Lake Superior Circle Tour -- Day 4

Day 4:  Off to Minnesota, USA!  Our departure from Thunder Bay went much quicker than we expected.  We had hopes of seeing something of interest on our way out of town, especially a local coffee shop.  But before we knew it the city was behind us and the scantly populated wilderness was before us!

The border-crossing experience was uneventful - where were you, how long were you there, where are you headed now.  Hmmm, so much opportunity for falsehood, yet our image was captured by one of the many cameras positioned in front of the guard gate.

Grand Marais, MN -- one of my favorite places!  This was Julie's first visit and it didn't take long for her to start talking about her next visit!  After securing a much longed for cup of coffee at the Java Moose, we meandered through the sleepy town looking for a shop that was open.  We soon noticed people...in a line in front of a little shop -- intriguing!  And what a find it was -- the World's Best Donuts!  I felt like Elf when he found the World's Best Coffee in NYC -- yet different in that these were indeed some of the BEST donuts I've ever had -- one cinnamon cake donut and another powder-sugared-filled-with-blueberry-morsel.  This coffee and donuts were made better by the view!  I also met a very nice Husky named Bella.  She tried to follow me home, but I say no...sigh.

     

 The fog rolled in and out throughout the morning, making the the rugged shoreline all the more mystic and magical...

The North Shore drive is beautiful -- a great last-leg of our road trip adventure.  The cherry-on-top was a stop at Betty's Pies in Two Harbors, MN.  I ordered blueberry-peach and Julie got a bumble-berry -- and of course, we did the split-and-share.  Yummy, yum, yum.

By the way, business continues to boom at Betty's -- it's expanded yet again since my last visit!

So we were home by 5:00 pm.  It was a GREAT trip.  Thank you to my high-gold friend Julie for the outstanding planning!  Well done!  Looking forward to our next adventure.

Lesson learned:  I felt I became a little more human each day - evidence that 

vacation is good...

   unplugging is good...

      the wilderness is wonderful... 

         adventure is good...