Winter fun in Duluth - 2007

The day after Patrick arrived it snowed all day with strong winds. He and I took a short walk in Tischer Creek, but we didn't stay out long  because the snow was blowing so much.

The bridge above is about a 5-minute walk from our house, but you have to climb down a big ravine to get to it. In this picture our home is above the hill on the right.

A picture of the partially frozen stream. James spent this day in Minneapolis (the airport and the Mall of America) trying to get here.

The next morning (Christmas Eve) the snow had stopped and the sun came out, so I snapped this picture from the family room window, looking down at the back yard.

Both boys and I took advantage of the sunshine and went skiing in Hartley Park. This park is about a 5-minute drive from our house. The trails here had been freshly groomed and double tracked.

Though the trails were nice, we got off the tracked trails, skied through some woods and then took our skis off and climbed to the top of this knob.

From here you can look out in all directions over Duluth. This is within the city limits. Down town is along the lake shore near the top-right in this photo.

Patrick invents snow-bowling. The snow wasn't packy, but he could get a soft ball of snow to roll over the edge and out of sight in the trees below.

This was great fun, so they continued to roll snow balls,

while I took more pictures.

Patrick with a ball ready to go; James leaning back so he wasn't blocking Patrick in the picture.

After this break we headed back to our skis and back to the groomed trails.

Another day we drove to Jay Cooke State Park. We skied across this swinging bridge at the beginning of the trail.

The St. Louis River flows under the bridge.

A smaller tributary of the river. I don't know if you can tell how far below us that is,

But I was worried when James accidentally threw my pole over the edge. Fortunately it didn't go far and he was able to retrieve it using his own pole to pull it back up. In this photo my pole is still out of sight, over the edge.

A lovely picnic spot. Too bad we didn't have a picnic with us.

One more shot before I follow James down the trail.

Well that's the best of my pictures. We did more skiing, but I didn't take my camera every time. And for me to try to take pictures while on ice skates would have been hazardous to my health, not to mention to my camera.

Thanks for looking. Let me know if you want to plan a winter vacation in Duluth. E-mail me with your comments and requests.