Christmas on the Shore

Winter or summer, spring or fall, Gooseberry State Park is a "must do" stop for our family. When Todd said he'd come north to Duluth for Christmas, we were excited to be able to share Gooseberry in winter with him. We were hoping he'd find the frozen falls as well as other North Shore winter scenes as fascinating as we do. I think he did!

Lower falls on the Gooseberry River

Check out Todd's photo album at:
https://plus.google.com/photos/109166346689447369585/albums/5691321959059947393

Split Rock
Another favorite stop on the Shore is Split Rock State Park. We like to go to the small protected cove that presents fine views of the lighthouse. Here's a money shot:

Split Rock lighthouse from the cove

The cove is protected by the "island" on the right. In summer, it is forbidden to walk on the island in order to protect a bird sanctuary there. Fall and winter, however, it's OK to go there. The lake side of the island offers additional good views of the lighthouse.

Todd on the "island" at Split Rock

Heading back to Duluth after taking in the winter sights on the shore, we stopped for an early dinner at The New Scenic Cafe (http://www.sceniccafe.com/). Check out the menu on their website! Todd ordered the rack of lamb, Fred tucked into the ribeye calotte, and Nancy had the French onion soup. If you are ever on the Shore, do not pass up an opportunity to dine at the The New Scenic Cafe - and it IS dining, not simply eating.

While in Duluth, we had a couple meals at the Duluth Grill (http://www.duluthgrill.com/). The Duluth Grill is another North Shore eatery that we highly recommend. Todd had to try the Big Bold Bison Burger that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Fred had the Corned Beef Hash Lover's Skillet. Nancy helped us and we still took left-overs home! This is really good food!

Christmas Day Eve we took in the sights at the Bentleyville Tour of Lights at Duluth's Bayfront Park.
Here's a slideshow of the tour. (For those who can not view a Flash-based entity, a here's a link to the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/105110449577043030329/Bentleyville2011)

Bentleyville 2011

Christmas Day Eve. Nancy, Todd, and I toured Bentleyville at Duluth's Bayfront Park. Bentleyville is an enormous, stupendous, really, REALLY big festival of lights. It is available to the public free of charge and runs for just a couple weeks in December. It ends the day after Christmas Day. That Christmas tree in the photo is the largest metal-framed tree in the country. It stands 128 feet tall!

 http://bentleyvilleusa.org/Home/BigTree.aspx
I'll be posting more about our visit to Bentleyville as well as our times at Gooseberry and Jay Cooke State Parks in a day or two. Stay tuned.

Internationally known

Just checked the statistics for this blog and was most surprised to find that it has been seen by folks from around the world!

This blog is internationally famous! Well, perhaps not so much. In any case, here's what Blogger says traffic on this site has been for the past month:

November Sunset

Tonight's sunset gave us pinks, purples, and mauves. It lit up the ice very nicely, also.

Very pretty end of the day on the banks of the Mississippi River!

The Golden Geese

A few days ago, the setting sun was just disappearing behind the pines across the river. The last rays of light shone golden under the high clouds.

Just at that moment, a small "V" of geese came from the east, over the river, heading directly into the setting sun. The sun was so low in the sky that the geese were lit from below with its golden light. The feathers of the geese reflected that light and they became shimmering golden geese flying toward the sun.

An awe inspiring magical moment!

Dock Retrieval Day plus One

Getting the dock out on Thursday (yesterday) was definitely a wise decision. It would have been a much tougher task today.

Frozen River, Falling Snow

Dock Retrieval

It's that time of year again. Actually, it's a bit past that time of year.

Time to take the dock out before the river ices over. Usually, we get this done in October. This year we hustled back from Omaha on November 16th and started working on the dock on the morning of the 17th. That's nearly a month later than we normally do this.

First step in the process is to set up the come-along and, using a tow-rope and a steel cable and a logging chain, connect it to the dock and the base of a large, strategically placed white pine.

Chaining up

Once the chains, cable, and come-along are in place, it's time to set rollers and skids. A bit of tension is then put into the system to hold it all in place.

Setting some tension

Then it's time to break up the ice that has formed near the shore. One of the rollers is a good tool for this job. First, up one side ....

Breaking the ice

... then down the other.

Good thing the ice is still thin!!

Now we're ready to get to work. Grab the handle of the come-along and in a manly way attempt to coax the dock up onto the skids and rollers and onto the shore.

"It's moving! I saw it move!"

The dock ends up resting on that patch of bare ground. The come-along is used to get the near end of the dock lifted up onto the shore. At that point, more rollers are added. The chain and cable are shifted from the big pine tree to the hitch on the back of the Odyssey. The van then hauls the dock in until the dock wheels are against the bank.

I was worried that the light snow on the grass would make it hard for the Odyssey to get sufficient traction. Worries were unfounded; it did great!