Lutsen day 3

Today after having strawberry cheesecake muffins for breakfast (yum, yum) we drove to Cascade State Park to do some hiking. On the way there we stopped at a gas station in Lutsen to pick up some more bug spray. The mosquitoes are huge and the flies numerous. We picked up the bug spray with the highest amount of DEET (I know, not great for the kids but they've had enough bug bites).
This was the first sight on our hike this morning--the Cascade Falls.

Here is Dan helping the kids across part of the trail where the bridge had been washed out. Thankfully the water level was relatively low so that we could cross on the rocks; otherwise we would have had to take a detour which was almost a mile long.
After we saw the falls we continued on the trail to the lookout. It was quite a climb and the kids were definitely tired by the time we got to the top, especially Darin. But the view was worth the hike (and listening to "I'm so tired Mommy" and "Can we rest now?"). We could see Lake Superior and miles of forest. Thankfully there were benches at the lookout so we could all rest before hiking back down.

Here is Natalie consoling Kara after she fell about the 5th time.
Natalie was a great trooper. She was in the Kelty for the whole way up but pretty much walked the whole way down (about 1.5 miles or so). She didn't complain and has a great sense of balance. More than once she tripped and we were sure she was going to fall, but she didn't. And several times she raced past all of us.

After we were done hiking, we drove up to Naniboujou Lodge for lunch. The last time that we were there was when I was pregnant with Ellie and we've always wanted to go back there with the kids. I've got their cookbook and all the recipes have been delicious and the painting on the inside of the building is pretty cool. It menu prices were a little more expensive than I remember (of course it was almost 11 years ago that we were there) but we all shared a few meals and the food was delicious. We had a Danish custard with blackberry sauce for dessert which was quite heavenly.

After lunch we drove back to Grand Marais and walked out onto Artist's Point. The kids had fun climbing on the rocks and exploring.

After they were done playing on the rocks, we stopped for fudge. We bought two different kinds and had them for dessert tonight. I highly recommend the praline fudge. I think we might stop back there tomorrow after supper and pick up some more. :-)