Northshore Camping Trip

Aaron's first official camping trip we decided should be on the Minnesota's beautiful Northshore. We booked a spot at Temperance River....one of Minnesota's State Parks. I love this state park. Brings back so many memories as a child we visited the northshore. This is one of those places that I hope will remain a tradition in our family to visit time and time again.

Of course, the biggest reason to visit and why it is my favorite place ..........is Lake Superior. Such a wonderful work of nature. Love , love that lake. The landscape of the Superior's northshore is just the best. We may not have the ocean but this is definitely the next best thing. The land is so beautiful up that way too. Just wonderful nature everywhere. The hiking trails are some of the best in Minnesota. We did some casual hiking since we had a little guy and the dog with us. Mostly at our camp area and some small hiking trails down to the lake.


Here is the Temperance river that runs into Lake Superior. One of many wild streams that run their way into the great lake.

The pixs below is a view of our campsite area and this was the view toward the lake at our camp site area.


This would be our tent......Doug & Aaron & Muffin standing in front of our tent

The inside of our tent with our new cots(see previous post)we bought at Cabela's. Muffin hanging out on my cot. She really knows how to make life awful for everyone when she's not happy. LOL! I think next time we will leave her with my MIL ....she was so very naughty during our camping out. She's not much of a outdoor dog. She had to be next to me at all times too. If she wasn't she would cry and whine the whole time. She is high maintenance doggie.~ha! At one point.......we left her in the tent while we had a bon fire. She hates smoke and thought she would like it better in the tent. Well, that wasn't a good idea....instead of only whining the whole time she also decided to pee on the bed inside the tent. Naughty Shih Tzu!!! She has vengeful tendencies. Ha! What a brat! I was just happy it was Doug's cot and not mine. LOL, LOL, LOL! Yeah, next time she stays HOME!

It gets super cold by the lake......good thing I remembered to bring lots of layering clothing. At night it really was cold. In the 30's the first night. Not to worry we brought our tent heater with and it really made our tent toasty warm. Love that heater! Along with our new cots and the heater........camping was really comfortable this time around. Aaron liked his cot too.

We set up our screen gazebo tent too. I love our screen tent......to picnic with ......makes life alot easier without dealing with the bugs. Although, we did have a family of Chipmunks running around....and they loved our screen tent too. Funny story: I bought some yummy pastries and were in a paper bag. A wind gust must of sent them flying on the ground. The chippie family thought that was a great time......I found the bag....with a hole in it and a big hole in the pastry. Guess they got a yummy treat! Aaron got a chance to learn about the chipmunks. It was all good! He first called them a mouse. We explained to him they were chipmunks and called them chippies. So the entire rest of the time he was obsessed with finding the chippie family. So cute!

We had some good dinners in our picnic set up. The first night we did the "camping thing" and ate hot dogs on the grill. Doug bought this table grill that works great for camping. We were running out of daylight by the time we set up our tents and needed to eat fast. So this grill heats up so fast and we had instant hot dog supper. Now for the rest of our camping eats..........well we were such lame campers. We ate like kings and queens of the campground. Ok, the next pix below will explain that statement better.
Here we are: not only is Temperance River our favorite area but it's near our favorite place of all time. Tofte, MN ......and the Coho Cafe. It's our favorite places to eat on the northshore. It's part of Bluefin Bay Resort and they have a little cafe. I think we ordered our Breakfast, lunch, Dinner the whole time we camped. The Coho has the best pastries, pizza and sandwiches. Let's just say we indulged while we were up that way. Why not? we never get that way too often and might as well have fun. Right? Needless to say I need a diet now after all those eats.

We did some casual hiking in our camp area and their was so many of these cute butterflies all over the place. Here is one on a dandelion.

Here is a pix of Aaron and I on one of the trails that goes down to the lake.

Here is Doug and Aaron down at the lake at the bottom of the trail. A great place to stop and take photo. Love this pix!

Mommy and Aaron pix.................next to our gazebo tent. I got my camping hat on & so does Aaron.

On our way back home.....we stopped in Duluth, Minnesota by Canal Park. It was such a beautiful day and we left so early we had time to run around and check out the boats and the lift bridge by the waterfront.

When we got to the lift bridge.....the sail boat was going thru...and Aaron absolutely had a great time watching the bridge lift. IT makes a loud ring when it's about to lift.

Aaron runs around the house now.....saying, "ring, ring, ring" and pretends the bridge is lifting. Kids have such fun imaginations!

A pix below of Aaron and Doug in front of the lift bridge as the sail boat passes by.

Did you notice my banner? Well, here is the pix I had to make my recent banner. Love the pix of the lighthouse at Canal Park. Thought it looked Cheery for a summer photo banner.

Just another photo by the lift bridge this time it's Muffin the "Cheery Shih Tzu" with me.