We arrived on the North Shore of Lake Superior mid-afternoon on a Thursday. The weather was perfect and amazingly cool compared to Minneapolis, just a few hours south. We made a few stops along the way to Gooseberry Falls and also pulled over to take a shot of the most photographed site in Minnesota, the Split Rock Lighthouse.

The air was fresh and pure. The brilliant blue waters of Lake Superior glistened in the sun. I could hardly wait to get to our destination, a log cabin along the shores of the lake, and spend a weekend relaxing, hiking and doing what I love best: Enjoying nature and being together with family. There couldn’t be a more ideal place for it than here.

We found an amazing log cabin for rent on VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner). I had never stayed inside a real log cabin before. The beams of wood were enormous and had a light fragrant smell of the woods. My favorite part of all about the cabin was the view. It had a huge open air verandah overlooking enormous Lake Superior, offering the idea place to have a snack, sip a glass of wine or enjoy the fog lifting off the lake with a cup of morning coffee.

It was early June and given the northern location spring and summertime are a bit more delayed as compared to home in the Twin Cities. A fresh crop of early summer flowers had just bloomed and I thoroughly enjoyed snapping some pictures of them covered in mist, morning dew and water droplets.

Early on, we noticed that there was a large amount of butterflies along the North Shore.  Butterflies were everywhere flying in huge swarms and breeding. Here they are fooling around in the grass right outside our cabin.

One of my greatest childhood memories of coming to the North Shore was agate hunting. What is an agate you ask?  See below.  My brother, sister and I used to spend hours searching for agates. We loved it and it was always the first thing we did once we arrived on the North Shore each fall for our annual family vacation.

We unloaded the car and then headed immediately down to the rocky, rugged lakefront where the kids would get their first taste of searching for agates.

While Max and Sophia searched for agates and played with the rocks, I took some time to explore the rocky shoreline. I was amazed by how many unusual, beautiful things I found like this brilliant orange algae growing on the rocks.

And I was also amazed to see the interesting plant life creeping out of the rocks.  What a will to survive!

As the sun began to set, it was time to build up a fire.  We found a protected fire pit along the rocks and gathered wood to start our campfire.

The sun began to set at well past nine. It was a beautiful, serene night along the North Shore. I could hardly wait for tomorrow as we had several hikes planned.  It was going to be a wonderful weekend! 

I fell asleep easily listening to the pounding and melodic smashing of the waves. Around four am the sun began to rise and I laid in bed listening in awe and wonder to the cries of the loons along the distant shore. What a treasure we have!

Stay tuned….next post in this series will be on our first hike along Superior National Hiking Trail!