The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

We spent the night in an RV near Duluth. We were up late, laughing so hard we cried. I have so much fun when Alex travels with me. At dinner the night before (at an upscale restaurant), he stole an empty toilet paper roll from the bathroom because he could tell by the code on it that it was made at the paper mill he used to work at. He came back from the bathroom and set this toilet paper roll on the table where we were about to eat, and I just about died laughing and advised himnot to do that on dates. He set it on the seat next to him and then forgot to take it when we left, so I can only imagine how confused the waitress was to find that at our table.  Anyway, Sunday started off at Cascade River State Park. Gorgeous, just like the rest! Then Alex did a hike to the tallest point in Minnesota while I relaxed and read a book. Then we hiked to Devil’s Kettle Falls. No one knows how deep they are! There were sooooo many stairs on this hike. Our next stop was Grand Portage National Monume

My last national park in the lower 48! This park took a lot of effort to visit. Since we were coming from the Minnesota side, it was a 7 hour boat ride. And the boat was not particularly comfortable; nothing like that amazing ferry to Newfoundland last summer! But we survived and went nuts when we saw our hotel room. Soooo worth the trip! We stayed on themost developed part of the island, which was just a few buildings. The rooms all have balconies that are right on the water. We slept with the window open and listened to the waves all night. It rained a little bit after we arrived, so we just relaxed on the balcony for a while. When it cleared up, we went for a hike. It was a pleasant hike, but honestly, it was like hiking in other Midwestern spots- the scenery didn’t change much. The trail went right next to the lake, but the view was pretty much the same as it was from our balcony. We enjoyed the peaceful trail, and the forest smelled really good, but we probably only hiked about 3

We visited Voyageurs NP on Friday and spent the night in Fort Frances, Canada. Yesterday we spent the morning driving towards Duluth, and the rest of the day exploring. It was the best day! Our first stop was Gooseberry Falls, which was superpretty but super crowded.  Then we hiked to this waterfall at Tettegouche River State Park. We didn’t hike all the way down to the bottom, so we only have views from the top. But I was soglad the rainbow showed up in my pictures! This was the view looking downstream from the falls. Gorgeous! The last park we visited was my favorite: TemperanceRiver State Park.  It was a river running through a gorge with waterfalls along it. Every time we went around a corner, there was another scenic view.  (I thought it would be fun to pose on that bridge, but unfortunately, I just blend in.) We then headed over to a “mountain” that Alex was going to climb, but we were able to drive most of the way up it. We had been looking for cliffs to rappel all day (just bec