Jenyfer Matthews

I have so many pictures of my time in Minnesota – what do you want? It’s a picturesque place! – I can’t possibly share them all here. I took the most pictures when I was out hiking in the woods so those are the ones you’ll get to see

My first stop in Minnesota was Duluth. We stayed in town a couple of days after flying in so I could do a bit of back to school shopping (school starts tomorrow – woo hoo!!) and take the kids to do a few town things, like visit the zoo. As zoos go, it is fairly small but it had some nice exhibits and was just big enough for the kids to get a good run around.

I try to resist taking animal pictures because they never turn out very well, but this guy was practically posing for the camera!

Calm down – it’s not a real tortoise…

Once I arrived in the woods, the first really long hike we took was actually just over the border in Ontario – called Fingerpoint Trail. The trail head actually starts in the parking lot of the Ontario Welcome Center and following the trail to the summit is actually about a 3 mile walk.

See that bump? The top of that knob is our goal…

The view from the top of the knob – beautiful!

This is a beach along Lake Superior where the trail passes. If you collect driftwood, this is the beach for you!

This shiny log caught my eye – hasn’t dried out quite as much as the others and was shining like gold in the sun

The children loved to play on the various beaches along Lake Superior – any excuse would do. It’s hardly the worst place in the world to hang out for an hour so I spent a lot of time there while they stripped down and swam. I thought after the first time that the frigid water temperatures would put them off, but what do I know? So while they played polar bears, I snacked. Look at all the wonderful beach food I found:

There is nothing tastier than wild raspberries – picking them yourself makes them taste better!

Wild beach peas – they only grow in the rocks and gravel along the beach.

These are best eaten raw – like most fresh peas. Yummy!

Tomorrow – more pictures from the deep woods…