Up North

I've been on a lot of trips and vacations, but none was as needed as our one night in Grand Marais, MN on the shores of Lake Superior. It is a small resort town about 45 minutes south of the Canadian border on Highway 61. Anna and I have gone up there a few times before so we know our way around a bit. Last night was our first night away from Anders since October 27-28 when he was still in the hospital.

We splurged for a place on the lake. The sound of the tide lapping up against the rocks lulled us to sleep. As most of the country suffers through a heatwave, we were in long sleeves yesterday and today. It was briefly hot yesterday, but then the sky clouded over and the winds shifted. This morning Grand Marais was engulfed in fog.

Anna beat me in mini golf by three strokes. At a key point in the match, I was distracted by friendly Iowans on the course, but she won fair and square. Her puts were soft and true, while mine kept lipping out. I purchased perhaps the only non-gaudy tourist sweatshirt ever.

I got kicked out of the Ben Franklin for open container...of coffee. I thought that was a bit much, but I like the fact that Grand Marais is a town of laws and rules. Thus, it remains orderly.

Anders was quite happy to see us when we arrived around 6 pm. He was too excited to sleep, so bedtime took about 1.5 hours. It turned into a real ordeal. He's probably worried in part that when he wakes up we will be gone again, so he has unwittingly introduced guilt to the equation (like I don't have enough of that already in my life). Anyway, we will once again be seeing (and hearing) all too much of each other with our trip to Marquette, KS on Friday.

Moonlighting in Mora:

Hey, MN Steve! We saw a great business for you, which you may already be operating, we don't know. In Mora, MN we saw Steves Computer Emporium and Miniature Golf, which shared a building with Grandma's Pies. I'm not sure why Grandma could spring for punctuation, but Steve couldn't. Anyway, the place has all the things you would like: Greater MN, Computers, Food, Mini Golf, and Copy Editing. Think about it, if the history thing doesn't work out...