more specifically, a shirt that the guy next to us was wearing while we were on the Painted Rocks Boat Tour back in MI. If it were not for this shirt, it is possible that we would have not come north at all and seen all these amazing things. Moreover, the brewery itself was great. The vibe of the place was very homey and down to earth. It seemed like the people were friendly and warm to one another, something that is unusual in most big cities I have visited. Katie and I both agreed that we liked the feel of Duluth almost instantly once we arrived. Anyway, as we walked into the bar, there was a brewer mixing in fresh cherries into a giant oak barrel to ferment for their seasonal fruit beer named "cherry batch." We were seated in a small room with glass windows shielding the distilleries behind. Katie and I brought in our travel books to discuss while we waited for our meal. However, I ordered the beer sampler, and the books were pushed off to the side until after the meal. The room we sat in was pretty close quarters. We could clearly hear any of the other 5 tables with little effort. As we began to look through our books the waitress came by to make small talk and asked if we were on a trip. This was the spark that lit up the room. From then on, we were talking with other tables about our trip, waitresses working other rooms came in to give us advise, it was a real unique experience. Even after we were done eating we had people that
we hadn't even talked to wishing us good luck on our trip to Alaska. It was a great experience and Katie feels that it was meant to happen. She thinks that someone's life will be influenced by our trip and inspire them in some way. For her, its too random that we ended up in such a great place with so many nice people, just because we saw a shirt on
someone during a boat tour in MI. After we left the brewery we walked off by the Portland Malt Shoppe which was too much for Katie - we had to stop. We enjoyed the malt as we watched 3 old time pirate ship looking vessels sail out of the harbor which was pretty neat. Then we headed to Jay Cooke State park, our last stop before a night full of driving. Jay Cooke was a lot bigger than we had expected and would have been
better suited to visit for a week instead of an afternoon. Seeing this, we decided that we would only visit 2 outlook spots and walk around for about a half hour. Since the entrance fee required you to actually go to the ranger station and buy a pass, we opted not too since we would only be there for a short time. We took a walk across the swinging
bridge (a main attraction) then hiked down to the river at another lookout. Both views were incredible and even though this park did not have the impressive waterfall structures the previous parks had, it was definitely worth the trip. When we
got back to the car we had a ticket of course, which we again opted not to pay, then hit the road heading south to meet up with I-90. We drove late into the night, about 3 a.m. before we finally stopped at the visitor center just across the South Dakota border. This trip was made about 2 hours longer because Katie forgot her glasses at a rest
area we stopped at about midnight and didn't realize they were left behind until about 40 miles down the road. When we got back to the rest area here glasses were gone :( On a whim, she knocked on the managers door and it creaked open, revealing her glasses sitting on an empty desk! We were both happy to know the trip back wasn't in vain and to know that we didn't have to spend another $400 to replace them! We got to the rest area and stayed our first night in South Dakota, though not the last.
No comments:
Post a Comment