Thurs. Sept. 5, 2013 - vacation to Duluth, MN Part I

 We walked out of the backyard of our rental house...

 ...and right onto the beach of Lake Superior

 Wow, check out all this sand!

 Digging

 Building sandcastles

 We took a lot of walks along the beach

 We toured the Split Rock Lighthouse

 Winston, the dad of a friend, is a volunteer at the lighthouse and gave us an amazing personal tour

 Gorgeous views

 The girls enjoyed checking it all out

 The foghorn was so loud

 But of course the girls loved it so our personal tour guide, Winston, blew it several times for them

 Cuties

 Micaela was mesmerized by the lens at the top of the lighthouse

It was pretty cool

 They liked looking at the old-fashioned girls bedroom

 Then we biked along nearby trails

 We found a gorgeous spot

 With a view of the lighthouse we had just visited (I'm glad Chad was pulling the girls, we went a long way!)

We stayed on this little strip for a while, it was so nice and we had it all to ourselves

 Riley and Mommy by the never-ending lake

 Micaela liked throwing rocks into the lake

While Riley built her version of a lighthouse

In the beginning of September we took a family vacation to MN. We were looking for a relaxing, nature-filled vacation and some friends encouraged us to try Duluth, which is on Lake Superior. They were right, it was the perfect vacation for us. We rented a house right on the beach and were treated to beautiful sunrises over the lake, hiking, biking, building sandcastles and, most importantly, memorable times as a family. 

We were lucky to get a personal tour of the Split Rock Lighthouse in Two Harbors. A friend's Dad is a volunteer there and walked us around the lighthouse and all the buildings and answered all our questions. Winston was really good with the girls and blew the extremely loud foghorn for them several times, which they thought was fantastic. After our morning there we definitely understood why its a must-see. We picnicked then biked through the park to an amazing, deserted cove where we played by the water. We finished our day with slices of pie; perfect!