Great Lakes Day 15/16: Minneapolis, Trip Home

Our hotel in Wisconsin was literally a tower.

We stopped by the duplex where Me spent the first (almost) 4 years of her life.

Matthew, Me and Megan

Burton Hall, where my dad spent 4 years of his life getting his PhD.

We stopped by the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Me and Matthew walking while Megan takes a selfie.

Megan, Me and Matthew. This piece of artwork was the basis for one of the last Art Masterpiece projects that we did.

About the artwork

Matthew talking to Jacob while Megan tries to call Jacob. (Prior to this, Megan had been talking to Jacob; Matthew called Jacob and so Jacob hung up with Megan to talk to Matthew.)

A few of the pieces of art

Matthew, Megan, Me and U on a big swing.

Me and U

Megan and Me on an art bridge that goes over the highway.

We went to the Mall of America. Megan and Matthew were amazed by its size. We wandered around a bit, did a Pokémon Go raid, ate dinner and visited the LEGO store.

Matthew liked seeing all the football helmets.

Some pictures of the creations outside the LEGO store.

It's interesting to see the evolution of the LEGO logo.

Matthew, Megan and U

We went on the FlyOver America experience which was cool. It's similar to Soarin' at California Adventure.

Pilot Matthew

Megan and Me with a map of where we flew.

The final odometer on our car. That's a lot of miles and a lot of time behind the wheel!

We got up early to catch our flight home. Here's out attempt at getting all of us in one photo.

Me and Matthew

Megan and U

We saw the sunrise from the plane. It was beautiful!

Great Lakes Day 4: Split Rock Lighthouse, Into Wisconsin and Michigan

 

Sunrise from the porch of our hotel.

The view of Lake Superior.

We packed up and headed out to Split Rock Lighthouse. We had stopped for a view of in on our way up the North Shore and were excited to go inside. We looked at the museum, toured the buildings (home, oil, fog horn) and lighthouse and walked to where the hoist and derrick were as well as walking down by the old tram line.

Fresnel lens at Split Rock Lighthouse.

Peeking through the trees

Matthew and Me with the lighthouse

In the lighthouse by the gear assembly. It had a 200 pound counterweight that needed to be cranked about every 2 hours.

The lens

See the top of the lighthouse? It's in a pretty area with some mesmerizing, swirling currents around some rocks.

A view from the other side of the lighthouse.

U, Megan and Matthew with the lighthouse.

Matthew, Me and Megan walking on the rocks.

Matthew, Me and Megan

Panoramic with the lighthouse to the left (north).

Family selfie: Megan, Me, Matthew, U

Pretty tunnel!

We drove along the Lake Superior shoreline in Wisconsin and saw this lovely sign. No, we didn't see any turtles crossing. We drove out to Bark Point and saw Lost Creeks 1, 2 and 3 as well as Lost Creek Bog.

U

We drove through the cute town of Cornucopia, WI.

Into state 48 for Megan and Matthew!

U, Matthew and Me went to sauna at our hotel while Megan watched Brave.

Great Lakes Day 0 & 1: Jay Cooke and Gooseberry Falls State Parks, Palisade Head

 For Fall Break, we headed up to the Great Lakes region. Megan and Matthew requested that we go here so that they could get three of the states they had not yet been to: Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. We had an evening flight, arriving quite late in Minneapolis. It was close to 1:30 am before we got to our hotel. The kids were super excited about our upgraded car: a Dodge Durango with seat warmers (and coolers in the front) and a steering wheel warmer.

Megan and Matthew sat by each other on the plane.

We slept in a bit the next morning, ate breakfast and then headed on our way.

We drove by the University of Minnesota to see where Me was born.

There were lots of colorful leaves on our drive. Megan and Matthew took A LOT of pictures.

Me and Matthew at Jay Cooke State Park. It was a really cool park. Matthew thought that water looked like root beer and had a theory that the water was actually piped underground to bottling facilities where sugar and carbonation were added to make A&W root beer.

Megan, Me and Matthew

The suspension bridge over the river. U asked Megan if we should shake the bridge and she said no as she didn't want to fall into the root beer river.

Matthew and Me with Megan behind us.

U on the suspension bridge.

A couple other pictures from the area.

Nice stack of leaves.

Lovely heart.

Downriver from the suspension bridge. From this location, you can really see how the St Louis River dumps 24 million gallons of water/day into Lake Superior.

Further downriver. The water is so calm here.

Panoramic. We picked up an extra set of kids.

State 47 for Megan and Matthew.

U at the Upper Falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park. We decided this river looked more like cream soda.

U at the Middle Falls.

Megan at the Middle Falls

That's one tenacious tree!

Megan.

Matthew with the Lower Falls.

Close up of the Lower Falls.

Me and U with Split Rock Lighthouse in the background.

Close up of the lighthouse.

Matthew selfie with Split Rock Lighthouse.

Megan, Me and Matthew at Palisade Head.

Me at Palisade Head. It's beautiful!