A trip worth taking...

"Yes, I am talking about the North Shore. The "Norwegian Riviera". And it starts in Duluth and goes all the way up to the Canadian border."

This morning my wife and I awoke in our healing place. No, we are not sick. When I say our healing place, I mean it is our grounding place. A place to get back to what we are. Who we are. It is the place where we fell in love almost 45 years ago. We spent the first day of our honeymoon here. And every year since then, we make it a point to come up here at least once to get renewed.

Yes, I am talking about the North Shore. The "Norwegian Riviera" as some call it. And it starts in Duluth and goes all the way up to the Canadian border. We decided to take a chance this week to see if we could find some lodging without spending an arm and a leg. It is after all, the middle of vacation month in Minnesota. With some luck, we found a condo at one of our favorite places. In a very little town called Tofte.

We usually stop at the first rest stop as soon as you enter the outer rings of Duluth. It is up on a hill and has a grand view of the St. Louis river merging into Lake Superior. It was an interesting sight this time. Due to all the rain they have had recently, the river was very fast and very high. And because the river originates in "ore country", it is often times turns brown when churned up. Yesterday, it was hitting the Duluth harbor with such a strong flow, the water around the harbor was mud brown rather than its usual sky blue.

While we were at the rest stop, I struck up a conversation with a park ranger. He told me he was a life long resident of Duluth. He then asked me where we were from. I told him the cities. He looked at me and said something very interesting. "We get just a fraction of folks from the cities who come up here. That is good and bad. It is bad because they are missing out on one of the most beautiful places on Earth - and it is in their own back yard. It is good because if word got out about how special this place is, there would be so many people up here, it would be hard to move."

Bingo. He nailed it. It is one of the most beautiful and tranquil places on Earth. Our pastor comes up here to vacation and write books. A friend of ours comes up here every chance he gets. Our kids love coming up here.

Many people are simply mesmerized by the majesty of this greatest of lakes. And it really does not matter what time of year it is. We have been up here in every season possible and seen the lake all the way from mirror smooth to dark and angry.

Today we are going to visit some of the many state parks in the area. Tomorrow, we are going to explore the Gunflint Trail. Or we just might sit down by the lake and read. It really does not matter what you do when you are up here - it is all good. 

Friday we will come home, renewed and refreshed. That renewal should last us until November. Why then? The day after the election we are headed back up here for the "Gales of November". It simply gets no better than that.