It was a spur of the moment getaway, but we figured we didn't have much time left to be able to use Ethan as the man of the house, so we took off on a Sunday after church and headed for Duluth. First stop was Gooseberry Falls State Park.
I felt that Forrest must pose next to his old timey doppelganger:
We took a few selfies:
And then a few photos without our giant heads in the way to better commemorate the natural beauty:
That night we stayed in a cute little motel--clean, but small. Quaint, if you will. The bed was supposedly a queen but we had our suspicions that it was actually a double trying to put on airs. We woke up in the morning and biked down to the famous Duluth Split Rock lighthouse, but my phone was dead so no photos were taken. In case you're curious, this is the Split Rock lighthouse:
(Yes, I stole the above photo from the Internet.)
We spent the day exploring the Iron Range by car and by bike. It was fun to see some of Forrest's old mission stomping grounds like Hibbing and Grand Rapids, but the real highlight was biking the Mesabi (not wasabi) Trail. It's a paved biking trail that extends over 100 miles in Northern Minnesota and takes you through some really beautiful landscape. I admit to being a bit nervous about whether I could keep up with Forrest--the longest bike ride I'd done up until that point was about 14 miles. But I managed to do bike over 50 miles over the course of two days and I didn't die. My quads were sore (I love saying that: my quads are sore! Makes me sound so athletic) but it was a lot of fun. The weather was sunny but relatively cool and the company was top notch. So glad we did it.
Forrest in the little town of Virginia, Minnesota, where we stopped for lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. Two tender mercies: I was able to eat Mexican food and still keep biking, and we didn't bring any bike locks and just leaned our bikes outside the restaurant but no Virginians swiped our rides.
Pretty sights:
More pretty sights. Pretty sights at the top of a hill are particularly pretty when you're biking because you know you get to go down the hill.
Helmeted couple, married 22 years:
And while it still seems crazy to me that we've been married that long, what's even crazier is that in a couple of days we're taking this kid to college:
It kind of breaks my heart a little, posting that picture. That little boy isn't going to be living at my house anymore. Unbelievable.
We had a goodbye dinner with the Harrises because they were heading out on vacation and not getting back before we left and both Ethan and Josh are going to college (BYU and BYU-I). Forrest ordered the cake:
Ethan's father is so sentimental.
A couple other pics, for posterity:
Elise and Somer have the exact same hair color and length. They looked almost like twins both wearing their grey shirts.
The whole gang, including the Harrises' crazy dog that is a great reminder to us that we really shouldn't get a dog. He's cute and everything but still.
I'm always so grateful for the good friends in our ward here in MN that have become in many ways like family. It's so much easier to live away from actual family when you have a Mormon family to be there for you.
And now we've got dozens of little details to button up before our final road trip of the summer . . . and we'll come home one kid lighter! I know I keep saying it's unbelievable, but seriously. It is.
