I know everyone loves to hear about other peoples’ vacations, not. But, I’m going to share anyway, because I’m home tonight –someone has to stay home from caucusing to keep an eye on a groggy puppy after getting her teeth cleaned today. I actually wish I would have done this for all of our vacations, because I don’t do a scrapbook (and if I do it takes me like 4+ years to finish).
Last Thursday night we drove up to Duluth for our 6th wedding anniversary. <3 After our work weeks we were ready for some time away. We stayed at the South Pier Inn, which is right next to the lift bridge.
Our room came equipped with binoculars and a monocular so we could get a close up look at the ice. Exciting stuff, let me tell you.
On Thursday night we popped over to Grandma’s for a quick bite carb load, (may I suggest Grandma’s Wild Rice Burger), before Friday’s fat bike tour with Day Tripper of Duluth. Jake was our tour guide and photographer. Nolan and I both have road bikes that we ride in the summer and use on a trainer in the winter, so we’re used to biking, but wow. Fat bikes take a lot more work!
We started on snowmobile trails and then went on some single track trails. It took a while to get used to the bike and the feel of riding on snow. I’ve never really mountain biked so the idea of letting your back tire skid freaked me out the first few times.
The weather was perfect and my watch said I burned over 560 calories so I considered it a great start to our weekend vacation. I’d highly recommend Day Tripper of Duluth!
After our bike tour we walked over to Northern Waters Smokehaus for lunch. There were always multiple people in line so it was hard to snap this photo of their varieties of smoked fish.
Our sandwiches hit the spot!
Then we did some shopping around Canal Park, including grabbing some sea salt caramels and truffles from Hepzibah’s. All that walking made us thirsty, so we popped into Vikre Distillery for some refreshment. There was a super annoying know-it-all at the bar, so we ordered our drinks and snuck upstairs to a quiet spot in the corner.
That night we went to 7 West Taphouse in downtown Duluth to try one of their multiple taps. I ordered the cream cheese n’ olive burger and I ate the entire thing! Vacation calories don’t count, right?
Saturday was our low-key day. I did a quick run through downtown and along the lake to try to burn off that burger. Then we grabbed some breakfast at the Duluth Grill and went to a local bowling alley and played a few games. Just like all the shopping the day before, all that bowling made us thirsty so we headed over to Bent Paddle.
Nolan maybe won the bowling games, but I sunk all his battleships. 
We were still thirsty so we popped over to Lake Superior Brewery, where Nolan continued to sample the brews while I sampled the root beer. And we continued “playing games for fun.” 
Saturday night we went to JJ Astor, a revolving restaurant at the top of the Radisson Hotel. Unlike my motion sickness on cruises, this was much slower moving so I was fine. I can’t believe we’ve been to Duluth several times and this was the first time visiting this restaurant. We devoured crab cakes, caesar and blackberry salads, and pork tenderloins and duck breast. We skipped dessert because we brought up a bottle of Silver Oak, which we drank with the chocolates we bought earlier.
No matter the season Duluth is always a great weekend getaway. <3
aWWWW! Lovely to see you two had a romantic getaway!