fyi part 3

I am falling behind in posting my Mom's "fyi's"!! I am going to play catch-up and post parts 3 through 5 today.

Happy reading!

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Dear All: The next segment of the ongoing MN saga -

5/6/06 (Sat.) We all started North @ 7:30 am towards Duluth & beyond. Stopped for an important item @ Tobie's for carmel rolls (they don't spell caramel like we do). More about them later. Also Marcy bought "neater" car food - the best ginger/molasses iced cookies I'd ever had.

Kyle said we were then traveling through the Finnish/Italian area. Italians were brought in as miners. Went past the Black Bear Casino.

Stopped @ Thompson Hill Rest Area. Our first view of Lake Superior from high atop on a mountain! Two male bikers were there offering to clean travelers' windshields - sure! It was motorcycle awareness day/wk.

We drove on the Skyline Parkway way up the lake. The guard rails were big rocks - that was it.

Next stop: Gooseberry Falls State Park. Beautiful waterfalls there. Took a million photos of boys/us close/near/nearly in the falls.

On to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. This was the first lighthouse most of us had ever seen in person. Unfortunately it was closed until 5/15. It was absolutely freezing standing outside there. I ran back inside to the gift shop. After we all bought t-shirts, etc. Marcy drove down to Pebble Beach picnic area for lighthouse photos from the water level. From there the lighthouse was sitting on top of a huge rock ledge. Stunning. THEN we ate our delish carmel (sp?) rolls in the car (in order to thaw out a bit).

Next: Canal Park, Duluth. We saw the aerial lift bridge raise for a huge barge to pass through. Men on the front and back of barge waved to us observers. We found out afterwards that the barge was from Greece. There was a free museum there (which I enjoyed getting warm in).

On to a nice supper @ Perkins Restaurant (I forget what town that was in). Cute Grandson story @ this point: Xander was more than thrilled w/all the mac 'n cheese he was given for his meal. He asked which girl was our waitress. His Mom & I both asked him why he wondered that. He wouldn't say. So when we saw our waitress we told him and guess what he did? He got her attention and said "thank you for all the mac 'n cheese!" Is that too precious?

To be continued. Stay tuned. Have a good evening.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Sandra Jean

Ethan & Alexander traded spots in the van. All the boys were really good travelers.

All the manmade creaters we saw on this trip:
1. dinosaur (this was @ a gas station
which had NO attendant at it;
2. giant Paul Bunyon (sans axe);
3. big chicken;
4. a bison;
5. a giant blue king kong;
6. a carved bear; and
my favorite: a giant squashed cigarette sitting in a giant ashtray!