Duluth!!!

Following is an account of what Bob and I did here yesterday. It is more of a journal entry than anything. Now that you've been warned, decide whether you want to read on:

Bob and I are taking a mini vacation, staying 3 nights in the Country Inns and Suites in Hermantown, a suburb of Duluth. This is the second night. It is about 2 AM; I can't sleep. I always have a hard time sleeping when I'm away from my own bedroom. The hotel mattress is very comfortable, but (sigh) it simply is not my room.

I wrote a letter to book club members Tuesday evening 5/5, which turned out to be an account of what we did Tuesday. Looking back on Wednesday, I can say that since we didn't make plans other than to go see Hibbing, we had a pretty lazy day. This is what I remember:

Slept too long - I had taken an OTC sleeping pill and benadryl Tuesday night. I slept fairly well, but realized I was extra groggy because the sleeping pill uses benadryl (some long Latin name) as the sleep agent. So I got a double dose!!

When I woke up, I was still half asleep. Bob was up reading the paper, all dressed and combed. I have hazy memories of telling him to go to breakfast because I didn't feel at all hungry. He enjoyed waffles with a fresh strawberry syrup. He brought me back a banana, which was just right.

I took a shower and I believe we left the hotel around 9:30. I pointed the Trailblazer toward Hibbing and stepped on the gas.

A couple of miles up the road, we spotted an SA and pulled in for a morning Icee. Hooray!! No Icee machine. WAHHH!!! We each got a 22 ounce fountain drink. Me, Pepsi. Bob, Mountain Dew.

Continued on toward Hibbing. Spotted another SA! Lightning couldn't strike twice , could it? No, it couldn't. Although this one had an Icee machine, the Icees weren't ready. Too runny. No purchase.

The third SA sold Slushies (NOT ICEEs) ,so Bob bought one for us to share. Mountain Dew. It just wasn't the same, but it was pretty good.

I drove until the OD of benadryl caught up with me. Pulled off to the shoulder and switched drivers. Bob drove us into Hibbing and we looked around the town a bit. We were awe struck when he came upon Hibbing High School. It was built in 1920 out of sandstone. It was huge and imposing, and reminded me of the schools I attended in Minneapolis. They really don't make them like they used to. Minneapolis tore down all the public schools I attended, and it still irritates me that they chose to demolish rather than preserve as Hibbing has. It was so cool to see students running up the stairs and into the school. I took several pictures. The picture I took of a wad of gum on the ground under a railing didn't turn out, so I erased it from the camera.

We continued gawking at Hibbing from the car. Hibbing became a town in 1894, the same year at the Hinckley firestorm. We didn't happen upon the neighborhood where they keep all the old mansions, and we didn't stop to ask where the oldest part of town is. Since we had already been on a tour of a Hibbing mine years ago, Bob decided we should leave.

I was kind of disappointed but as I wrote earlier, we hadn't made specific plans. We left. Or tried to. . . We started our trip back. But we got lost in the outskirts of town. We stopped to ask a woman who was out walking her dog which way it was to the roads that would get us out of town and pointed toward Duluth. She claimed to be bad at giving directions, but she pointed and explained, and we found a road out. After looking for a hook-up to the road we came in on, and after looking at our state map in our Atlas, we got lost again.

Benadryl after-affect made the next bit a blur, but we took a route that was a bit longer than the one we took to get to Hibbing. But we are on vacation, and Bob was only mildly irritated with himself. I mean, it is a bit irritating, but we didn't have anything better to do. I kind of enjoy getting lost. I love car rides.

Super One grocery stores abound in Duluth. Bob needed butter and salt. I stayed in the car and phoned Ginger. She told me Gerald signed on with a temp agency for IT jobs. He started factory work nights just this Monday; they routinely have overtime for their workers. I asked Ginger to consider staying at the house next July while Dad and I go out west. Having Marian stay with Gaynelle isn't working too well since they live in a multi-level town home, so we need someone to stay with her at our house while we are gone.

Then we drove to our hotel. We both napped. I woke up first and took my Lasix pill. About 2:30, we ate our leftovers from Pick Wick. The prime rib tasted every bit as good as it had. Same for the Minnesota bacon wild rice I had chosed instead of potatoes. Bob enjoyed his prime rib morsels and his cheesy mashed potatoes. The rye dinner rolls held up well, but the white rolls didn't. Still, with a ton of butter, they would have been okay. But we tossed them. Bob used his butter on his potatoes and then on the apple-filled crispy we bought at Tobi's on the way up Tuesday. I had no desire for sweets at that point.

We watched TV and read while I left the Lasix work. After I was urinating less (Sorry. Was that too indelicate?), we felt it was safe to continue and we. . .

We drove down to Duluth to visit Canal Street. We had little trouble finding it and parked right across from the mall. Thank goodnes we were able to park close--good old handicap permit--because I really had to use the ladies' room again. We walked a boardwalk and sat a bit looking at Lake Superior. Being there made me feel small in comparison. We talked about that. It made us laugh.

We went back to the mall and went to Hepzibah's candy store. Malted milk balls, pecan turtles, almond bark, orange slices, and one lemon slice. $13. Cute store with a large variety.

I used the facility again. We ordered cream cheese wontons and split an order of beef in garlic sauce at A Taste of Saigon. The waitress left a whole pitcher of water with Bob because he was thirsty. I was glad when Bob only whispered to me that the beef in garlic was better at several other Asian restaurants. It was tasty, but I had to agree with Bob. As the Asian employees (family?) talked and laughed in their language, one of the men sounded exactly like Dung Chong, the owner of a Chinese restaurant had sounded to me when I was a child. The pitch and speed and the way he laughed.

I used the facility yet again. We drove back toward the hotel, but since we now knew where the SA with an Icee machine was, we continued an extra 3-4 miles, going past that first SA from earlier in the day that had no Icee machine. Luckily, this second SA's Icees were no longer runny. Eureka!!! Bob filled the gas tank and then bought Mountain Dew Icees for both of us. The texture was perfect and they had the scoop straws.

When we got back to our hotel, we were pleased that someone had left us the prime handicap parking space. We took our Icees and our bag of Hepzibah's candy in with us. I read in the BOM and finally got it straight about where Mosiah came from and how he got to Zarahemla. I talked about it and read some with Bob. Omni writes about it. Then we have Mosiah, Helaman, Helaman, Alma, Alma. Mosiah took the brass plates etc with to Zarahemla. Now I need to review how Mormon and Moroni got them. Handed down from Mosiah et al? Was the setting for the rest of the BOM Zarahemla? I don't think so because then there were years and years of contention/wars with the Lamanites.

We watched TV. Fox News channel. Bob fell asleep on the bed. I sat in the chair and put my feet up on the footstool and almost managed to stay awake to the end of some crime show. So here I am in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. (I'm in the computer room at the hotel.) I even took a sleeping pill!!! Well, it is now after 3:30 AM. I should be able to sleep now. And I'm going to take the Lasix first thing in the morning. We'll eat our complimentary waffles for breakfast and will not get up from the table without writing down our plans for the day. We want to see the Omnimax Theater, for one thing. I'd like to drive to Grand Marais, but there are things to do in Duluth and this area. Maybe the zoo. I'd like to take pictures of some of the old buildings. Both of us like historical buildings. I'm hoping there will be a really wowsy old Catholic church we can walk into.