The fall colors were peaking. Apparently, everyone and his brother went to Duluth! I started looking for a hotel room a week before we went, and the fifth or sixth hotel I tried, I got the last available room.
This is at Birdwatcher's Ridge Observatory, where you can observe birdwatchers, as we are doing here. Actually, it's Hawk Ridge and it's a big place for migrating raptors. We saw several hawks and a bald eagle very high in the sky when we first arrived. Then they disappeared, so we got no amazing close-up shots.
The birds get counted every day. All these people with fancy binoculars stand on a special platform to do the counts, yelling things like, "There's a goshawk on the ridge!"
I commented that it's funny how people get so into certain things, like birds, followed by a comment about how excited I am to go on our mushroom hunting trip in a couple of weeks.
We went to Gooseberry Falls State Park, where everyone else went. The falls were much smaller than PNW waterfalls, and I think smaller than usual because of the drought, but still nice.
Lots of kids and families were playing all over the rocks.
Our new home.
We kept noticing how similar Lake Superior is to the ocean; it's huge and had big waves, due to the wind. But no tide, tidepools or normal beach creatures. It felt strangely like something was missing. I guess we're coastal people.
Next we went to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, which seemed prettier and where there were hardly any people. A nice beach to walk along and get free views of the lighthouse.
Our last stop on Sunday was a lovely rose garden on a bluff overlooking the lake.
They have to do all sorts of crazy things to allow the rosebushes to survive the winter here. Dig a trench next to it, bend the bush into it, cover it with dirt. Lots of work for a few months of blooms!
Here's the happy couple again.
