Cozy quarters and land-trapped lakes

In the previous chapter, we ended our narrative on our way to Minnesota having wrapped up our visit to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. I (Kristy) have family in Grand Marais- a small town two hours north of Duluth on northern Lake Superior. After years of living in Bethel and hearing of similarly harsh weather reports, I was curious about this "isolated" northern locale in the Lower 48. It was high time I visited my uncle Ed, his wife Cindy and my cousin, Saffron, and it was a really relaxing and enjoyable time. Whew, a perfect hiatus after our long days on the road since Yellowstone.

To top of our visit, my Uncle Ed gave us a great tour of the town of less than 2,000. Though it's smaller than Bethel it feels way bigger and they have tons of cute restaurants, a dairy farm with raw milk, lake trout fishing, a food co-op! and best of all, the North House Folk School- a strong community program hosting traditional arts workshops. We're talking wooden boats, knitting, food preservation, blacksmithing, yurt building, oh my! I can't imagine having such a cool place in my community. Wait, I can and it makes me (and Andrew too) want to move there. Unfortunately, it gets cold in Grand Marais - Alaska style (or at least nearly), thanks to the lake. I'm sure the winter experience is very different in a town with places to hang out, but alas, onward we go towards a longer growing season and warmer weather.

Kristy and Ed (her mom's brother) by Lake Superior.

After a trip to the co-op in town, we hit the road for a short jaunt to the other side of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. We had a chance to stretch our legs again and get some healthy dirt under our fingernails on a 100 acre homestead and small organic fruit & veggie farm. Tom and Ann grow apples, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, all kinds of veggies, chickens, turkeys, and the list continues. This place definitely spoke to our souls- rustic, simple living that honors the earth combined with delicious, homegrown food, great conversation and a reunion with a favorite childhood auntie! I think Andrew and I are both looking forward to coming in to relation with the earth like this ourselves and living self-sufficiently. We'll see what opportunities unfold as we continue our journey.

Delicious, pesticide-free apples!

From Wisconsin, we made our way east through Michigan's Upper Peninsula and then down to Detroit where Andrew treated me to my first NHL hockey game. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision and so we were delighted to find just a few tickets left. Turns out, I might be able to get into hockey, though mostly I couldn't stop thinking of how I missed broomball. The Redwings swept the Avalanche 5-0 (just in case you're interested). We wrapped up a really fun evening with our second night in a Walmart parking lot, where apparently sleeping in your vehicle is not only perfectly legal, but encouraged. (I guess that's what all the underpaid sans-union employees have to do too.)

Andrew was like a kid in a candy store.

Oh and I forgot one, very important discovery on the way south towards Detroit: the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan!

Of course we had to stop for a stretch...

Black Beauty continues to impress us, though she's shy in this photo.

On our way to Rochester, New York to visit with Andrew's family, we stopped for a picnic lunch (well, we had a meat stick anyway) at the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. As you can see below, it was another beautiful day for sightseeing. Truth be told, the people watching was even better than the falls! (Did I just creep you out?) We remain incredibly grateful for the beautiful weather we've had the past 6 weeks. It only rained a couple of times- and it was no inconvenience to us. I haven't seen this much sun in the past 6 years in Bethel combined.

And so it's that time again, folks. Thanks for stopping by. We'll be mostly stationary for the next few weeks, so send us an email- we may even respond!

 Stay tuned for harrowing tales of family visits on the East Coast... :-)