A weekend--AWAY--just the 2 of us!

My Thanks go out to CrowdCut.com and to my in-laws for making this weekend possible!  The beginning of February I saw an ad on CrowdCut (a national/local discount website) for 50% off a 2 night stay up in Lutsen, MN.  Since our birthdays are both in February and we don't usually buy each other gifts I thought this would be a great present to both of us--a weekend away!
So, I bought the deal and then we checked with Tim's parents to see if the kids could come down there for the few days we would be gone.  We chose to go right away during the girls' spring break and we couldn't have asked for a nicer weekend.  The kids enjoyed being down on the farm in the unusually warm 70-80 mid March weather and because they were outside so much it helped tucker them all out and make bedtime and the whole weekend go super smooth for Tim's parents!  (That means that they will open to doing this again for us sometime!!)

We left the cities around 10am on Friday (3/16) and enjoyed a fairly light traffic drive up to Duluth.  We were hungry by the time we got up there and so we decided to use a gift card for Buffalo Wild Wigs that Tim had been given for his birthday!  Hmmm...I love B-dubs--especially when just Tim and I can go and take our time and enjoy some good food and wings!!


After lunch we headed down to Canal Park just to walk around and see what was going on!  Well, much to our surprise the first ship of the season was going to be leaving port within the hour!  Sweet!!  It's always fun to see a ship go through there and for it to be the first of the season was kind of fun!

Onward now to Lutsen!  We couldn't check into our Villa until 4, so we didn't mind taking our time getting going from Duluth.  I had never been past Gooseberry Falls and it was such a fun a pretty drive, but maybe one of the longest 90 mile stretches with the windy roads and having to slow down to 45 for every little town we went through.  Oh, well--still fun!
Our Villa was super cute and perfect for a weekend getaway and the first thing out of my mouth upon entering the villa was how much the kids would love the loft area!  So -- next time-- and I do mean -- next time-- the kids will come with and we will stay for 4 nights instead of 2!!  ( I can't wait!!).

The Villa
We were in a 1-story and it was perfect and cute!

The view of the kitchen right as you enter from the front door.

Standing by the table and patio doors.

Sitting area.
The couch opens up into a bed and so this little Villa could sleep 7 people!
However, check out the steep ladder that goes up to the loft...yikes!

The cute loft.  Perfect for the 3M's!

Ahh...a fire!  So nice while we watched some NCAA basketball

We enjoyed most of our meals up in Grand Marais.  The funniest story is our first night was a Friday night and so we thought "Fish Fry"!!  So, we find a little cute restaurant in GM -- the Bluewater Cafe, walk in at 6:45pm and yes all you can eat fish fry...BUT they are all out and they close at 7pm---WHAT?!!!  Oh, well...I had a club sandwhich, Tim had the Tuna Melt and they were both great!  We enjoyed a nice walk down to the river after that and then a pretty drive back to Lutsen with a beautiful sunset ahead of us!

Grand Marais

So, beautiful!

We spent most of Saturday hiking Cascade Mountain just north of Lutsen and then back to Grand Marais and hiking along the shoreline and around the Coast Guard/Border Patrol shoreline.  I had my pedometer on and on our hike up and around the Cascade Mountain we logged over 9,000 steps in about 2.5 hours!  I had a walking stick which was good because some parts of the mountain were still covered in snow and I would've surely taken a "digger" at somepoint!!

CASCADE MOUNTAIN HIKE

Part of the hiking trail
-Cascade Mountain-

My Man being funny...or something!

A man-made bridge in the middle of the wilderness--not very natural!

At one of the scenic points we found this.  So cool.  That
table isn't going anywhere!

Around one of the turns we found this beautiful frozen lake off in the distance!  We are pretty sure that that is Cascade Lake and just so beautiful!  If we had more energy we wouldn't continued our trek to try and hike to it--next time!

GRAND MARAIS HIKE

I just love the "up north" shorelines and even watching the fog roll in--awesome!

My first panoramic with the camera!
Kind of washed out...but being able to only see water as far as you look is so neat!

I could sit and listen to the waves roll onto the shore & rocks all day--so relaxing so calming--just what we needed!

Well, we enjoyed a couple more great meals--Saturday was 3/17--so St. Patrick's day!  The little cafe we had lunch in was all decked out for the celebration and served up some good food!  Tim had a Reuben and I had some Fish-n-chips!  Then for dinner we went to the Pub which was connected the Resort that we were staying at.  Awesome Beef stew was my choice and Tim had a "Winter" Salad that he said was great! 

We enjoyed a fire in our fireplace for the last night and watched some basketball!  Tim and I are both thankful we each love to watch some good "hoops"!!  

Sunday was time to head out and we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a little fog rolled in shortly after!

Soo beautiful!

Here comes the fog, but it's beautiful!

After we checked out we were wondering what to do, maybe where to hike and well Tim has always talked about Temperance River and how his family would go there every year and well, I said--let's hike it then!  I had never been hiking around there either!!  Oh, was it fun and pretty.  The Falls were amazing.  So neat to see and feel their power--wow, what is Niagara like??  It was a great way to end our little weekend away!

Temperance opening up into Lake Superior.
It was so cool to see the waves "roll in" as the water from the  river went "out"!

The bottom of the falls

Somewhere in the middle!!

Towards the top of the falls!

Me and my Love!

It's hard to believe that I'm writing this almost 3 weeks after the fact!  What a fun getaway it was.  We need to do this once a year, not once every 4 or 5 years!!  But we both agree that the next time we go up north we will take the kids.  They would've loved the Villa & loft and being right on the Lake and being able to go throw rocks in whenever they wanted!  Oh, they could all spend hours just throwing rocks in and have a blast doing it!  

There's just something about being on the Lake that does make you relax and feel calm and for Tim and I just to be by ourselves--no schedule--was so nice!