08-28-08 - Camping Mini-TR, Conclusion, Day Three
As I said, the night before our last day we slept REALLY well. I did hear Henry wake up twice and whine for about 1.4 seconds until he found his Nuk and then he was back out.
So, we woke up happy and refreshed. I was slightly happy to be done with camping, but sad as well-there was so much more in Duluth and Two Harbors that I wanted to explore!
The morning was cool, but beautiful.
I'm thinkin' cool and beautiful mornings are fairly standard in these parts.
I went and got coffee for Joe and I. I went in my pajamas. No make-up, no contacts (don't worry, I wore my glasses), morning breath and all. Don't worry-I didn't have to get out of the car-it was a drive up coffee place.
We drank our coffee slowly at our picnic table and just soaked in the morning. Henry had some milk and we all had a couple muffins I had made at home.
After Joe headed off to the showers and I started to organize/pack things. Henry hung out in the tent and got into things. Such as the wipes. He managed to pull half the wipes out of the package before I saw it all!
Looking so innocent...
The clouds were hanging really low on the lake-can't tell as well in the picture, but it was really neat looking.
While Joe packed the car I went off to the showers. When I got back we took down the tent and headed out of our campsite and back toward Duluth.
Joe had mentioned a mansion tour that he did years ago with his family and he would like to check it out again. thewesterberg knew what he was talking about right away, Glensheen Mansion. So, we stopped and found they were giving tours on Sunday-another one was about to happen in about 20 minutes.
We hung out in our car for 20 minutes, I did my hair.
I'm not too shy.
And don't worry-it doesn't look like that for very long!
The tour started and we actually missed the first bit because we got caught up in a film about the family that built the home and didn't hear them announcing that they were leaving.
The tour was really neat! I love history and so does Joe, so this was a real treat for us. I won't bore ya'll with the details-but in short, this husband and wife both came from very humble backgrounds, made some smart financial moves in buying land waaaaay 'up nort' Minnesota, now called the Iron Range and sold it, in the early 1900's for 15 MILLION. Think of what 15 million is today. Now think of what that was 100 years ago.
Ya, these people were loaded! But they seemed to be very normal and humble about their wealth. Here is the wikipedia article on the mansion and the family:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glensheen_Historic_Estate
And a brief history on the murder, which is well known here in Minnesota...
The family had, if I remember correctly, 6 children. The one woman never did marry, but she adopted two children. The one was/is a sociopath and ended up killing her nurse and her mother in the home, there was a film in the 70's made about it. She has been in and out of jail her whole life and is currently serving time, an 80 year old woman, for Identity Theft.
The house and grounds were beautiful. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so here are some of the outside:
This is the 'acorn room'. It is a breakfast room right off the kitchen. There were many live plants in there and it was decorated to look like you were inside an acorn. The green tile on the walls is simply beautiful-they cost $5 a tile back then, and now would be around $500 a tile.
The tent you see in the background there was from a wedding the previous night. I cannot even begin to fathom how much it would cost to have your wedding here.
While walking around the grounds I saw this:
so pretty!
Henry and I by the fountain.
The view of the lake-which the family actually didn't have-there were many trees here until the 40's which blocked this view. The family appericated their privacy and kept the trees. But the view is spectacular. I could tell the wedding had a bonfire on the beach the night before too...so neat!
After the tour we were both hungry. We had seen a pizza place near the lift bridge the previous night, and since Joe is a pizza fiend, this is where we ended up. When we walked up, we realized it was another Grandma's! It's called "Grandma's Sports Garden".
It was a BIG place!
Reall neat inside, this was above us:
Stuff hanging off the walls everywhere...
Remember when I went to NYC and I mentioned "Frickles"? Fried pickles? And how much I loooove them? Well, they had 'em!
And, somehow-because I thought it was impossible, these were even better than those in NYC! Probably because they are made with Minnesota pickles and not icky NYC ones...
Anyway....we also got pizza of course! This was a "wrapped pizza".
DELISH!
We were so stuffed, but it was an excellent conclusion to our "Non-WeightWatchers Weekend"!
After this it was already getting to be late in the day, so we headed out of town. We had to stop a few times on the way home because Henry was a bit fussy, but we still made decent time back home.
We had a great weekend, despite a few rough patches. I hope we go again next year!!
With all that said, I am not sure in includes the gingerbread house at the GF? Someone here is bound to know though...
Right before the sailboat went under there were some kids biking / running across it and when they blew the whistle the kids just started yelling "Don't raise it yet! Don't raise it!" and they BOOKED it across that bridge! 
The sauce served here was ranch. In NYC it's a horseradish sauce. I prefer the horseradish sauce, but the ranch was good enough for me!
)
Look at me! The Craft Challenged made a pretty cool craft!!!!! 
for you though...
(and that's literal, I really just finished some popcorn...)
