Gitchi-Gami - Day 2

Woke up and Lorrie was still cold. So weird!! We hadn't connected our sleeping bags since it was so late. Turns out she hadn't zipped up the bottom of hers either. So she had a nice stream of cold air going through her bag all night! Oops! lol We got up and saw how great our campsite really was. We both decided we really like state forests. After 1 experience! lol Darshi was up already and Lorrie was right, Darshi was very cold last night having no air mattress to sleep on. Even though ours was flat, it was still something between us and the ground. I made eggs and cheese on my little whisperlite burner. It was quite good! How difficult are eggs and cheese though? We also had some grapes. Yeah, I know the menu might be an exciting thing to blog about. So what! Write your own! (= We all went for a walk on the river afterwards. There was very little water so we were able to walk right in the river. Tori had some difficulty because of her little paws. Emma seemed to do okay.

Afterwards, we packed up the site and headed to Tetagouche State Park, Lorrie's "favorite place!" We walked along a ridge and came to a barricade so had to turn back. She was bound and determined to get down to one of the beaches! (= We had to walk down the road some before we found another trail into one of the pebble beaches. That was gorgeous! We sat and played there for a long time. Emma and Tori loved the water. It was shallow enough most of the way so they barely had to swim. Lorrie and I picked out rockes for cairns. I love flat rocks like that! They're perfect for cairns. They all started talking about their tradition of having pizza when they travel together. So we started to head out in search of pizza.... with Darshi and me taking time for photos of course! lol Lorrie and I both thought there was a Sven and Ole's in Beaver Bay. But we couldn't find anything so we drove on. Lorrie tried to talk them into eating at a restaurant overlooking the water so that we'd be closer to Gooseberry Falls State Park, which is where we were going to be camping. But they wanted pizza, not scenery! lol So we drove all the way down to Two Harbors with the intention of driving back to Gooseberry. Too much driving! Once there they didn't want to drive back to Gooseberry so we did the Harbor Walk in Two Harbors. That was very pretty also! SO many dragonflies! I cannot describe adequately what that was like with them flying all around us. I've never seen anything like that before. The trail went along the water and then into a harbor. There were a couple lighthouses that we didn't go up to see. But they were pretty from the park where we sat. It seemed to get hot very suddenly while we were there. I started taking clothes off and was still hot. I don't think they had much that could be taken off. /= So we started back to the cars. Darshi was heading to MSP to see a friend and then back to Mankato.

We needed to check into our campsite so off we went in our separate directions. We stopped for an iced coffee that was luke warm and then got ice and gas before heading out. Our campsite at Gooseberry was awesome! Lorrie had checked their website at the last minute Thursday before leaving work and there had been a cancellation. It was a lake front site! WOW! We were getting organized and pulling out Lorrie's tent, which she took back from Darshi. Then Karen showed up. We were finishing our stuff so I put up my tent for Karen to use. Gary, her boyfriend, had bought her an air mattress that was about 3 feet high! lol The corner poked out of my tent it was so big! lol She unzipped some things and got it all to work. Wow! Cushy! The 3 of us went for a walk along the water. It was gorgeous! I know, I say that a lot! But this area is just incredible. It was also scary here with no railing or anything. I kept Lorrie far away from the edge! I lowered myself down onto a rock and then pretended to fall. She freaked out just a little. But I got her back for screwing around with me at Cascade Fall in June! Yeah, I hold a grudge! Watch out! (= We took some postcard photos of the 3 of us. Then we needed to head BACK into Two Harbors to meet a couple of my friends, Barb and Lee, for dinner. They were also planning to ride the next day. They were staying in a hotel rather than camping. So we met at Blackwood's Bar and Grill. We were just a little late! There seems to be a lot of confusion when there's no cell phone coverage.! Ah well! It could just be me too! We had a good meal with great company! Afterwards, I went with Barb and Lee to Pamida for some film and a disposable camera. We also needed bowls for the cake Karen had made and a corkscrew for their wine! lol Lorrie and Karen went back to camp to get the fire going. Barb and Lee stayed for wine and dessert then headed out around 10pm. Campfires had to be out after 10pm. So we got ready for bed. We were both asleep pretty quickly!