Not to be deterred by a simple hangover we left the following morning, if 11 or 12 is still considered morning, to drive north along the Lake. The north shore of the Lake goes a couple hundred miles along Minnesota till it hits Thunder Bay, Canada. We decided doing it in one day wasn’t in our best interest so we found a hotel/casino at the end of the drive near the border called Grand Portage and booked a night there.
The drive up was more exploratory in nature so we could figure out where we wanted to spend time on the way back. The only stops we made were at two state parks on the water, and a light house and a well known restaurant called Betty’s Pies for lunch. The lighthouse was called Split Rock and it was built after a huge storm in 1905 that destroyed 20 ships. The shores of the lake were beautiful and Betty’s pies was unique but so so on the food. We split a grilled cheese with tomato and pesto sauce that was delicious but very lacking in quantity between the bread. The pies were good but not amazing. Yes, Carol Ann, your blueberry pie is much better.
We stopped for dinner in a great little seaside town called Grand Marais. Walked around and looked at some shops and restaurant menus and settled on a quaint little place called the Crooked Spoon. The food was excellent and after dinner we drove the rest of the way to the casino at Grand Portage, another 30-45 min. Did I say this was a casino? They only have table games on weekends and the highest denomination slot machines were 5 cents. Boy was that exciting. We signed up for their players card only because it gave us $10 of free play. Went through our $10 and had about all the excitement we could handle. Hit the sack so I could actually get Jamie up before noon so we could hit all our spots we scoped out on the way home.