Lake Superior Circle Tour: Into the US

A good day for driving and atmospheric photos;
less great for scenery ;)

This was one of our shorter days and mostly rainy - we were targeting Duluth and our room wouldn't be ready till 3 (or later as it turns out ;) so we took our time leaving in the am and getting there.  The border crossing was easy, and I was really pleased that we weren't immediately inundated with billboards and weapons advertisements as happens when we cross the border closer to home.   It was still super-pretty, and even still had "Lake Superior Circle Tour" signs along the route.   Kinda love that.  Also, it still seems wild to me that we drove so far north and were still 10 mins from the border lol.

At a random rest stop

There was a town I was interested in doing a Let's Roam on the way (the "Castle Danger" Tour - how could we NOT do that one), but it seemed like the weather wasn't going to cooperate.   

Tunnel through the clouds

Also - when we got to the relevant city for that Let's Roam (which was super cute btw and if it hadn't been raining I would've loved to walk around and explore), we had zero cell or internet.  Making Let's Roam an impossibility and Google questionable at best.   Why does Google matter?   Well Chris had asked me to bring back some craft beer for him, and being not a beer drinker, I purchase based primarily on name, and we saw a sign for Castle Danger Brewery.   lol so we found it and paused long enough for me to go in and get Chris his souvenir :)

Even in the rain, you sometimes have to get out and explore.

We continued to Duluth which is a pretty town with a scary number of churches (seriously disturbing - and an entire AISLE of bibles in the Barns and Noble?!?!  And yes, I went in the book store; Canadian bookstores don't shelve Spanish books so I have to stock up when I can).  But otherwise the town was very pretty, generally well kept up, and I love all the hills!   😂 Mum’s car recharges if you ride the breaks so all the downhills were a win!   

There were all kinds of storm-inspired waterfalls that made the drive even prettier

Hotel wasn't ready when we got there, but they said it'd only be about 20 mins, so we went and got gas and then more craft beer for Chris (again based on names - Templar and Samurai beers this time lol) and when we got back to the hotel the room was ready.

We were pretty hungry so we hit up the chain restaurant across the parking lot and very much enjoyed it.  Then just to kill some time, we visited the aforementioned Barnes and Nobel (a few blocks away) before heading back to the hotel for the evening.   

I was very tempted to order this drink just for the critter ;)

Also, remember back to the start of the trip when Mum bought me a Wooble as a souvenir for the trip?   Well, meet Roosevelt:

In Duluth I finished my 2nd ever crochet creation,
and earned a fabulous souvenir for this trip!