Duluth Swimming Trip with a Side of Camping

Testing ... testing ... is this thing on? I warned you that our August is crazy and the blog is feeling the impact. I'll do my best to get you all caught up on the fun!

Two weekends ago, the kids started their nine-day vacation up north when we headed back to Duluth for our second camping trip there this summer. This trip included Mike's dad, Mike's mom and Bill, my sister, and her friend Enchilada. My parents joined the group on Sunday.

We were on the road shortly before 10am Saturday morning. Emmy and Enchilada hit the trail about the same time - but since Emmy lives on the north end of the cities, they had about a 45 minute head start. By the time we got to the north end of the cities, Mike's phone GPS rerouted us because of construction on the main freeway to Duluth. As we journeyed along our new route, I got a text from my sister that they had moved about a mile in the last 30 minutes. We said really nice things about Mike's phone.

SO HOT

We connected with the main road north of the construction and stopped for lunch - just about the same time that Em and Enchilada pulled into the same town! We got a potty break for everyone, got some nuggets and fries for the backseat passengers, got ourselves a tail (the Emilys followed us), and continued on our way.

Everyone was super confused when we pulled in to Duluth. It was like a million degrees out - WAY too hot for Duluth!! By the time Mike finished getting the camper set up, his clothes were dripping wet and he was definitely overheating. He wasn't the only one suffering. My sister and Fiona had the red-face look happening and even Enchilada was feeling the heat (and she's a native Texan!). The campground was on the St. Louis River, so we wandered down to the riverfront. But the water itself was pretty dirty. It was definitely not going to help us cope with the heat. And I honestly shuddered when Declan laid down on his belly in it. We needed a new plan. Badly!

As one of the only people who could still make a rational thought through the heat, I made the executive decision that we were going to the beach. We piled into our car with the Emilys and drove down to Park Point (a point of land out into Lake Superior with a lovely long sand beach). As we drove to the beach, the sign said that the lake temperature that day was 60 degrees. Strangely, we all swear that the walk from the car to the lake took 40 minutes ... and it was less than a 5 minute walk on the way back ... We dumped our stuff in the first random spot we could find, cursed as we picked our way across the blazing hot sand, and returned to humans as the cold water regulated our body temperature. It was exactly what we needed!

After a couple hours of swimming and playing in the sand, we started gathering our stuff. About that exact time, the wind shifted and started coming off the lake. There was the "lake effect" weather we know and love in Duluth. The temperature immediately dropped 15 degrees, the waves got much bigger, and you could see people abandoning the water. The campground felt so much cooler when we got back and I even had to grab a long-sleeve shirt as we made dinner.

We enjoyed a colorful fire that night (Mike had brought rainbow flames for the evenings), complete with s'mores. Then it was to bed to prepare for another day of hot day of camping - which ended up needing a lot of the same coping skills as day one.