The Honeymoon, in MN

Thankfully, with a noon flight, we were able to sleep in a little. There was a little frantic packing, but we made it to the gate with time to spare. We saw a couple in the OKC airport terminal wearing matching "Just Married" t-shirts. Mike and I smiled... and he lamented that we hadn't done it ourselves. :) Had a breakfast of sandwiches at the airport, and that steadied us until we reached Minnesota. Mike also got a muffin... and we had that between Minneapolis and Duluth after he got a coffee. :)

Thank goodness for the direct flight! It was only an hour-and-a-half flying time. There was a little mix-up with baggage weight distribution, so we were a half-hour late taking off. For most of the flight we talked about the Beatles... :) I had gotten him the Rolling Stones special edition with commentary and pictures of all the albums and their individual tracks. And I learned a lot: of course, Paul McCartney had died and been replaced by a look-a-like. The album covers betrayed it all. lol

The Minneapolis airport is a bit of a maze. We had to take a monorail and a tram to the rental cars. And it wasn't altogether clear how to exit once we did get one. But we finally did, and my smart phone gave good directions for getting to I-35 N. We listened to music and talked, stopping once for refreshments half-way to Duluth; we killed a couple bags of Lays original kettle potato chips... I had my iced tea, and he had his caffeine-free diet Coke. We stopped again in Duluth at a Burger King/Holiday gas station around 6pm. From there we kept on Hwy 61 until arriving at my Uncle Kerry & Aunt Beth's house 20 miles north of Grand Marais. Unfortunately, the coast of Superior was enveloped in thick fog, so even if we were earlier, we still wouldn't have been able to see Gitchie-Gumee. This made our visibility next to nil on the drive at night... there was also a steady rain.

Kerry and Beth were waiting for us when we pulled in at 9:40. I was disappointed it took us so long, but it was wonderful seeing them again! They have a lovely, two-story building that has been remodeled in the north-woods fashion of my mom's side of the family. Lots of beautiful wood ceilings, and decorating to match. They still had the big figurine of the loon that I remember from Tuscarora. Beth gave us an indoor tour that night, and we talked for a while in the living room before heading off to bed. Mike and I had the entire downstairs to ourselves!

Kerry had done a lot to the outside as well (which we saw in the morning)... he built a bare-bark log railing, similar to the one in front of the dining room at Tuscarora as well. And he repaired a couple extra buildings on the property as well: the workshop and the storage shed. Kerry's retired, but they took over a small dog kennel business when they moved there. That's in a separate building behind their apple trees. :) They also have a screened porch for Abby... their pooch. Several windows face their 1/4 mile driveway which lets you look on Superior itself on a clear day.

And that morning (and all day long) was a very clear one! Bright sunshine met us as we woke, along with a type of quiche, sweet rolls and toast. Beth was at work in town, and Kerry was already walking the dogs. He laughed at our "early" morning. :) We visited for a while, I called Mom to let her know we got there alright, and then Kerry gave us a short lesson in setting up fishing poles, and what to use where. He lent us 3 lost-and-found poles from Tuscarora, as well as a fishing net, stringer, tackle box and fillet knife. I'm sure I've used one of those poles before. :)

We were soon off to Grand Marais. And we spent a little time there... skipping rocks on Superior, eating at "The Pie Place" cafe, getting a discount coat at Ben Franklin's (I had left mine on the airplane... brilliant!), and then stopping at the pharmacy and "Johnson's Foods" grocery store for our provisions. It was well into the afternoon when we started up the Gunflint. But there's only so many hours in a day! :) As you've probably seen from the Facebook album, we saw a moose walking alongside the road about 5-10 minutes into the drive. The car in front of us had suddenly very nearly stopped, and until we saw why, we were very confused. There was some forest near Tuscarora (about 50 miles up the trail from town) that had been burnt down in the big 2007 wildfire. But I was very glad to find that much was still the same.

I think we arrived at Tuscarora about 5:30ish on Monday, the 19th. It was so exciting for me to travel that long, familiar driveway again. There's a little hill in the road just before you arrive. For me, it's like seeing the sun coming up over the horizon. Andy, the new owner, was very nice! He showed us to our cabin and got us our fishing licenses and made sure we had everything we needed when we asked. It was lovely to be there again. Mike and I both heaved big sighs of relief, first from the long trip, and then also of joy, to find we'd arrived, when we were finally alone. It was as perfect place. We explored the landing and dock, then sat in the folding chairs on the porch of the cabin awhile, watching the sun go down.

That first night we had Stouffer's lasagna, garlic bread and corn for dinner. We realized that we needed the Internet code, so Mike could check FB to find out how his sister's surgery had gone (no cell reception). We went outside into the blackness of a wilderness night... thankfully I had remembered to bring flashlights. After coming back from the office with the code, we lingered outside. The Milky Way was a plume of white smoke across the top of the sky, and the stars were like shining sapphires... But Jupiter out-shone them all. Back in the cabin, and after being put at ease about his family, I introduced Mike to "The Princess Bride", mowage and all. Mike's friend Doug had sent me a message on FB on the 17th, introducing himself, congratulating me, and telling me about how he found "wove, twu wove" himself. Mike now knows what he was referencing. LOL!

Every morning Mike and I enjoyed 2 scrambled eggs and toast, sometimes with bacon, and sometimes with waffles... and on the last morning, both! The sun had practically disappeared on Tuesday morning, the 20th, and a bank of clouds had settled on us for quite a while (with some patches). We also usually started off after breakfast with a quiet sit on the porch. It was an excellent place to enjoy instant coffee and a smoke on the pipe, I hear. :) Funny how perfectly pipe tobacco and the great outdoors go together. Scott Sherwood was right.

We tried fishing off the dock, with the friendly black lab "Denali". She sat with us every time we were out there! She had greeted us when we first arrived... I was glad to learn that she belonged to Andy and Tuscarora... just the way things used to be with a big dog running around. We didn't have a set plan for dinner that night, so we decided to return to Grand Marais for dinner (ended up having pizza, soup, salad (and for me, half a sandwich) at Sven 'n Ole's. We also needed to restock on bread and milk... so it worked out well. During the thunderstorm, we watched Airplane, with a cartoon beforehand. It was my first time seeing it... hi Penelope Cominger!

Wednesday, the 21st (my one-year mark in the Navy), we tried several different places for fishing. I was determined to have at least one fish dinner, but alas, we were skunked! except for the baby bass Mike caught off the dock... All I got were snags, and lots of them. We tried Big Rock, but I got stuck twice with 2 different poles. We then got in a canoe, freed the first snag and cut the line on the second. Then we paddled over to the public access and fished there for a while. This was exciting though, because we shared the lake with a loon... and it got pretty close... within 25 yards. However, the rain started again, so we gave it up. We watched Lady and the Tramp that afternoon and had sandwiches for lunch... Mike had turkey, and I had some good Wisconsin summer sausage! How nice that was! I think we tried fishing off the dock again that evening, but it got really cold with the wind and rain... even with sitting on my hands (wish I had brought those gloves!). We had a nap on the couch before making a slap-dash dinner. Clam chowder, corn, leftover garlic bread, and we were just fine. We swapped making the movie choices, and I want to point out that The Creeping Terror (Mystery Science Theater, 3000) was Mike's choice. lol! It was such a terrible movie, the comments the guy and the robots made were so funny.

By far, our favorite day was Thursday, the 22nd. We got out fishing very soon after breakfast... and boy, were we blessed! A fifteen-inch bass on my line! It put up such a fight! Mike helped with the net and it was soon on the stringer. And a few minutes later, Mike reeled in to re-cast, only to find that a two-foot northern pike had totally swallowed the hook. I think it was more surprised than he was! They are notorious for cutting line with their many rows of razor sharp teeth. They're almost like little fresh-water sharks. But Mike had him up in a moment, and when the net held him, he did cut the line! This was not this pike's first encounter with a fisherman... he had a red fishing hook and a 1/4 inch of line protruding from his jaw.

I decided it'd be best to clean them right away; and since this was the first time in a decade, it took me a while. :) Finally, we were done and had a light lunch. I think the total weight of the meat was 4 lbs... much too much for 2 people for one night! After this, we got Andy and visited the store. It was freezing in there! There must be no heater... or an air conditioner... but we picked out our t-shirts and sweatshirts and went away happy. Watched Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) for a rest, then went for a hike on the BA Point trail. Took lots of pictures... this was one of our favorite moments.

When we got back we decided we'd like to paddle around for fun... and that's what we did: paddled around the entire lake! We saw an eagle flying near BA Point, then saw another one perched on the other side of the lake. Got out at the trail to Missing Link Lake to read a notice the Forest Service had posted. The trail to Tuscarora was temporarily closed because of an un-named hazard. It started to get dark as we neared the public access... I think it was a beaver we saw swimming and diving right around there. What a day! So tired! I fried the fish (some in breading Andy gave us, and some in butter) and Mike cooked more corn... lol... and were stuffed afterwords. The little container Mom had sent the cookies in came to good use. Put the leftover fish in it and carried it back with us when we left the next day. Mike was a darling and did most of the clean-up and dishes, as I was exhausted. We both blinked out a little during A Letter to Three Wives (1949).The stay definitely left us wanting more. We vowed we'd return some day... and that made it bearable for us to leave. We didn't have to leave until noonish, since our flight from Minneapolis to OKC wasn't until 9:30pm. I didn't want to have to rush. Kerry had given us instructions to leave the fishing gear at Beth's work in town, cutting at least an hour out of our trip. We had that huge breakfast, finishing up the eggs, waffles and bacon. It was a good bit of packing to do, but we did it and got it all. Took a final walk around, snapping even more pics. Checked out with Andy... and he even gave us a "honeymoon discount"! :) Mike let me drive out and down the Gunflint to Grand Marais. We dropped off the gear (Beth wasn't there, but they knew about it), then had a little DQ for a finishing touch on our way out of town.

We were stuck behind a slow car for a long time... but after passing it, we stopped at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park anyway. :) It was a long drive back... we stopped in Duluth for gas right before the beginning of I-35 S. And just as Kerry had said, we saw the reverse of the weekend traffic that we had seen when we were coming up north Sunday evening. Leaving on a Friday was pure genius, if I would have thought of it instead of stumbling into it when we made our plans. :)

The sun was setting when we drove through Minneapolis to the airport. We had another uneventful flight. Mike used my little laptop (so glad a brought both) to type up his paragraphs for his songs of the week. I love watching him compose... We got home just fine, but it was a late night in Norman.