Month: December 2020

We woke up in Indiana and headed through Indianapolis to Ohio! We are headed to the Cincinnati zoo to see Fiona the Hippo, I have followed them on Instagram since she was born premature! I was so excited to see her…yep was, this is 2020 right?? No moose, no northern lights, no Fiona!

We arrived early enough to see the animals before the Festival of lights started. It wasn’t your typical zoo visit, a lot of the animals were in for the winter, but we actually had some really cool experiences with some of the animals in their indoor enclosures.

First though, we headed to see Fiona…at this point I didn’t realize it had to be sunny for her to be out and three degrees warmer than it was.

Out first stop was the elephants, they were training them which was neat, one was actually playing fetch with the trainer!

Then off to the giraffes, Ry’s favorite. They have a baby giraffe she wanted to see, Theo!

We got to see them up close because for the most part they were indoors! Our next stop was at the painted dogs. The zoo keeper was placing raw meat around the yard so we waited for them to come out and it was so cool. They ran all over some even fought for the meat!

We also visited the orangutan indoors, he swung all over, all around and stopped for pics and everything! It was crazy! We usually just see them sitting around, this guy was huge over 6 ft tall and his name was Henry!

Fiona was up next and I was so excited…we were finding little Fiona fairies and everything…then we came to her water hole and there was nothing!!! I was so so bummed 😭 they didn’t even have a sign explaining where they were. At least the fairies were cute!

Next stop was the Rhino’s they have a 3 month old Rhino…he better be there!!!!

He was!!! Ajani Joe was having the best time, he was running around, kicking up dirt, and playing with toys. He was so much fun to watch! And he was absolutely adorable!!

We headed off to different areas searching for animals! In the indoor monkey enclosure there was a chimp that was fist bumping Ryanna against the glass! In a nocturnal area there was an active aardvark that was digging at and playing with Bree’s hand against the glass. It even flopped over on the ground digging at her hand! It was so neat!The penguins also interacted with Ry’s hand. It was so fun we’ve never seen animals respond to us quite like this!

And then there was Samantha! The 50yr. Old gorilla! It was pretty neat! I thought oh I can take a pic with her! We found one sleeping rather gracefully so we thought for sure it was her, and snapped a pic!

Surprise…it’s a silverback male gorilla…🤦🏻‍♀️ ugh…no Samantha either!

We ended our animal hunting with Samantha, time for the Festival of lights! It was getting dark and the zoo looked amazing with all the lights!

We walked the entire zoo again looking at all the beautiful lights and paper animal lanterns everywhere! No words can do it justice so enjoy all the pics!

Oh! But we found some northern lights! Maybe not the exact ones we were looking for, but we loved them!

We had such a good time, it was a great way to end our trip!

Tomorrow we make the last leg home!

After leaving Minnesota we headed to Wisconsin for the night. We woke the next morning early and headed out for Chicago!

It is still cold in Wisconsin, waking up to 28°! 🥶

We are pros at road travel and always have lots to do, we have about 20hrs. Of driving time to home. This morning, Daddy surprised the girls with rocks he had taken from Lake Superior and paints so they could paint rocks in the car!

We arrived in Chicago and hit the ground running! We came in from the north and saw Wrigley field…which the girls could care less about 🤣. We parked in Grant Park North and were right at the Cloud Gate/Bean I wanted the girls to see! We brought them here when Bree was 9 months old and Ry was 2, it was like 15° and the coldest week Chicago had seen. It was cold today but nothing like that and now they actually have a memory of Chicago! 🤣

Everything is different with COVID we couldn’t walk up to the bean and public restrooms were a challenge to find! 😳 but we made the mist of it and saw the river walk and walked all over downtown!

We even managed to find strangers kind enough to take our pic, although Alan has definitely mastered family selfies on this trip I was grateful for her!

We of course found a Starbucks so I could get my souvenir cup and some warm beverages…and not half a block away there was a dunkin (Ry’s fave) Alan we t to get the car a d then we drove around finding some cool places in downtown!

The riverwalk was beautiful too, the wind was whipping through there!

We headed out and towards Indiana, we spent another dinner in our hotel room, although I believe in Indiana we could have gone out but in our Pj’s, watching Hallmark movies has become a favorite of ours on this trip…except Alan, his PJ’s weren’t warm enough he said!

Lake Superior has been so beautiful every day we have seen it, but today took the cake! It was so clear and pretty and actually a little warm! 🤣 It was only 30° today!

We have really enjoyed the North Shore, it has that small town feel and everything moves slower. Perfect vacation spot!

The sun rising over the lake is pretty spectacular too! We loved our little cabin on the lake! The view could not be beat! We were able to see the sun set off to the right and then it would rise right out our window.

Before we left, we played around on the rocks outside our room and got some good pics of our little family. Alan and Ry couldn’t help climbing some rocks and Bree played in the ice.

We had one more place to explore before we officially head south towards home. Temperance State Park is right by our resort so we headed there. The trails around here go everywhere so we parked the car and headed out. Sometimes we were on a paved path, other times it was a small snow covered trail in the forest. It was a lot of fun! We found frozen waterfalls, and lakes we even were able to walk on, though some of us were very hesitant!

We had snow ball fights, looked for animals and even rock climbed a bit when we didn’t realize there were stairs leading right to where we climbed too 🤦🏻‍♀️

Bree didn’t want anything to do with the frozen lake, after everyone had done it Alan said if you don’t you’ll be the only one who won’t be able to say you walked on a frozen lake, so she conceded. Then Alan proceeded to take her out much farther than Ry and I went. Mommy was very nervous but Daddy knew and it was all good! The ice was over 6 inches thick at one point!

After trekking all over the upstream waterfall portion we wanted to go further only to discover an orange warning sign saying it was hunting season and they did not advise hikers any further up the trail! 😳

So, we decided to go downstream to the mouth of the river where it emptied into Lake Superior.

The girls collected icicles, mommy laid out on the beach and daddy got great family pictures!

It has been such a great trip! We are headed towards home now, one stop to visit Chicago and then home!

My sweet hubby made one more stop in Duluth for me at my favorite coffee spot ☕️and then we left Minnesota!

It’s good to have an end to journey towards, but it’s the journey that matters in the end!

Day 2 in Tofte started when the sun came up, 7:30am. The days are short here so we want to get the most out of our day!

The day started with pastries, and Uncle Josh!

My brother in laws have back to back birthdays and it was fun to Facetime Josh, he is usually always colder than we are, but today we were 19° and he was 39°! He said it was his birthday gift, some warm weather!

After breakfast and birthday calls we headed out. We read up on sighting moose and read that the Gunflint Trail was a sure fire bet to see moose. So we headed out. It is a 57 mile paved road through the heart of Minnesota Wilderness.

It was absolutely stunning!! As we headed out of town and up the trail more and more snow appeared. It was breathtaking, we found lake after lake frozen solid or have frozen half running. We soon realized why Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes they are everywhere.

The girls loved the snow at all the lookouts. Right across the lake was Canada that is how far up North we were. We continued our search for the elusive moose all the way to the end of the trail.

We hoped to see some on our way back down the trail, but alas we did not. Though it was a bummer to not see any moose we had the best time!!! We played, we talked, we laughed, we enjoyed God’s creation with no phones, no iPads, no interruptions, no service!

It is definitely worth seeing, I am so glad we came in the winter!

After completing the trail and were back in town we decided to head to the Canadian border, maybe we would see a moose! On our way we did see a National Monument about the fur traders from Canada. The girls just happened to be studying that in school so we made a detour!

Then we made it to the border, the sign when we came into Minnesota was under construction so Alan got his 49th state pic at the Canadian border!

After that we ran across the street to a 1/2 mile hike to a waterfall Alan read about! We were now racing the sun that was setting so we booked it to the falls and it was so worth it! So beautiful!

High Falls, US/Canada border on the pigeon river

Seeing the 1/2 frozen water around here is so cool!!! The noise of the ice, the roar of the falls. These pictures do not do it justice! Plus the freezing cold…add that in and it is magical!! 🥶

We headed back to our hotel after this, we knew the place at our hotel had take out so we enjoyed dinner on the floor of the hotel with another Hallmark movie!

In a little bit we headed out to a fire pit and were able to roast marshmallows and enjoy s’mores! COVID has taken away all the activities of our resort, so this was nice to be able to enjoy! We also were able to get hot chocolate!

We hung around for a bit then headed out to search the skies for the Northern lights! We again were not able to see what we were searching for. The giant full moon made it almost impossible to see the lights, plus the probability was only at 50%, but the stars…they were everywhere. Being in a very dark area with only the moon to light up makes the sky almost light up with stars. and thanks to that incredibly bright moon we were able to even get pics on our phones they were so vibrant!

Ready to seek out the northern lights!

Orion, The big dipper, and Cassiopeia

It was a very full day we saw and did so much! Even though we didn’t see anything we searched for, we found so much more we didn’t even realize was out there!

Lastly, as we headed back to the hotel a little fox came running down the road! The perfect end to the day!

🦊

What a morning!!! It is so cold here in Duluth it is unbelievable! We got up and got ready, bundled up and headed down to Park Point an island out in the middle of Duluth harbor where the kids go to the beach!

First off though my sweet southern kids found patches of snow and played and played!

We walked a little over a mile down the beach finding patches of snow a d fun things. On the way back my legs were stinging they were so cold, I was the only one without long johns on!

We headed back to the town after our beach time, and found my favorite coffee shop! I was so excited to find it and share it with Ry. She is becoming quite the coffee lover! ☕️

We decided to head up to Enger Tower to see a panoramic view of Duluth! We pulled in and parked on a small hill that was icy, Alan got out to check and the car started sliding backwards!! I was freaking out!!! So we decided not to park and just drive around. We saw some beautiful views of the town below!

We also found some real snow for Bree, she has been wanting snow since we left Georgia!! We stumbled on two frozen lakes and lots of snow!!

After grabbing lunch we headed more north up the north shore of Lake Superior! It was such a beautiful drive! We are headed to Tofte, 60 miles from Canada! It sits on the 47th parallel, higher than our relatives in Quebec, Canada!

It does not disappoint! It is a beautiful place!

Our hotel is right on the lake, and our room overlooks the lake!!

We got here right as the sun was setting, which is relatively early, around 4pm so we were able to see a gorgeous sunset! The girls enjoyed cracking the ice on the rocks as we watched the waves break and splash!

After dark we headed to a slightly bigger town even further north for dinner. When we got there almost everything was closed! Covid has really shut everything down. We were happy to find a pizza place still open. It has been making pizzas here since 1981, as old as I am!! We ran to a grocery store for some salad fixings and had a delicious pizza and salad dinner in the car!

We headed back to our rooms and got cozy watching more Hallmark movies and the Muppet Christmas Carol!

More exploring tomorrow!!

Water park time!! We arrived too late the night before to use the water park so we are packing the car then doing the waterpark. They let you use the waterpark until 3 the day you check out!

There was hardly anyone in the waterpark, so we got to ride everything!! The girls loved it all! Alan and the girls rode alot together then he talked me into going to the adults only hot tub which was awesome!

He managed to get me on two tides also! After that they all decided they wanted to try the flow rider which they all had great success at! Ryanna did great, Bree too then Alan got on and was able to even do a few tricks the guy showed him!

By this time, we had ridden everything we had wanted and were ready to hit the amusement park! We did a quick change and off we went!

We rode and did everything we wanted there too! We rode go carts, did the treetop course again, rock climbed, rode the ferris wheel…it was so much fun and we got to do everything!

We headed out of the Dells late, headed north to Duluth, Minnesota.

While we were driving we went right through a snow storm! We were barely in it, but Bree was so excited to get to see falling snow!

The girls could not leave Wisconsin without cheese curds so we grabbed some at the border! We made it to Duluth in the nick of time to be able to see the Bentleyville lights! My dearest friend and honorary big sister is from Duluth and she told us it would be so fun and she was right! Usually it is a walk through and they serve food and it’s cold and lots of fun. This year thanks to covid it was drive through but we enjoyed it!

We went back to our hotel after a quick bite to eat and did laundry, watched a Hallmark movie and went to sleep! Everything closes early up here because it gets dark so soon, but we will be up tomorrow to explore!

Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge