Traditions

Every year when the weather finally gets warm enough to walk around without a jacket, the kids and I take a trip to Canal Park in Downtown Duluth and walk along the Lakewalk.  And every year when we go past the beach Kira says, "I want to go in," and every year I think to myself, "God, she's nuts.  There was ice out there just a few weeks ago!"  and at first I argue and tell her no, it's too cold, she'll get hypothermia, the water is only 45 degrees blah blah blah...  And then eventually I relent and say, "Go ahead," in a I'm-calling-your-bluff kind of way.  And every year she does it.  It honestly surprises me every single time.  (What does that say about me?)  To illustrate how much of a surprise it is to me every year: ever since she was a toddler and ran in with her diaper on, I have not once thought to bring a change of clothes along.  Not. Once.

This year she went in wearing shorts and a fleece pullover.  After the initial shock she got used to it and swam around for about 20 minutes.  When she got out I felt her leg and she was FREEZING.  I made her roller-blade up the Lakewalk to dry off.  

I Love Duluth

This afternoon the family and I went on a St. Louis River tour with the St. Louis River Restoration Initiative.  We took a big tour boat through the Duluth Harbor and up the river a ways.  It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun.

This is a train bridge that goes across the river and when a boat comes the center of it pivots and makes room for boats to go through.  There was a guy in the little bridge-house watching us.  I waved at him but he didn't wave back.  We came really close to an iron ore ship too, but I was too busy eating meatballs to take a picture.

The part we toured is an estuary so we saw lots of birds and I saw a fish jump out of the water, but nobody else did, and the tour guide said there are fish as big as five feet long in the water.  Yikes.

Of course, we were on a boat so it didn't take Kira long to figure out that we were held captive so she tortured us all a little.  Mitch got butt bumped about 5000 times, I got my tenders pinched, and all she had to do to drive Sam crazy is touch his back.  I have to admire her ability to ride the line of being annoying enough to cause exasperation, but not annoying enough to get thrown over the side.  That's my girl!

The best part of the tour was when we pulled back up to the pier.  There were about 50 people looking over the side while the crew tied up the boat and this guy busted out on his unicycle and rode down the middle of the street.

It's not a quiet street.  He was in the middle of traffic.

I love Duluth.

More Flood

Remember yesterday when I told you we had a flood and you were all like, "Yeah, okay, whatever.  It was raining here too.  Just because it rains doesn't mean you had a flood.  Geez, you are always exaggerating."

Well I wasn't exaggerating!  I don't exaggerate!  Am I spelling that right?!  I don't know!  Here's more pictures from the damage yesterday (Thanks to my friend Dana's Facebook page):

Somebody's backyard

Haines Road

Vermillion Road

Grandma's Restaurant at Central Entrance

Swinging bridge at Jay Cooke State Park

See, it's worse than you thought.

Where's the Flood?

Holy Cow, has it been raining like crazy here in Duluth!  It started the night before last and yesterday as I was all cozy, comfy on the couch, watching the lightning and torrential rain I thought to myself, "This is nice.  I wonder how long I could do this until I get sick of it?"  The answer is one day.  We live on a big hill miles above the Duluth hills so we weren't in any danger of getting flooded out, but the rain was coming down so hard that it started seeping into our basement because the water can't flow down the hill fast enough.  We got six inches by last night (that's what she said). I got up early this morning because I was planning to go to a meeting downtown but my meeting was canceled because streets are flooded all over the place.  I got on Facebook and some people were posting pictures:

I'm not sure all these pictures are about the flood.  I got a little carried away stealing pictures.  The Duluth Zoo got flooded and apparently some of the farm animals in the petting zoo drowned or escaped, and I also heard some snakes have escaped, and according to one of the pictures I posted, apparently a seal has escaped too.  That would be weird.  To go out and look at how flooded your ditches are and see a seal.  The sun is starting to come out now so I am going to GO OUTSIDE!

A Summer Day

Today I woke up to a beautiful day and I was feeling good.  No vertigo!  Yay!  The kids and I went to Lester Park to play in the river for the afternoon.

The Lester river runs behind our house and today we drove closer to the mouth of the river to see the waterfalls and swim in the pools.  The picture above is Kira jumping off the rocks into the waterfall pool.  She jumped from higher than this too but I was too scared to take a picture because no mother wants photographic evidence of her baby getting seriously injured "... And this is the picture of the exact moment Kira broke both her legs and knocked out all her front teeth"; but I should have because I have never seen a happier face on a person in my life.  Oh, and no broken legs or teeth.  

She's a daredevil.  Sam and I thought she was nuts.  After that we moved down the river to a quieter spot and  discovered hundreds and hundreds of crayfish.  They were all over the place.  I told the kids that I want to take a camp stove down there and have a crayfish boil.  They think that sounds gross.  

This little guy, and about 40 others just like him kept crawling up to my feet that were soaking in the water.  

Sam caught this teeny guy and put it in Kira's goggles.  Cute huh?

The kids walking down the river.

Kira climbed up this rock and when she got to the top she said, "It's too hot!  It's too hot!
So Sam splashed water on her until she could get down.  What a guy!

It was a great day!  I love Duluth!