Continue reading →

Continue reading →

And she has got some ups ->WOOOOO Hooooo

Continue reading →

I didn’t have a good pic for the beginning or title so just read on. Continue reading →

for firewood

Continue reading →

Google has a new browser. (Browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer)

Have you downloaded it and tried it out yet?

Or even heard of it?

I didn’t read up on it much so my head was clear when I downloaded it yesterday and closed Firefox.

I was excited when all my Firefox bookmarks and passwords and whatnot got moved over and worked great without me needing to do anything.

I was sad when my craigslist photo plug in no longer worked and sadder this morning when I could not post pictures on my site with it. SO I’m back on Firefox for the post this morning then will go back to the speedy chrome for the rest of the day to further test.

Continue reading →

We slept in till 9:15 then hit the free breakfast up just before it closed at 9:30. We slowly got ready and hit the road by 11am. We were back on 35 and heading south. 

The car did not need to be back until Sunday at noon and we never wanted to honeymoon to end so we picked Des Moines and headed there. It was a few hours from KC so we could get back early enough to get the car in on time and far enough away that we were not likely to go to Des Moines on a regular basis.

The drive was fairly uneventful until lunch. Then we stopped at an exit with one of my favorite cheeseburger stores.

We got the 2 bacon cheddar melt burgers for $3 and a meal of the Angus thickburger and split both. The food was really good. We drove on and stopped at a rest stop sometime in the afternoon for a pee break. While waiting for Heath I saw some paper container w/ pamphlets full of hotel coupons. We got a few and while driving Heath looked through and found hotels in Des Moines.  I knew the exit I wanted to stay at from some research online where we would be walking distance from a brewpub restaurant.  Heath found a Ramada w/a coupon at the exit and we headed there.

The place looked really nice from outside and had a pool.

We booked our room and carried our stuff up. The host was kinda strange or just learning English but I know he said pool side and the room number was on the parking lot side. Well we found the right number but the keys did not work.

I left Heath and the bags and went back down stairs.  He assured it was the right number and he had just said the wrong side so he rescanned the cards. I headed back up and they still did not work. He tossed the cards and got me two new ones made up. I tried them out and still could not get in. So he sent up some custodian guy to help. He proved the cards did not work and neither did his master key card. We waited by the room and he ran to get some tools or something. We decided to make the best of it and crack a beer.

It was transitioning from afternoon to evening and out pool tanning time was about over. He got some stuff that looked like it was from a spy movie and eventually opened the door then got it reprogrammed for us. We filled up some glasses with drinks and headed down to the pool. It was kinda nice to swim in chlorine and clean out any injuries and such. Of course it made my nose bleed after 15 minutes or so and I had to get out but we did get some good camera sack use first. 

We showered after the pool and starving headed to the Brewery. It was a lot like 75th Street Brewery and had good food and beer. I got some rib and chicken platter and Heath got smoked chicken enchiladas. Both were great. They gave us each 2 free sampler beers then we each got 2 full regular beers and everything to drink was tasty. Even the food was marinated in their beers.

We decided to go to a K-mart down the street and kill an old gift card on a shirt for me then went to a outdoor gear store and look around. I got a new swim suit ($11) and water shoes on clearance ($15). Then we headed back to the room and were too stuffed to get motivated for much else but sleep.

The next day we got up early ate and drove the car back getting in at 11:45 and beging the 2nd 1/2 of our vacation at home w/ Peanut.

Continue reading →

I woke up before 6am and heard rain. I got up and pulled in anything getting wet. I closed the windows and laid down a while. At 6:15 or so I cooked sausage and eggs and we cleaned up the boat and packed our stuff. Around 7:45 we left the island and headed to the lodge. It was still a long way away and took a long time. It was a cloudy dark day and we were sad to leave our boat on Birch Lake but talked about all the fun we had. We got to the lodge unloaded our stuff and settled up with the front desk.

They refunded the deposit and after gas ice and the boat rental our total was $1,004.00. We were amazed at what an amazing time we had for a grand. The owner gave us directions for a scenic dirt road drive and we took that to Lake Superior then drove down the coast of the worlds largest lake. We stopped every few minutes for a scenic overlook or lighthouse or waterfall.

The first overlook was some rail car thing and a mining town.The overlook was not very impressive but it was our first glimpse of the lake and fairly high. On a clear day it was rumored you could see Wisconsin.

Then we drove on to a nice marina in a bay.  The water was crystal clear and calm in the bay.

After exploring the area a bit we decided not to leave the path to hike to a huge rock and instead drove on to Beaver River and stopped to run along the rocks in a small waterfall.

The next stop was the Splitrock Lighthouse.

It was packed and $8 a person to see and take a tour so we looked through the trees and drove on. Just down the road was another state park for the Gooseberry Falls.
This was free, beautiful and lots of fun. We got to climb around the falls and find several of the various falls that were in the park.
.

We played and explored for a while and the clouds moved aside for a bit and it got hot and sunny. On the way to the car I got really hungry and we drove to Twin Harbors and stopped at a bar and grill. It turned out to be more bar then grill ans so after our beers we passed on the frozen pizzas they served.  Our stomachs were drained and the one beer made us tipsy.  So Heath made sandwiches from our cooler in the car as I drove on. We stopped just before Duluth to watch the massive waves crash on the rocky shore.

Then we drove on to Duluth. H called hotels and I drove around the city. There were some really cool hotels in cool places but they had huge prices or no rooms. A Best western 1/2 mile from the touristy Canal area for $130 was the best deal we found.

We booked a room, parked and walked down to the water. There was a lot to do and going on. We watched their famous bridge go up and down and looked at the lighthouse there and explored the city for a few hours.

Then we went to the hotel and took hot long showers and took a nap. Then we got dressed up and headed back to the canal for dinner and drinks. It was sprinkling a bit but not enough to get us wet. We looked at menus on windows for a while. We did not want to eat at a chain that we have in KC and we were in the mood for more Walleye. (this is a local fish we tried at lunch in Babbitt) We ended up at Hell’s Kitchen. It has nothing to do w/ the TV show. This place was a goth decorated place 2 semi famous chefs ran together. I got a walleye BLT and Heath got a walleye quesadilla and we split them.

We tried out several of their special brews too. The food was good but not my taste and made my stomach feel strange. After dinner we walked some off and stayed out of the stronger rain by going through the shops. This bored the heck out f e so we headed to one of the many bars in the area named after Grandma. After a big beer I had Jack and Cokes and H had Mojitos. Then we walked most of the way back to the hotel and had a few more drinks at another bar before heading back tired and full of drinks.

We got a block from the hotel before we came to a side street that was closed. A bar had reserved the street to have a street party with a band and outside drinks and a huge crowd.
Well we could not pass this up and got more drinks. We danced and partied and wandered the area until the police shut down everything and reopened the street for traffic. Then we finally headed back to the hotel and crashed hard.

I woke  up and went to sit on the cliff and post. It was a nice spot with a great view and a good rock to write on. Then I came back to the boat and cooked up steak and egg burritos.

Heath and I went for a little walk then found some fisherman had moved in close to our spot. Other then this it seemed like no boats came close to other boats if they could avoid it. They were loud and a fairly annoying family of kids and parents and stuff.  We laid around in the boat and relaxed and tried to ignore them for quite a while. They didn’t leave so we swam a bit but they still fished right beside us. We decide it would be up to us to get some space so we untied and moved on. I took some pictures from afar of the black cliffs.

We continued north for a while but it was really windy. We intended to go all the way to the northernmost part of the lake and look at some bluffs that were supposed to be up there. Heath was worried about some rocks up there and the wind was really slowing our progress and eventually we decided to turn around and forget the bluffs.

Heath took over the wheel

and I packed the rest of our hamburger and some of our sausage into hamburgers and cut some fries and grilled everything. I was not sure how well the grill would work while the boat was going full speed and the wind was blowing good but the grill worked fine and the burgers with a bit of pork in them turned out really good. We kept driving south and ate in the boat. We wanted to make it most of the way back to the lodge to lessen our driving on Friday.

We decided to stop at the Kurry Islands and hope the beach spot was out of the wind. We beached really well then went for a hike around the new Island.  After that we got out our books on the roof of the boat. We both fell asleep for a while then got lots of wine and read and drink and worked on suntans.

It was kinda windy but not bad and we got kinda hot in the sun. We hiked out to a point on the island that was almost an island as the water was up over the grass between it and our island. We explored it and took some pictures of our boat from it. We walked through the water back in about thigh deep water. I went down the slide and swam for a while as Heath took a bath with shampoo and everything in the lake. We swam some more and continued to drink wine. When we got out I pulled a good sized leech off my ankle and it bled a lot. I think they do something that makes it hard to clot the blood.

Then we fried up steak and chicken with onions and a can of chillies and jalapenos.

We sat on the front of the boat and ate as the sun began to set. We rushed to finish our fajitas and moved to a good spot to watch the sun set through a tree on the island.

We kept drinking wine and started a small fire. As the fire died we got real tired and had enough wine so we went inside. We decided to go to sleep early then wake up before dawn to see a sun rise. We got out the laptop and downloaded all the pictures to make sure we had room on the camera and went to sleep.