Julie, My Friend and Activity Director

Tim and I just returned from a long vacation. Part of that time was spent on Lake Superior in Minnesota where we rented a log cabin right on the lake with our long time friends, Joel and Julie. This trip was Julie's idea, something she has wanted to do with us for a long time and I am really glad she put it all together. So here she is at each of the places we went together. More pictures will follow on a later post.

We visited Tom's Logging Camp which was just down the road from our cabin. There are reproductions and actual artifacts from Minnesota logging camps and we were able to learn about life for the loggers at the turn of the 20th century. I am sure they did not have llamas there back then, but there were a couple you could feed(something for entertaining little ones, I am sure.) Julie really enjoyed feeding them and I enjoyed watching her feed them.

Julie prepared a picnic lunch and we drove north along the lake to visit Two Harbors. Here we walked out along the breakwater, watched a huge ship come in and park along the iron ore loading dock, and toured the old lighthouse.

Next we drove further north along the lake and toured Split Rock Lighthouse. This lighthouse is high above the water and, when it was built, they had  to use a derrick to lift all the parts to build it. Because there was no road in the early years, lighthouse keepers, their families, and supplies were brought by boat and came up on an inclined plane further down the shore.  We learned lots of history on this trip.

Here is a shot of Julie on the downstairs porch. There was another on the second floor and sometimes Julie and I would rock in the chairs upstairs while Joel and Tim sat together downstairs. We also played cards, watched movies with popcorn Joel popped, and enjoyed meals prepared by Julie. We loved the fresh vegetables brought from their garden, too. I refilled the bird feeder with sunflower seeds from the local grocery store. I loved watching the black capped chickadees and nuthatches that came. They did not seem to mind that I was just on the other side of the screen. 

Another great idea Julie had was getting a fire started in the fire pit in the yard beside the lake. We enjoyed watching the stars come out as well as the fire.

This was taken on the trail behind the Glensheen mansion. That is Lake Superior in the background.