Yes, it is spring according to the calendar. No, the state of Minnesota must not be subscribing to the usual calendar this year. As I write this, we are having our fifth straight day of snow; some days it’s been snow flurries, and a couple of days we’ve had inches of the heavy white flakes pile up again requiring snow shoveling. Everyone is grumpy and anxious for green grass, blue sky, and temperatures higher than 40 degrees. I was hopeful when I heard and saw my first red-winged blackbird on Tuesday morning. I’m sure he was a bit confused as we all are. With that said, I could NOT bring myself to post yet another photo with snow in it. Instead there’s only a small bit of snow in this photo from Two Harbors. This is the breakwater light at the entrance to the harbors. On a warm evening, it was delightful to watch the sun set behind the clouds and hear the lap of the waters of Lake Superior as they came into the harbor.
Two Harbors
A weekend on the North Shore
Last weekend we decided to go to the North Shore of Lake Superior. We left the Twin Cities Saturday morning in rain, drove through the fog and into the sunshine in Duluth, and drove along the shore to 50 degree temps. We were looking for a unique place to spend the night and found the perfect spot – the Two Harbors Lighthouse Station. Neither of us had spent the night in a lighthouse, and this was the perfect time. This lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the North Shore of Lake Superior, with the first lighting in April, 1892. The area was a major shipping point for iron ores and the lighthouse was crucial in providing safe passage into Agate Bay Harbor. A keeper in residence was assigned to the lighthouse until 1981 when the Coast Guard fully automated the station. Fourteen years ago the Lake County Historical Society opened the residence as a bed and breakfast, and a unique and wonderful one! Saturday night, as we came “home” to the lighthouse with a sky-full of stars sparkling above, it was easy to imagine what life was like a century ago. On Easter morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and noticed that the sky was fluctuating between sunshine and snow showers. Spring is fickle this year, and especially in northern Minnesota. When we left the lighthouse we drove inland on county backgrounds, going in and out of the snow squalls, reminding ourselves that spring will be arriving. Eventually.
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