Gales of November

The trip out to Duluth was kinda grey: not much actual rain, but no sunshine to speak of, either. It's about a four hour drive for us, and we have some of our best conversations in the car, raining or not.

Our route takes us through several small towns we rarely get to see, and as we pulled into Crosby (or was it Ironton) we noticed as a police car pulled out right in front of us. Hm.
Aha. It's a parade. In the middle of our four hour drive. Great.....I was totally not excited about this. I kept thinking if I'd only not stopped for that last bathroom break, we wouldn't be stuck behind a parade that means nothing to us. But I underestimated Shaun's school spirit abilities. As soon as we were sure we were in the parade, he laid on the horn, rolled down his window, and waved and hollered to everyone in Ironton (or was it Crosby?). I was embarrassed but also charmed, because his enthusiasm is contagious, even when I'm trying to be annoyed with him. Oh, Katie and Ben. Things will only go downhill from here....The rest of the Royal Court, all of whom are apparently on the football team. While we followed the parade, honking and cheering, we saw people come out of the main street businesses, grin broadly, and wave. Even my cold heart had to admit that was kind of sweet.And here, the final float, which contains either the entirety of a large football team, or all of grades 9-12. I'm not sure which. But they were cheering and enthusiastic, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

All in all, it only took about five extra minutes to cruise through town with the firetrucks and football players, and it helped us fall in love a little with a small town called Crosby (Ironton?).

We stayed at the Black Bear, which is a perfectly lovely place, but on the weekend we chose had a serious elevator breakdown (serious in that it was the elevator closest to our hotel room) and also closed the pool and spa area for all of Saturday. ALL of Saturday. So that was disappointing. Plus we didn't win any money, either. Dangit.But all of that helped us get out of our hotel and head to the Big Lake. Did you know Lake Superior contains 10% of all the surface freshwater in the world? I was impressed with that fact, so if you think it's lame, start your own blog and discuss amongst yourselves.Unlike last year, we didn't venture much beyond the shoreline: we had a fabulous meal at the Pickwick, enjoying a view of a sailboat on the lake-I-pretend-is-the-ocean. We enjoyed the magical lift bridge (kind of...it's a long story). And mostly we just liked being grown ups. Of sorts.

If you are a parent, I strongly recommend regular time away from your babe or babes. Just having the opportunity to miss V made me a better mama all over.