This morning we had a delicious breakfast in Minneapolis at a DDD restaurant called the Colossal Cafe. Becca had a Cinnamon roll that was as big as her head. Warmed in the oven and dripping with icing, fantastic. She shared a bite with all of us. Northward we went. First stop was in Garrison, MN. This is the walleye capital of the world. We always hit these stops. Last year was the worlds largest tea cup, before that was the largest totem pole. This year, walleye. As we drove around what seemed big enough to be one of the great lakes, we discovered it was really called Mille Lacs Lake. I think that's redundant...I think Lacs is Lake in the native language. There is a large Indian reservation here and lots of the towns have really cool hard to pronounce names. We discovered a giant walleye fish statue and believe it or not there is a lady that sits in a little booth behind the fish and comes out every time someone wants a picture. She offered to take ours, I turned her down and I think she was irritated that she couldn't do her job.
Continuing north, we stopped in Grand Rapids. Not to be confused with Grand Rapids Michigan, but Grand Rapids Minnesota. Judy Garland was born here. There is an old school downtown that has a yellow brick road dedicated to her. It was Tall Timber Days in town so the streets were lined with people waiting for a parade. I'm pretty sure everyone within a 50 mile radius was there to watch. We walked the yellow brick road, checked out the old school and hit the road. We saw no munchkins and the scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion were sadly missing too.
In a tiny town called Hibbing, we stopped at the birthplace of the Greyhound bus system. It was started here to take iron miners into town to shower, go to church and see friends. Mom and Becca waited a bit for the bus, but it never showed. Strange, but cool stop. I bet most cant say they have been here. :-) Onward to Ely (pronounced with an i sound at the end) we began seeing cars and cars and cars loaded with canoes. Trailers pulling canoes, canoes everywhere. We knew were were headed in the right direction.
We pulled into the quaint little town just 12 miles from Canada and were loaded up with two canoes, maps of the best lakes to visit and fishing gear for Chris. Our room for the next two nights is the Grand Ely Lodge. Its a cabin like lodge sitting right on a lake. Somehow we scored a lake view room. We are told this is the best time of year to be here. Took a 2 hour canoe tour of the lake that has formed on top of an old iron mine tonight where Chris caught a bunch of fish. Great start to our canoe portion of the trip. Tomorrow we head out for a full day canoeing the boundary waters. We will be carrying the canoes 1/4 mile into the lake. One person under each canoe with it on our shoulders. Mom and Becca have nominated Chris and I to do the carrying. We will spend the entire day out there. I cant wait. This is a dream. One of the top places in the WORLD to canoe.
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