Gitche Gumee

Over Labor Day Weekend, the husbo and I decided we'd had enough of toddling around with V, so we took off for the Big Water.

And though I've been in New York's harbor, and Boston Harbor, this still feels to me like the closest I've ever been to the ocean. Because I can't see the other side, so it counts. One of the highlights for me, aside from TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW ALONE WITH MY BEAU (and yes, he wears orange and red together all the time. Clashing is sooooo sexy), was our tour of Glensheen. I first toured this sweet mansion just after we moved into our house, and the themed rooms inspired my own Peacock Room. Because while I may not be a Congdon, I can pretend I have a 39 room Jacobean Revival mansion if'n I want to.
From the lakeside. Mrs. Congdon didn't call this the backdoor, because she didn't want guests arriving by boat to feel second rate. She claimed to have two front doors. I'm pretty sure you can only do that when you're super rich.
Sweet balustrades. "Balustrade" is the kind of word that you don't know you know until you see one. Or at least I didn't.
See? Don't you want to come over to my mansion? And hang out? And play billiards? I would totally give you the key to the liquor cabinet.

Seriously, the man should've been a pirate. Except he likes cable tv and central air. But otherwise, he's pirate matieral all over. (Pirates were notorious for clashing).

Anyway, I could talk about Glensheen all day and all night. But you don't come here for history or architecture lessons, do you? No. You come here to see what other excitement my life offers that yours doesn't. So here you go: an unstaged photo near downtown Duluth. This was just after lunchtime on a Sunday. Why is this sandal on a parking meter? Where is the woman (or man) who was wearing it? Was she standing on the meter and just hopped off in a hurry, like Cinderella? Does she remember at all where her footwear disappeared to?

I don't know. But it was on the way to the Duluth Family Sauna.

The guy in the t-shirt was just leaving, and he didn't look too sweaty. The sign said they opened at 10 on Sundays. Because in Duluth, if you don't feel like going to church, you might just go have a sauna.

[And by the way, I just thought it was a neat old-school sign until I found their website. I'm...um, sorry for bringing you to that site if you thought this was a family blog. At least, I think I'm sorry. "Good clean hot fun" makes me feel dirty, even with the word clean right there.]

It does dovetail nicely with this sign, though, found in a hole-in-the-wall hotdog and chili cheese fries place called Coney Island (further confusing my ocean-side experiences):

I think it means the restroom is for customers only, not the gentlemen. But I thought Duluth Family Sauna seemed wholesome, too. I am not even going to look for the Coney Island website. You go on ahead.