Down the North Shore

 We just spent one night in Thunder Bay, and we got up relatively early the next morning to drive down the North Shore of Lake Superior. We crossed back into Minnesota, and our first stop was Grand Portage State Park, and the Grand Portage National Monument. The state park has the highest waterfall in MN, which was smaller than Kakabeka, but still impressive, especially with all the flooding. The National Monument had a very cool visitor's center that was designed and developed with the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe. We made our way south stopping in Grand Marais for a little shopping and Indian food on the beach, and made it to our campsite at Tettegouche State Park. We camped in the state park for 3 nights exploring the Tettegouche, Temperance River, and Gooseberry Falls state parks, which are all in the area. The Naturalist at the park gave us a tip on a hike where we could find a very cool arctic relic plant called butterworts and baby blue spotted salamanders in little pools along the rocky shore, and we managed to find both! The Lake Superior coast is very rocky and beautiful. The yellow color in the water was all the pine tree pollen, which made for very cool pictures. We found more waterfalls, Addi took a lot of photos, and Alexia did a lot of botanizing with her field guide. We also found another cool orchid species, the stemless lady slipper. Addi is giving it a fake hug, and Alexia was super excited to get her photo with the flower. So many waterfalls that the girls were a little bored of them by the end of the trip. We topped it off with a trip to Betty's pie, a famous pie place in Two Harbors north of Duluth, and brunch with good friends in Duluth before heading home. The North Shore was cool and rainy, but we managed fun and it kept the mosquitos and flies to a bearable level.