has many historic homes which are open for touring.  There are also several very lovely bed and breakfasts, many shops, and some interesting restaurants.  Most things are within walking distance, but you need to enjoy walking uphill.  Otherwise, you can drive if you are there on a weekday, which we were.  Parking is scarce on the weekends.  We were happy to be there on a Thursday when traffic on the roads and in the historic homes is much lighter and we had no waiting for tours or for tables in the restaurants.

 This is Dan and me in front of the Galena post office, which is the oldest continuously operating post office in the United States.  Both of the pictures in this blog are courtesy of my friend Cathy.  I don't bring a camera when I go to see Peter, so I did not have one for Galena.

Friday, Cathy and Ed did their own thing while Dan and I concentrated on helping to set up the souvenirs to sell at that evening's concerts.  Cathy and Ed attended the second show and were just as impressed as I had hoped they would be.  Peter was in fine form.  His vocal performance was outstanding and his humor was as lightning quick as ever.  It's always fun for me to share his shows with friends who are seeing him for the first time!

Saturday morning, we had breakfast with Cathy and Ed and they headed home.  We set off for Northwood, Iowa, for two more shows on Saturday evening.  We thought that we should go since we had all of the shirts and CD's in our trunk!  We were treated to two more wonderful concerts - even better than those on Friday, I thought!  I honestly don't know how that man can spend as many hours traveling and as few hours sleeping as he does and still have so much energy on stage!

Yesterday, we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then made the two hour drive home.  It was so nice to have a break in my routine!  Even though I did have a little work to do during the trip, I felt rejuvenated.  Stepping into the world of a rock band is a real departure from my regular routine and so welcome!