6/30/2023 – 7/3/2023
For the long weekend Ashley invited me to go with her to her cousins wedding in Duluth, MN. We took off from Fargo on the 30th. I had to get my yearly Zorbaz fix, we stopped in Detroit Lakes, MN for lunch. The drive to Duluth always seems like it takes forever, but when we got there it was game on.
We got to Canal Park, parked in the hotel parking lot, and got ready to go out. We hooked up with her family and went to Canal Park Brewing Company for supper and a couple drinks. The real party started when we got to Grandma’s Restaurant. They had an open bar for all of the guests for four or so hours. We got there a bit early and went to the rooftop bar until people started showing up. We partied there all night. I met a ton of people and even did some networking.
The wedding was on the 1st. Ashley was panicking because she didn’t think there would be enough time to get ready. I wasn’t informed that I was going to the wedding so I only had a polo and jeans to wear. We got ready with plenty of time to spare and went downstairs to hang with her family until we had to go. The wedding was at The Garden in Canal Park. They had another open bar for the social hour before the wedding. The social hour lasted a couple of hours.
The wedding finally got started. It was a nice ceremony and didn’t last too long. Right after the wedding they opened the bar back up and set up for the food and band. The supper was really good. Ashley and I got different options, steak and chicken, and then shared them. The open bar continued throughout the night. We hung out with her cousins and listened to the band.
On the 2nd we started heading up the North shore of Lake Superior. We stopped at Castle Danger Brewery in Two Harbors, MN. We grabbed a beer there then went to Northshore Pizza Cafe for lunch. Our next stop was at North Shore Winery in Lutsen, MN. The winery was pretty nice. It was similar to most of the wineries in the area. They had a big outdoor space with a bandstand and a cool cellar room to get out of the heat.
I stopped at Good Harbor Bay overlook to get a great pic.
We got to our destination, Grand Marais, MN. We had supper at The Fisherman’s Daughter and walked around downtown. We finished our evening at Voyageur Brewing Company. They had a nice rooftop patio with a view of the lake.
The next day we started the day getting donuts at World’s Best Donuts, they were pretty good. We then walked out to Artists Point and the lighthouse. We drove up to a couple of the state parks to go hiking. We started at the Devils Kettle and then Cascade River. Devils Kettle was a nice hike, even with the 200 stairs.
Between the hikes we stopped at The Naniboujou Lodge. This is a Native American designed hotel and restaurant. They had some cool pictures of the lodge being built and other history.
We were thirsty after all the hiking that we did, so we went back to Duluth to get some beverages. We started at Duluth Cider. We didn’t find anything that we really liked there and moved on. Next we went to Bent Paddle Brewing Co. We stayed there for a couple hours playing dice. Their 10 Year Anniversary Stout was really good. Finally we went to Ursa Minor Brewing for last call. We stayed another night in Duluth and then headed home on the 4th.
