scenes from a summer visit...

I had some sweet visitors here last week and their visit just so happened to coincide with all the Tall Ships arriving in Duluth (a very big, overly-hyped deal here). They didn't come up to visit in order to see the Tall Ships...but it just so happened that as we were driving up along the North Shore for lunch (here), some of the ships were coming in. So we pulled over and snapped a few photos.

And although I'm always a bit of a skeptic or avoider of big, publicized, crowded events....the ships did actually look pretty neat to me from our vantage point as they were still out aways on Lake Superior, making their way towards the harbor. Something about all those big sails and tall masts on a sea of blue that does sort of take your breath away, just a bit...

That was about all we needed to see though, and then, instead of standing among throngs of people, paying to see old ships (or replicas of old ships) close-up, we spent our time together on a quiet beach looking for agates or seaglass...taking a couple walks/hike in the woods...and eating some great food together!

So now, a few food photos! Above is the blueberry tart I made for our dessert one night. I drizzled some of blueberry jam on top...the jam, by the way, turned out very good! (And this should be the end of my blueberry mentions until next summer...I promise!)

Breakfast, the next morning...homemade strawberry muffins, vanilla yogurt with fresh berries and granola (oops...there are more blueberries!).

And a first-time visit to a sweet country restaurant in a red barn called "Swamp Sisters" where most everything is made from scratch and bison meat is their specialty...it's in almost every dish on the menu. They have a vegetable garden next to the farm (where the lettuce for the salad I ordered came from) and chickens roaming free on the other side. And it really is sisters who run the place...too cute!

Of course I passed on the bison, but they did have some phenomenal caramel pecan rolls!

And I even wore my red clogs for the occasion too. Oh how love these shoes! And my sweet visitors! :)
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Eek! ~ Can you believe its August already?

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P.S. Speaking of ships, isn't this necklace I just happened to stumble upon quite sweet?

xo ~ L