Every Day is a Perfect Duluth Day

We’re back from a great five night trip to Duluth and Spirit Lake Marina over the Fourth of July! Heaven looks like Lake Superior and the Minnesota North Shore. Bikes! Beer! Hikes! Stunning Views! Big Boats! Every day was a great day. Leaving was hard.

During our last trip to Winona, Toby struggled with the stairs and busted a toenail so we got him his this ramp. He wasn’t entirely sure about it, but it made his life a lot easier getting in and out of both the truck and the camper.

Spirit Lake Marina Campground

There are a few choices for campgrounds near Duluth, but we continue to choose Spirit Lake Marina & RV Park. As I’ve mentioned before, I love Duluth! This is one of my favorite places we’ve camped at and I highly recommend it. The sites are between boat slips (and even between boats on land waiting for service) which is pretty cool. The one downside of this place is they don’t have sewer hookups. One of the guys who worked there said they are working on it, but they’re so close to the water table it makes it nearly impossible. The lack of sewer hookups mean we have to be a little more aware about our water usage since we can’t just drain the tanks. We take showers in their restrooms and wash dishes less often. Their bathrooms are very clean and nice, so it’s not a real hardship. We only had to use their honeywagon service once for $10 – worth the price so we didn’t have to break camp and drive to the dump station and get set up again.

There are some seasonal sites at the far end that have a great, uninterrupted view of the St. Louis River and the one at the point had the best view and no other neighbors next to their door, just more river views, a dock and a little playground. I inquired briefly how much the seasonal sites costs and was told they’re more expensive the closer to the point you get, and that one at the point was actually inherited. So, I let him know as soon as that site comes available and has sewer hookups, he can just take all my money! Duluth is one location I could really imagine having a long-term seasonal site. Or really even a cabin, if money were no object.

The campground had pretty good WiFi and we were able to get the local over-the-air channels on the TVs, if those things are important to you.

Indian Point Campground

They also own Indian Point Campground in Duluth, which is a more traditional campground with full hookups. I tried to get reservations there for the full hookups, but they had a never leave your dog unattended, even if your RV policy, so that ruled them out. While we do take the boys with us for a ton of hikes and brewery visits, sometimes we do leave the dogs alone in the camper. We were curious about what it’s like, so we biked through there on our way to Canal Park one day just to see what we might be missing. It was a lot bigger, and higher up over the river, but the views of the river were only really from walking paths and a couple tent sites. We had at least a little water view right from our site and a gorgeous view just a short walk away at the docks. Indian Point Campground was also about $5/day more expensive, granted with sewer hookup, but one honeywagon visit was less than the extra money we would have spent for the luxury of using our own shower. And since Spirit Lake Marina is probably a “best kept secret” it was far less crowded. If a traditional campground experience is your thing, Indian Point Campground is a good choice, but for something more interesting, you can’t go wrong with Spirit Lake Marina.

Day 1 – Hairball

Bayfront Festival Park had a series of concerts and events during the holiday week and Tuesday was a Hairball concert. If you haven’t seen them, Hairball is an 80’s Rock cover band that features costume changes, featuring the looks of the bands they’re covering – Twisted Sister, K.I.S.S, Prince, etc. They put on a really fun show. So once we got all set up and walked the boys, we biked to Bayfront Festival Park. We got into town later than planned and Jamey was worried we were missing the show. No reason to be concerned as there were three opening bands before Hairball took the stage. I wish that had been made more clear in the marketing materials – it only listed Hairball as the performer and with a show starting at 5:30 pm we assumed it would be over by 8:30 or 9 but they didn’t even start until closer to 8:00 pm. Since we left the dogs back at the camper, we couldn’t exactly leave them unattended for six hours, so we had to leave about halfway through the main event. It was still fun, but I could’ve used more Hairball, less opening bands. We biked back and our friend Chuck, who came to Duluth from Solon Springs, came to hangout with us for a couple hours around the campfire.

Day 2 – Fourth of July

The weather channel was forecasting the risk of severe weather for the fireworks time and the city of Duluth wound up rescheduling them until the next day. I was sitting outside, drinking my morning coffee as I read the news that the fireworks were rescheduled and laughed to myself because it was already warm and sunny at 9 am. And then, the temperature dropped and the sky turned gray and I had to run inside. It wasn’t a severe storm, but it did rain pretty hard.

Once the storm passed, we decided to drive over the iconic Aerial Lift Bridge and visit Minnesota Point. There is a long, sandy beach shoreline on Lake Superior, and it feels the most like a fresh water ocean here with the white sand and waves. The day was very windy and it got cold as we got close to the water, so we made a series of brief visits to the shore before seeking shelter back on the walking path. The boys enjoyed the long drinks of fresh water. We continued walking down the trail until the mosquito’s got too thick to handle and we retreated back to the parking lot.

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Dog Friendly Fitgers Building

Then we headed to the Fitgers building, a dog-friendly shopping and dining mall. We walked the boys through the mall, visited A Place for Fido, a dog specific store. The boys got a rawhide chew treat and Buddy drank almost all the water of their very large water dish. In search of some Duluth wear to proudly declare our love of the area, we did a lot of window shopping, but didn’t find anything we loved. Lots of people walked past us and just broke into smiles at the sight of the dogs. Two kids even got into an argument as one kid said “puppies!” and the other insisted “not puppies, dogs!” I love how dogs make everyone react. After our failed shopping, we took the boys out to the patio of the Boat Club and had a beer and enjoyed the beautiful view. While I could have stayed here all day, but the weather had warmed up quite a bit and we were in direct sun, so we started walking back to the truck.

Blacklist Artisan Ales

On the way, we walked past Blacklist Artisan Ales, a Belgian brewery. We’ve visited this brewery before but didn’t really like their beers. We wanted to give them another shot, but they didn’t have an outdoor patio to sit with the dogs. They did however have a big, open garage door with a seating rail between the indoor and outdoor area. So, we made our own rules and Jamey went inside to order a couple of beers, I sat on the sidewalk side with the dogs and kept my beer inside the brewery the whole time. This worked pretty well and all the patrons there thought it was a genius workaround.

Jamey had the BIPA (Belgian IPA) and after his first sip said “Oooh! That’s good.” He calls it a very summery, citrusy beer. I had the Makrut, the wheat beer with lime leaves, and really enjoyed the lime and orange flavors. Not a big fan of coriander, but that flavor wasn’t too noticeable.

Toby refused to believe he wasn’t allowed on the other side to lay on the cool tile inside and I kept having to drag him back outside. Until someone walked past with two small wiener dogs. I wasn’t paying attention when Toby suddenly ran at them, knocking me off my stool. My knee twisted in a weird angle and I landed really hard on my right side, making my elbow and other knee bleed. He had been so good with all the dogs so far, I have no idea what caused that outburst. Asshole.

So, I pulled myself together and we left and drove over to Bent Paddle’s tap room for some more beers. The taproom was on the way back, and only about 3 miles from the campground.

Bent Paddle Brewery

The taproom is actually in a different building than where they brew; it’s just across the street, but that was briefly confusing. The patio is dog friendly, but not inside. Jamey had the Trampled by Turtles American Golden Ale. The band, Trampled by Turtles, a home town Duluth band, was playing at Bayfront Festival Park on Saturday night, so the beer is an obvious homage to their show. He described it as a good, easy drinking, hot weather beer. With a low ABV at 4.6% it was an easy drinker. I even sampled it and found it quite drinkable. I had the Black Black Ale on Nitro. Not exactly a summer drinker, but it was very good. So creamy with the flavor of an oatmeal stout and the thickness of a porter. On a hot summer day, IPA’s are the way to go for most beer drinkers, but I hate the punch-in-the-mouth flavor of IPA’s. I’ve been enjoying the more fruity beers this summer and was a little disappointed they didn’t have any fruity or sour beers.

The taproom was very cool! The patio was a long, narrow space and was pretty packed full of people and a few other dogs. Our boys were pretty popular, but we were excited to meet a Mastiff and an Anatolian Shepherd – two big dogs! The Anatolian Shepherd was just hanging out in the shade behind someone else’s chair … when I asked “can I pet your dog” the people sitting by him told me he wasn’t their dog, he was just chilling out with them. He actually belonged to the couple behind us with the Mastiff. Both big dogs were big sweeties and we gave them lots of pats and a shared a couple of dog treats with them.

Day 3 – Beer, Pizza, More Beer

After a lazy, relaxing morning and a late breakfast (sleeping past 7:30 am gets easier as the days pass) we decided to visit the dark side, AKA, Wisconsin. We gathered up the dogs and crossed the bridge into Superior, Wisconsin. Superior hasn’t weathered the technological changes that have transformed the area as well as it’s sister city, Duluth, across the bridge. Visiting Superior feels a bit like traveling back in time. Even Googling “Superior WI tourism” brings in more results for Duluth than anything else. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything over there worth seeing. We visited Earth Rider Brewery and the Thirsty Pagan.

Earth Rider Brewing 

Earth Rider, like Bent Paddle, brews in one building and serves their libations in another. This taproom is modeled on a speakeasy and feels like a dive bar, but all they serve is Earth Rider beer and Heggies Pizza.They have a beer garden which is dog friendly. It was a nice patio with some shade, some sun, lots of grass and plenty of room. When we visited we were the only ones on the patio, and getting there involved walking (with the dogs) through the bar to the patio door. The dogs were very interested in the smells of food!

I had the Rasbecrush Tart – a very good, not too tart sour beer. It was crisp and refreshing, a great summer drinker. The raspberry flavor was very distinct without being overpowering. Even Jamey thought it was tasty and he hates sours as much as I hate IPAs. Jamey had the Caribou Lake IPA, which he described, in his best Dr. Evil voice, as “pretty standard” and good, but not amazing. They sold mix-and-match 6 packs of cans of their beers for $12, so I got two of each of their flagship beers to go for drinking around the fire. Then we headed over to Thirsty Pagan for lunch and more beer.

Thirsty Pagan

We’ve been to Thirsty Pagan before, we love their pizza, I can’t recommend enough a trip here for some delicious pizza! Their beer selection had changed entirely since we were last there. They listed all their beers by name on a chalkboard behind the bar, but no descriptions of each beer were included, so I had to ask the bartender for help. Please allow me to transcribe this conversation:

Me: “What kinds of beers are those?” (pointing at chalkboard, where it says “House Beers”)

Dude: “Those are our house beers.”

Me: “Yeah, I got that. But what kinds of beer are they?”

Dude: “Oh. … X is a lager. Y is a pretty typical IPA. Z is a light beer, like a Miller Lite. If you like light beers you’d like that …”

Internal monologue: DUDE. You should never, under any circumstance, compare your light beer to a Miller Lite. Just go tell your brewer to call it a day and go home. Also, why are you assuming I want a light beer because I’m a woman? Do you also want to offer me a nice chardonnay?

Maybe he’s just a cheap swill drinker and it was all he could describe, or maybe he was being sexist … either way, I was not impressed with dude-bro. I ordered a couple beers  (I did go with the Miller Lite look-alike since it was the only one he could describe) and went back outside.

The female bartender who was working there came out with apologies that she couldn’t find the umbrella but the owner had just got there, and he knew where it would be and he would be out to set it up for us soon. She also brought out a big bowl of water and a pitcher of more ice water for the dogs and a package of homemade treats for the dogs. The treats were being sold as a fundraiser for the local humane society, so we gave her $5 for the donation cup. The dogs loved those treats! They were made with bacon grease! Toby basically bit my finger off trying to get one out of my hand. The owner came out and got us set up with the umbrella and asked if we needed anything else.

I was pretty disappointed with Lawn Chair, the one compared to a Miller Lite, and told him I was looking for something a little more fruity. “Say no more,” he said and came back with a Third Street Hunny Do Melon Wheat. I felt a little guilty that it wasn’t one of their house brews, but dang it was just what I wanted on this hot summer day. Sweet, not cloying, light, crisp and refreshing. After a Miller Lite wannabe, it was a welcome change of pace. Jamey had the Hardtail Double Pagan. He really liked it and was a little buzzed after the 8% ABV caught up with him. We had the bacon cheeseburger pizza and oh man, it was good.

I recommend visiting Thirsty Pagan and eating at least one of their pizza’s. Their beer, at least for me, was disappointing, but the kindness and service of our waitress and the owner more than made up for it and with guest taps, I was still able to get what I wanted. Be forewarned; they have a $1.00 service charge for using a credit card and prefer cash. It’s 2018 and I freaking hate it when places do this, it’s like 30 cents per transaction, just raise your prices 2-3% and accept the cards without tons of ALL CAPS SHOUTTY SIGNS.

The boys were good and tired after so much outdoor time and were very happy to get home. Jamey laid on the bed in the A/C, Toby napped on his couch, and Buddy and I lounged on the dock and took in the breeze and views for an hour or so before we decided to head into Canal Park for the fireworks. We rode our bikes there to avoid the nightmare traffic and parking. Since we left the dogs behind, we could visit Hoops Brewery, a non-dog friendly brewery.

Hoops Brewery

This is a really cool taproom space. It’s huge, there’s lots of wood beams and the atmosphere is pretty fun. They have lots of games to borrow and while they don’t have a kitchen you can bring in food from any of the restaurants in the area and build your own experience. In keeping with the fruity beer theme of the day, I had Boysenberry Ale. It was another good, summer drinking beer. Jamey had No 21 IPA. He sampled their other IPA and decided this one was better and was clean and dry.

Rescheduled Fireworks

We moved along to catch the fireworks and seeing how many people were moving like lemmings towards Bayfront Festival Park, we decided to take our chances in Canal Park. Fireworks go up high in the air, we can probably see them from lots of place. So we went back to the Boat House. The table we sat at yesterday was missing (it looked like someone had just grabbed it and moved it, there was a ton of space between the other two tables), but we just borrowed a couple of chairs and sat down. I had to flag down the server and tell him “we don’t have an actual table, but can we please be a table for service?” We just wanted a couple drinks and apps, we were happy to spend our money there and watch the fireworks (despite all the lookyloos who stood in his way on the walkway for the free views.) He still seemed annoyed to have to deal with us, I get it, I’ve worked in food service too. They had a decent happy hour, but it was literally only one hour. We watched the pretty impressive fireworks from here and headed back to our tiny home. Getting out was more frustrating than getting in as everyone was trying to leave at the same time and only focused on themselves. Pedestrians walking four abreast on the shared trail, not moving over no matter how much we yelled. Drivers looking at their cell phones as they inched through traffic and nearly missed hitting us. The tourist train, parked for another hour, blocking our entrance to the bike trail. UGH. We dodged the obstacles, went around the train and finally made it home.

Day 4 – Sorry, puppies

Friday we slept later, had a great lazy morning and had no idea what to do with ourselves. So naturally we decided we should just go back to Canal Park with the dogs and enjoy the Lake Superior views. We parked pretty far away to avoid paying for parking and walked at least a mile to just get to Canal Park. Then we walked another two miles to Pier B. Toby was going pretty slowly but we gave him lots of opportunities to stop and drink the water we always bring along. By the time we got to Pier B, he just laid on the dock and demanded pets. Dogs aren’t allowed on their restaurant patio, but they were allowed on the hotel dock, so I just went in and bought us a couple drinks along with a big glass of ice for the boys. We let them lay on the dock, enjoy the breeze and eat ice for about half an hour before we began the walk back.

By now, it was pretty hot and I assume the concrete was pretty hot too. We tried to keep them walking in the shade or grass, but it wasn’t always possible. About half a mile back, Toby found a shaded, grassy spot and just laid down. He needed a rest. So we gave him more water and let him rest for a few minutes before making him continue along the way. Five minutes later; repeat. This time Buddy laid down next to him and groaned. We were pushing them beyond what they wanted to do and I felt really bad about it, but we were almost there! I lured Toby back onto his feet with a treat and we trudged along. As we walked past the Lake Superior Maritime visitor center, and the crowds there, several people wanted to stop and pet the dogs. Toby took each of those distractions as an opportunity to lay down and really ham it up for everyone. He was rewarded with lots of pets! As we continued on our way, we decided to stop at Canal Park Brewing Company. We probably would have just walked on past since we’ve been there so often, but the boys clearly needed an extended rest. So, we got a table (thankfully in the shade) and a bowl of ice for them and beers for the people. We split a plate of pork nachos and had a couple beers while the boys cooled down. After a longer rest they were better and we headed back to the truck.

The walk back was up a typical steep Duluth hill and both dogs had something to say about it, but we all made it without stopping. We got them back home and into the air conditioning. Toby didn’t waste any time getting to couch. I felt so bad about working them so hard. They were still happy to eat food and weren’t sick, so I don’t think they got a heat stroke, but we definitely pushed them harder than we should have.

Lake Superior Brewing

Once we got them cool and comfortable, we went to check out the other non-dog friendly taproom, Lake Superior Brewing. At first glance, the taproom is out of place in the strip mall. When you walk in, it looks very much like a production space that happens to serve a few people rather than a fancy taproom. Jamey really liked the authentic feel. He also really liked the Deep Water IPA. He described it as having a good IPA flavor, with a hint of chocolate. Then he ordered the Special Ale and rated that as very good, with a grapefruit flavor that really stood out. I had the Kayak Kolsh, which was a pretty easy drinking, bright, summer beer. It felt a little flat out of the tap, but with a little more carbonation I could see throwing back a handful of those on a hot summer evening. Then I had the Sir Duluth Oatmeal Stout on Nitro, which made me say “mmmmm, creamy.” The first sip had a good coffee flavor, with some chocolate notes in the background. Again, not the best summer drinker, but still very good!

Day 5 – Already?! DO ALL THE THINGS!

We woke up feeling a little sad that this is the last full day of our glorious extended time in Duluth. Buddy woke up with very sore paws and did not want to walk on the gravel roads in the campground, he actually almost pulled out of his harness to get back to the camper, my poor Budster. So the boys got a short walk, mostly on grass and then ran back to the camper. A long hike with the dogs was off the table today.

Giving the dogs time to rest, we decided to use that time to bike part of the Willard Munger State Trail going away from Duluth that we hadn’t yet explored. What a gorgeous ride! How have we never gone this way before? Note to self, explore more of this section in the future. The part we rode was fully paved, well shaded and had high sweeping rock walls. It was a hot and windy day, and at times riding though those rock walls was like riding through a wind tunnel, so our average pace was slower than normal. And since it was so hot, we both went through our only water bottle pretty fast. There wasn’t a water fountain at the trail head, so we had to keep going in search of the campground and bar to get more water.

Buffalo House, Buffalo Valley

Thankfully this campground and bar was a good place to stop to cool down and refill our water bottles. The campground near Duluth was huge and definitely caught our attention. No lake views, but right on the bike trail is pretty nice. It’s also twice as far from Canal Park (by bike) as Spirit Lake Marina, but if we’re ever in a pinch, this could be a good backup, or if we’re interested in exploring further down the trail while still being in Duluth.

We had a couple of cold beers here (nothing craft, just the usual mass produced stuff) and enjoyed the air conditioning for about an hour before we decided to turn back and get back to the dogs. It would have been great to keep going down the trail, but the bartender told us there wasn’t anywhere to stop for more water for several miles. I wish we had brought two water bottles each and could have explored little longer, but I know heat and dehydration are migraine triggers for me, so I didn’t want to take the chance.

The ride back we had the wind at our backs and we just sailed! It took nearly an hour to go 8 miles there, and about 25 minutes to get back. WOO!

Brewery Boys

Knowing we were going to have to leave the boys again for a few hours while we went to visit Chuck and watch his fireworks show in a town about an hour away, we had to give them something to do and wear them out. Since a long walk was out, we took them back to Bent Paddle. This time we were the only ones with dogs on the patio and they were very popular as everyone came by to pet them. Two beers later, the boys were hot and tired and ready to go home and we were happy to oblige.

Fireworks in Solon Springs

My friend, Chuck is in charge of his town’s fireworks each year and has invited us to come watch them for a few years so this was the year we decided to make it happen. He sent a drop pin for the location and we were on the road. By the time we got there, we were starting to worry he sent us the location to a murder site, all the crowds were on the other side of the lake … but he was really directing us to a front row view, where he was setting off the fireworks! That was really cool to be so close.

I had always thought fireworks were attached to a fuse that someone had to actually light and then duck and cover. Silly me, it’s all done with a remote control! The team had worked all day in the heat and strong winds to get a few pontoons tied together and anchored in the middle of the lake where all the fireworks would all ignite.

The mosquitoes were awful but the firework show as amazing! Being so close was very cool, what a unique experience. Chuck and his team did a great job putting on a great show that was a good or better than what I’ve seen in big cities!

Once it was done, it was pretty late and Jamey was pretty miserable with mosquito bites, so we go out of there in a hurry.

A Boat Comes In

Back at the campsite, sitting around a fire, Jamey reflected that he was disappointed we hadn’t seen a single big ship come through the canal in our time this week in Duluth. He checked the shipping schedule and one was scheduled for 12:30 a.m., or in about 20 minutes. So, we loaded the dogs into the truck and went back to Canal Park for one last visit. The boys were much rested and happy to go for a ride and a walk. It was so beautiful and tranquil to be there late at night. Not too many people and nice and cool. We watched the largest ship in the Great Lakes come through Canal Park and went back home for one last sleep in our tiny home.

Day 6 – Banning State Park

Have Minnesota State Park pass, will hike. Not ready to be done yet, we stopped for a short hike at Banning State Park. It was already nearly 90 degrees, but there was a nice breeze off the river that kept things a little cooler. We only hiked about a mile through here, enjoying views of the rapids and nature before heading home.

This was the longest trip we’ve taken yet in our tiny home, but it went by way too fast. In an area we love, with the dogs we love, in the tiny home we love. Call it camping, call it glamping, I call it home on wheels and it’s wonderful.