Weekend Getaway To The North Shore

Dan and I decided to go on a little weekend getaway to the North Shore for a couple of days this fall. The rain and cold didn’t stop us from doing everything we wanted to do! We wanted to go in the fall to see all of the beautiful colored leaves on the trees but with our busy schedules we ended up going in Late October. To our surprise, it was just as beautiful! The leaves had fallen and that had made the ground very colorful! It was quite the experience and I would recommend exploring the North Shore to everyone.

In this story, I will tell you about all the adventurous and scary things we went through on this little fun getaway!

On a Thursday afternoon, Milo (my husky) and I made our way up to the North Shore. Dan happened to be working out of town for a couple of days and he coincidently was working in a town that was on our way to the Bluefin Bay Resort where we were staying for the weekend. I was absolutely surprised when Dan was the one that thought of bringing Milo for the weekend. He was bound and determined to find us a place that accepted pets. I think he has a soft spot for our little Milo! Anyways, we picked Dan up at the plant he was working at and we went on our way!

Once we arrived at the Bluefin Bay  Resort we were starving and needed to eat. After you get past Duluth there really aren’t many places to stop and eat which we didn’t know! It was late, about 8 pm so we dropped Milo off at the room and we made our way to Bluefin Grille which was the restaurant right at the resort! I was wearing sweatpants and this place was fancy but after a 6-hour car ride, I had no ambition to put something cute on! Well, that didn’t stop Dan from treating me like a princess of course. He ordered us a bottle of my favorite wine which is a Riesling and the wine was called Evolution 2016, it was AMAZING! After we got our wine we were served some amazing bread, it was some of the best bread I have ever had. Then I ordered PAN SEARED WALLEYE and Dan ordered CHILI GARLIC SHRIMP. Both meals were amazing, to say the least! Just to warn you the place it a little spendier than normal. We ended our night watching a movie and sitting in the Jacuzzi.

Friday morning we woke up and got on the road heading North to the Canada border where the tallest waterfall is in MN. On our way, we had a plan to stop at some popup waterfalls along highway 61. I had a map printed off but we didn’t really follow it, we just stopped where we thought looked cool! So the first place we ended up at was Cascade River State Park in Lusten, MN. When you are visiting the parks you have to buy a day parking pass for $10 and you can then go anywhere! This hike was by far one of our favorites. The river was amazing, there were about 8 different waterfalls in a row if you sat at a certain lookout point! This was the first set of fall Milo has ever seen, of course, we had to take a picture! It was a short hike to see the river so we decided to walk a little farther to see Lookout Mountain. When we reached the top it was very cloudy so we weren’t able to see much.

A couple of time the clouds would clear for a couple of seconds and we were able to see the view which was incredible! Well worth the hike. We took Milo on the rock edge with us as we enjoyed the view, he wasn’t a fan of the drop-off. We met a cute older couple up on the rock and they were visiting the lookout mountain together after 35 years together. It was the cutest thing ever so I looked at Dan and said I hope that will be us in 35 years! We finally made our way back to the car and headed on our way north on highway 61.  

Our next stop was the city of Grand Portage where the tallest waterfall in Minnesota is. Grand Portage is located in the upper top right point of Minnesota by the Canada border. Milo was not feeling the long car ride! It was a short walk down to the falls and the entire path was paved and the hiking was very easy and short. The leaves on the trees were huge, the biggest ones I have ever seen! There are about 3 difference lookout points and a little bit of history that you are able to read. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and made our way back to the car.

As we were on our way back to the Blue Fin Bay we passed this really cute town called Grand Marais where we had a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop called Java Juice. This little coffee shop was so cute and the service was very fast. While we were enjoying our cup of coffee we noticed a lighthouse out the window. I gave Dan a big smile and ask if we could please walk out to the lighthouse! Of course, he was all in for doing that, so we saved our hot coffee in the car and made our way to the lighthouse. It was very windy and cold but it was so much fun walking out there with the waves crashing on the rocks! Milo was not feeling this adventure, Dan had to basically carry him out to there! We didn’t last very long before we got cold and ran back to the car where we were greeted by our wonderful hot coffee!

Once we got back to the BlueFin Bay we were exhausted! All I wanted to do was be warm! As I filled the jacuzzi Dan started up a fire. Milo took a nap while Dan and I sat in the Jacuzzi and drank some of our favorite Moscato, Stella Rosa and watched a movie. We both started to get really hungry so Dan went and ordered us some pizza to our room and right after filling our bellies we fell asleep.

We woke up the next morning refreshed and ready for another fun day. As I was getting ready Dan ordered us some breakfast from Coho Cafe which is one of the restaurants at the BlueFin Bay.  This restaurant didn’t give us the option for delivery so Dan went and picked it up like a takeout. We loved our room so much wanted to spend time in it! I ordered the breakfast burrito which was AMAZING and Dan ordered the french toast which was ok, we also got coffees with espresso of course! He ended up finishing mine because it was so big, highly recommend!  We finally made our way to the next park we wanted to tour for the day called Tettegouche State Park.  The park was only about a 15-minute drive and we were pumped it wasn’t raining! As we got to the park there was a huge visitors center with a little gift shop. While I went to the bathroom, Dan got another park day pass. We then took off and started our day down the trail. This hike was long but I didn’t think it was anything special. We got to see a couple of waterfalls and sit on the edge of a cliff right where fall started, that was pretty sweet! Then we went over this really janky bridge that went across the waterfall. Milo wanted nothing to do with crossing the bridge and neither did I! We ended up crossing the bridge and making our way back to the starting point. Nothing much to see or talk about on our journey back. Once we got close to getting back to the car we decided we wanted to go sit by the edge of where the river meets lake superior. We laid a blanket down, enjoyed some snacks while we let Milo run off some energy, which I still don’t understand how he still had any left! We made our way back to the car and took off to the place I have been dying to see this entire trip, Palisade Head.

It was only about a 5 Minute drive and we didn’t expect it to be just a simple parking lot where people just walk along the rocks with no railings or anything. We grabbed our wine and our blanket and set up a little spot right on the edge of the cliff. We enjoyed some of our favorite Riesling wine called Relax. I didn’t like being so close to the edge with Milo so Dan tied him to a branch a couple of yards away from us which was farther away from the edge. Milo was absolutely mad we did that but it was in all of our best interest to keep him contained! As we were having the best time of our lives, enjoying wine and good conversation Milo was pissed but we just zoned him out. After about 10 minutes I heard something behind me and to our surprise, Milo ripped apart his leash and was right on the edge looking over.. My heart dropped and I went into panic mode as I got to my feet I kept calm so I didn’t scare him off the ledge. To my surprise I walked right up to him, I think he didn’t know what to do either he was so scared! After that Dan and I decided it was time to go, we were both exhausted and cold. Palisade Head was by far my favorite thing to do, it was so private and we didn’t have a bunch of tourists to dodge which was the best part! HIGHLY recommend! It was the perfect way to end our little getaway.

All in all, this was one of the best trips I have ever been on. All my life I have been spending my weekend spending money on drinking and the bars. Dan has shown me there is so much more to do in life. The North Shore is beautiful and is a fun mini-vacation for adventurous people. I do not recommend going on a vacation like this if you do not like to hike, it involves a ton of hiking!!