Duluth: Day 2

Our second day in Duluth was packed full of activities, but it was a blast! First of all, we slept in, which was amazing, since Emma usually gets us up at 6:00 am. After a good night's sleep, we headed even further north (about an hour), and drove to Gooseberry Falls.

Gooseberry Falls is a state park in northern Minnesota, and it is just beautiful. It's main attraction is all the waterfalls, and they empty into Lake Superior, and there are some great fews of Lake Superior. We spent 3 hours hiking the trails, and taking in the sites.

On the way back, we stopped by Betty's Pies, which is world famous for...you guessed it, pies. We stopped for lunch, and each had a slice of pie, which was amazing. 

We then stopped in Two Harbors, which is a city located about a half hour north of Duluth. They have a harbor where the lakers load and unload their cargo, so we went and checked that out. They also had a walkway out to a lighthouse that was pretty cool to check out. 

On our way back into Duluth, we stopped at the Glensheen Historic Estate. I toured this mansion 13 years ago, but I didn't remember a whole lot about it, so we decided to take the tour again. 

Basically, this super rich couple built this mansion back in 1908. They were world travelers, and they brought back wood, marble, and ceramics from different parts of the world and used them in their house. The family donated the mansion to the University of Minnesota Duluth, and now they have restored each room to how it looked in 1908. It's pretty impressive to walk through.

There were also a couple murders that took place in the mansion back in 1977. Elizabeth Congdon was the only living heir, and her son-in-law murdered her nurse and then suffocated Elizabeth with a pillow. So, there are always some interesting stories surrounding the Glensheen Mansion. 

The back of the  mansion

They backyard

The view of Lake Superior from the backyard

The Laker we saw while at the Glensheen Mansion

The boat house

The gardner's house and the carriage house

The carriage house

After touring the Glensheen, we headed back to the hotel to take a break from all the action. We had had a busy day so far! After freshening up a little, we headed out from our evening dinner cruise. 

We ordered tickets to the dinner cruise a couple evening earlier. We boarded the Vista Star at around 7:00pm and were served a nice meal while touring the harbor and learning a little more about Duluth. 

After the meal we were free to walk around the boat, and we went upstairs to the deck, and were able to watch the sun set over Lake Superior. It was beautiful!

We ended the day by watching one more laker pass under the lift bridge, and then we called it a day.

Our second day in Duluth was awesome, but it was super busy. We were pretty shot by the end of the day, but we sure made the most of our short trip to Duluth. :)