Duluth

Mosaic from the Lake Superior Zoo

Mark and the boys got some time away from Aliza and I this past weekend.  Aliza, my mom and I went Duluth, Minnesota for a couple of days to relax, shop, swim, eat, and do whatever Aliza wanted to.  And for the most part that's exactly what we did.  We may have indulged her every whim a tiny bit.  We may have bought her just about every little trinket and toy she wanted in every little shop we wandered into.  I couldn't help it.  Delighting and pampering my daughter feels like indulging myself.  And I can just spend this week now gently bringing her back to a humble reality, where she doesn't get every little thing she asks for.

But it was just so easy to do what she wanted, without her little brothers there, limiting what we could do and how long we could do it.  And most of what Aliza wanted to do, Grandma and I wanted to do too.

Interstate 35 through Duluth is under loads of construction right now, and threading the car between the cement blockaids was neither relaxing nor enjoyable.  There was also a lot of traffic -- apparently we were not the only TwinCitians who thought a weekend in Duluth was in order.  But the Canal was scenic and breezy and gorgeous as usual.  I only get there about every three years, and every single visit I think, I've got to get up here more often.

We met up with my oldest friend Ro, who took us on a fruitless although entertaining search for agate rocks.

Not being regular beachgoers, I truly think we could have sat on the shore of Lake Superior and burrowed and poked through those rocks, looking for nothing in particular, all afternoon and well into the night.

It was an overcast afternoon and later the clouds let loose just a few raindrops.  Just enough to create this luminous rainbow.

It was even, for awhile, a double rainbow.  I don't know that I've ever seen one before.  If I have, I certainly didn't give it the appropriate respect.

I didn't do this rainbow proper photograhic justice, but you know how rainbows are.  If I had run off and tried to get a better angle, it would have disappeared forever into the sky.  You have to take your shots when you can get them.  They're kind of like children that way.

The day after we visited Lake Superior, we visited the Lake Superior Zoo.  Seemed like a lot of it was under construction too, or else just muddy from record rainfalls this summer.  But if I were to make unreasonable and unnecessary goals, if my life were one of leisure where I could actually concieve of achieving things like this, I'd like to visit every zoo in the United States.  That's one of my "When I Win the Lottery" life plans.  That, and go on a safari through Africa.  With a really great camera.

 She was the tamest, friendiest llama I've ever met.  Know how I know this is a female llama?  The long, thick eyelashes.

When we got home, the boys were happy to see me, I know, even though they pretty much ignored my presence for the first few minutes.  That's just how they roll.  And I know daddy did a great job keeping them busy and having "guy" time with them.

Next vacation -- this coming weekend, we'll be vacationing in the greater New Ulm area.  I don't know how much sightseeing and relaxing will be done by me, but this one is for the Zack and AJ.  It's their turn to do what is fun for them, to knock off and hang loose for a few days in a place they are familiar, with people they love.