Skip to main content

Blake Graduates (Bachelor's Degree Edition)


On the road again. This time to Duluth for another one of Blake's graduations. Daniel wanted to show off the shed he had just built. 


My parents were also here for Blake's grad party. We met up for dinner at The Shack in Superior.

We were here for the fish fry, but of course we all had to get old fashioneds.

Pardon my shitty food photography.

The beers were quite large.

We were all ready to go when my parents noticed the liquor store next door. 

We waited, waited and waited some more for Gail and Mike to get some booze. They always have a buffet of booze whenever we see them at a hotel.

This time they were staying at the South Pier Inn. Check out this view from their room.


The next morning Daniel got us donuts from Johnson's bakery.

Thanks funcle.

We always have fun looking through Blake's old things. 

A few months back G.G. brought a bin of old Blake junk with her to the cottage. This was the good stuff that I sorted through. A working Gameboy FTW.

We then walked back over to my parents hotel. 

It got foggier and foggier as we got closer to the lake. 

We waited for the fog to pass before our next adventure.


We were waiting out the fog so we could take Blake's sailboat out.

My dad brought all our old graduation gowns for Blake.

We thought he looked like an alter boy.

He was supposed to wear one of these to his graduation party, but "forgot."

They needed to get their room cleaned so we headed outside. The fog looked like it was lifting so Blake went out to get his boat ready. 

Wait, who gets house cleaning every night at a hotel in 2024?

Boomers. 

It seemed like the fog was clearing up but then it came back again.

Too bad we didn't have our suits with us. When we arrived a group of people ran into the water then right out. Theo and I didn't think the water was that cold. 

Swimming in Lake Superior in early June is probably not a good idea. But it was a mild winter in Minnesota.

The fog was finally clearing up a bit.


On the other side of the harbor it was less foggy. 

Despite my misgiving Funcle Daniel and Theo sat on the bow of the sailboat.

Theo was really excited to go in the front. 

Ha looks like the fog was only right over Canal Park.


No sail up today. Instead we motored over to the Blatnik Bridge.


A decade from now this view won't be seen. The Blatnik Bridge is set to be replaced.


Even cooler than the bridge was boating between the active and abandoned ore docks on the Duluth side of the bay.

We were all hungry so we made a stop at the new Northern Waters Smokehouse location. I had no idea they served anything, but fish. What were we waiting for? I love smoked tofu and meats.

It was so good. They had moved into the old Amazing Grace spot. We also picked up some smoked fish for Blake's party while we were here. 

We gave Blake his graduation gift early: more Legos. The kids idea.

Blake's semi-finished attic is filled with (some of) his old legos.

Blake was hosting his graduation party at the Owl's Club where he's a member. It was also potluck style. 

We visited here for the first time back in December. I want to be a member of a private drinking club.


It's always fun catching up with Blake's friends. 

Someone told me to get a picture of the cake.

That was me. I said, hurry up the cake is getting cut. 




Jasper got the best piece. 

I thought I married you?

(Insert eye roll here)

The guy on the left with the hat we later learned was the photo of the little boy that Daniel had added to our roof box. 

For some reason Daniel just had stickers of his friend. He also happens to be a brewer at Castle Danger Brewing.

Blake's party also included karaoke. 

Brooke's kind of party. Did you know that Brooke used to be a karaoke regular back in the Fox Valley?

It was the thing to do when you were too young to go to the bars. 

We had Daniel sing Green Days "Good Riddance" as it was a popular graduation song when we were in high school.

Blacob sang some 99 Luftbaloons.

Minus the German part. C'mon!


The party really hits high note when G.G. and Daniel performed a duet.


Good times were had. We cut our visit short and left the next morning as Theo had his best friends birthday party to get to.

Sometimes you've just got leave while you're ahead.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Northwoods Mother's Day

My mom had texted me last week asking if we wanted to go to the cottage for Mother's Day. Scott didn't have any work on Monday so we headed there for the weekend. I was able to get off work a little early so we didn't have to get there so late.  Driving through Lindstrom Scott wanted to get donuts at the bakery. We didn't have any cash so we settled on ice cream at the Cotton Candy Ice Cream Shop  in Center City. About 20 minutes before we got to the cottage Meadow threw up all her milk. Soaking herself and her carseat. She never threw up like this before. It was kind of scary. She kept asking for milk. I guess I should've known better.

RV Spring Break: Minneapolis to South Carolina

Another Spring Break can only mean one thing these days: Campervan Spring Break. Well scratch the campervan this time around. Get in the RV we're driving to Florida.   You know we love our road trips. Last summer, a few months after our first Campervan Spring Break , Theo said he wanted to go on another campervan trip. I asked where and he said to Florida. Never thought we'd be a spring break in Florida family, but here we are. But first we had to get to Elkhart, Indiana to pick up our RV. Instead of driving or flying we took the Amtrak Borealis service down to Chicago for the first leg of our journey.   We were a little nervous that our train would be cancelled. Just three days earlier all the Borealis trains were found to have corrosion. They had moved routes via the bus. Thankfully they had replacement trains by the time of our departure.  As you can tell Meadow is super excited to be cooped up in an RV with us for a week or so.   There's no assigned seats so you ...

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1  Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19  precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month.  I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...