Silver Bay, Minnesota

It was a relatively short drive from Kabetogama to Silver Bay, Minnesota, yesterday...about 150 miles. The road was pretty much straight and lined with trees the whole way. There wasn't much to see or say about it other than what you see in the image below.

We did pass by some interesting road signs, however. We kept the Google busy with our questions. For example...what the heck is this? (Not my picture, by the way.)

Well...as it turns out, these signs mark the boundaries of a treaty signed in 1854 by the federal government and three Ojibwe tribes — the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. You can read more about the treaty and the reason for the signs at this article right here.

Also, we passed by signs indicating The Laurentian Divide. Well. That was a new one on me. The Google tells me that the Laurentian Divide, also called the Northern Divide, and locally, the height of land, is a continental divide in central North America that separates the Hudson Bay watershed to the north from the Gulf of Mexico watershed to the south and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed to the southeast. Here's an image below demonstrating the divide and the flow of water. (Not my image again.)

Want to know more about it? Click right here.

Finally, we crossed over this bridge. And again, this is not my image, but I could scarcely take a picture as we crossed over. It had a name...the Somebody, Somebody Memorial Bridge, but I can't remember it, nor can I find it. It has an interesting story and an interesting reason for being built. This article notes it is an "engineering marvel," and it's worth clicking on the article to read more about it.

Okay, and so on we drove, noting little bits of fall color making their appearance. Just little bits. You can see a little bit in the image below. Just look in the tree tops left of center.

And finally, we came over a rise and THERE IT IS!!! It's actually quite a thrill to top a rise and see one of the Great Lakes come into view. This is Lake Superior.

We were just minutes away from our final destination. Once we were backed in and the kitties were set free, Sadie found the sunshine spot right away.

We're just up the hill from the lakeshore, and so we had some lunch and then went for a walk. There were blooming things all along the way.

Look at these funny little things. They're like dime-sized pincushions.

Thistles, of course.

It was about a half to a full mile walk to reach the lake. We went to the first beach path we came to, which meant a little hike through some woods.

Keep your eyes peeled, my friends. You might want to have your bear spray ready.

Popping out through the trees...whoa. We coastal people get the distinct feeling that we're standing at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, but we're not.

Looking waaaaaaaaaay out there, you can see a little bit of land on the other side, but not much.

The beach there was rocky, and we'd been told there was a sandy black beach a little farther on. We had to take a look. Along the way, we saw this little squirrel.

It was another walk through a wooded path to reach Black Beach.

The waves rolled in and broke on the shore, just like at the ocean's edge.

Our shadow selves were pretty happy to be there.

Looking to my right was this big rock.

People were climbing on it...not this camper.

Of course, water is always more interesting when you can see and hear it, so I'm hoping you can see this video below. If you're reading via email, and you can't see it, I suggest clicking on the title of the post. That should take you to the actual blog, and I'm hoping you can see the video there. (Some feedback about this would be appreciated. I can't tell who is seeing what when I post videos that have not been uploaded to YouTube.)

Okay, and so my friend Wendy had given us some restaurant recommendations. We haven't been to many restaurants so far on this trip, and so we headed off to the nearest one. Unfortunately, on a Saturday night on a Labor Day weekend, the place was absolutely mobbed. We were a little COVID anxious about going into such a crowded venue, and so we backtracked about half a mile to the Grand Superior Lodge & Grill. They were able to seat us right away, with better social distancing, and we had a nice dinner there. This was the view from our table.

On their special drinks menu was a cocktail known as a Tettagouche Hooch, and since we're visiting Tettagouche State Park today, it seemed like a no-brainer. It was tasty too. Mike is obviously having too much run.

Mike ordered a walleye fillet and I ordered a walleye po boy sandwich. Both were delicious. We don't see walleye on our menus in Oregon, and so that was a treat. On our way to the restaurant, we passed through Beaver Bay where I visited a quilt shop on our last visit to the Great Lakes region in 2014. I was happy to see that Quilters Corner is still in business eight years later. I won't visit again since I've already included it in my first Shop Hop quilt. You, on the other hand, can visit via this old blog post right here. Another item of interest we passed along the way was the Split Rock Lighthouse from our visit back in 2014. What a cool lighthouse. You can read about it right here. 

And despite having visited Gooseberry Falls on our last visit, it was still daylight as we drove home, and so we stopped in to see it again. We could see where the river drains into Lake Superior as we made our way down the trail.

If you had any ideas about jumping in, you might want to think again.

At the end of the trail were the upper falls. There are few things Mike enjoys more than a good waterfall. 

Here's another video. Same rules apply if you can't see it.

Walking on down the path, we could get to the lower falls.

You fisher people might be interested in this next image:

And from there we headed back to the RV. When we arrived, there was a pretty sunset in process.

Looking out toward the lake, it looked like this:

Here's another view, looking west.

And that brings me to this morning, where there was a beautiful sunrise when I got up.

Okay, and on today's agenda, a visit to Tettagouche State Park. It's just four miles up the road. We'll spend some time there, and then relax for the rest of the day. It's our last day and night in Minnesota. We'll be heading for Wisconsin tomorrow. More about that later.